Hello hello! How happy am I to be sat in an air conditioned internet cafe in Chiang Mai after 3 days to hell and back trekking in the jungles about an hr north of here.

 I guess I'd better start from the beginning....remember how scared I was in my last entry...well things were in many ways 100 times worse and a million times better then I had anticipated.

 We left Chiang Mai at about 8 am on Sunday morning, drove to the market in a songthaew (an open ended truck thing) to buy presents for the the children in the hilltribe villages where we would be staying. We then drove to the edge of the national park to ride elephants. This was one of the highlights of thailand for me...I love love love elephants. We fed them bananas and sugar cane and they snotted all over me with their trunks. There was a tiny baby only a mth old that came with us and charged around playing with everyone. Fantastic.

 After lunch we started the trekking, complete with 5 kg backpacks, 2 kg of water each and a bamboo pole....it was hot. Really hot and humid. I nearly died after about 45 mins of solid uphill climbing, I literally couldn't breathe, the guide gave me some ash type powder to eat which seemed to help.

We trekked for about 4 1/2 hrs that afternoon, mostly uphill, finally through rice paddies to our first rest camp. I can't describe the jungle, or the trekking v well...completely different to anything I've ever done and I seriously never thought I would be sitting here having managed to complete the three days.

First camp was tiny, 2 wooden huts on poles off the ground, a squat toilet and a wooden table, right in the middle of the jungle by a small waterfall. I said there was no way I was getting into a river to wash before i went, but after 4 1/2 hrs walking I was sweating so much I couldn't wait! It was frezzing and after Bri fell on me we nearly went sailing away, but it felt so good.

 Ate dinner of rice (this was mainly all we ate) and set up mosquito nets. We sat around with the group chatting until the candles burned out, and then crashed out about half 10. Despite sleeping with 11 other people on a wooden floor, I was out like a log, even with Paddy shining a torch in my face every hr or so!

Up at 6am next day, breakfast and packed up. Managed to negotiate the squat toilet, quite difficult weeing crouching on the floor! I definately appreciate toilets way too much now! It all seems like luxury. Only a short hike on day 2, thank god. Pack had somehow doubled in size overnight. About 2 1/2 hrs to the hilltribe Karen village. Same sort of wooden hut on poles, but quite a big village so lots of tribe people around. The children were so sweet.The boys played football with them and were thrashed. We walked around the village meeting people, usually 16 yr old girls with babies....v weird. I fell in pig s***! Lots of dogs, pigs, cows, chickens etc running around. they don't feed the dogs though which really upset me, and they hit them with sticks quite a lot :-(

 That night the children sang for us, and forced us to sing for them which was actually quite frightening..tough audience! For some reason could only remember the words to "I will survive"!

Early bed that night, muscles were starting to seize up. Next day we were woken at 5.30 byt the cockerels and pigs, and weridly the sound of people spitting on the floor underneath our hut...nice! Breakfast of jam on toast was v welcome...its funny how you strat appreciating food you normally hate when you're starving. We had quite a long trek back out of the jungle, about 4 1/2 hrs, but mostly downhill and some dangerous scrambling over rocks next to a waterfall! Didn't seen m,uch of the scenery as I was too busy trying not to die.

The relief when we got back to civilisation! I 've never been so happy :-) River rafting on bamboo rafts was the last part of our trek, it was a nightmare! I think the guide had a deatn wish for us,. he seemed to have no problem steering us into trees, rocks etc etc! But we came out the other side. After a shower and a decent nights  sleep (and a few drinks) I can say that although I would never do that much again, it was amazing. 36km, up to 1400 m high, I can't believe I mamaged it to be honest. xxx