The night bus to Chaing Mai from Bangkok was a pretty grim experience. The bus was old and dingy, and it was really difficult to sleep. When we arrived to the bus stop in Bangkok everyone was handed a note to say that valuables shouldn't be kept in your bigger luggage due to the liklihood of someone working on the bus going through your stuff while you sleep. Sure enough when we got off someone had gone through both of our bags. There was nothing for them to take, but it ws still a pretty horrid feeling. The bus also dropped up off at a petrol station about half an hour from Chaing Mai. So at 5 am we were shouted at to get off the bus and into a taxi. All in all not an experience we wanted to repeat...

Our guesthouse in Chiang Mai had kindly arranged for our room to be ready for us on arrival so we crashed out. We spent our first day in Chiang Mai wandering around to get our barings, and also booked up for a trek for the next three days. We had a meeting that evening with a Canadian couple - Rik and Bri - who had also booked to do the trek, were given a kit list and an old camo ruck sack and were set to go.

The first day was mostly driving (which was pretty good :)). We went to a local market to get food for the trek and look around. It was interesting as the food, etc, was displayed and looked after a lot better than at the tourist markets, and it was nice to be able to look around without people constantly trying to sell stuff!

After the market our first stop was the Mork Fa waterfall. As we are at the end of rainy season the waterfall was really powerful which made it really hard to stand even near it, let alone under the fall which was pretty breath taking. We all got in to brave a swim but it was absolutely freezing, so we didn't hang about!

We dried off (Mostly - the start of a damp few days!) and got back into the truck for our next stop which would be lunch, then the hotsprings. The roads up the mountain were full of craters and bumps, so the four of us clung on in the back as we climbed up the mountain. The hotsprings were beautiful - much more scerene than the first waterfall. There were pools of water gathering down a longer waterfall, so we sat and chilled in one of them as long as our bodies could stand the heat.

We then dried off - partly again - and began our trek to our first night's accomadation. The walk only lasted about an hour, but was mostly up the mountain which was hard work to say the least. When I looked around I was glad to see I wasnt the only one struggling to breath, evident as well in the silence! Every now and again out tour guide, Nu, would stop us to check for leaches. This became my favourate part of the trek as it meant we could all stop for a bit of a break. Each time I hoped someone, myself included, would be covered in the things! The leaches were tiny - really thin and no longer than a finger nail, but once they caught on tho your skin they would suck away at your blood and leave a pretty deep hole!

Our first night was spent at our trek leader's villiage. It was quite a small villiage, with around 40 people and 15 huts, and part of the Karen tribe. The huts were built out of wood and on stilts above the ground. Our bed was a padded matress and blanket with a net around to keep the bugs away. After dinner we sat up talking to Nu about his villiage and life. He said the government had given the villiages in the hills solar panels for electricity, which meant we had a light. (Handy as it was pitch black by around 6pm...) He said he also has a TV, but doesnt use it much due to the signal, etc. He also said that the villiage had become a Christian villiage as missionaries had visited and installed a water tank. Their previous spiritual religion had required them to give offerings such as food to the gods, but these offereings were becoming more and more expensive. So the general consensus was a religion that gives was better than one that takes!

After little sleep we woke the next morning for the long trek. It took around 4 hours of walking and we covered about 9 km up and down the mountains in the jungle. The scenery was amazing, especially from the top and right at the bottom though the rice paddies. The weather however was terrbible, and it poured with rain for much of the walk meaning we were soaked though. It did keep the tempertaure down while we were awalking though which was a plus. Nu had no trouble jumping around the hills and finding his way. Following, we found it a bit trickier, slipping and sliding our way up and down, especially during the heaviest rain when we were walking almost down a stream. Mike took a fall as did I, especially towards the end of the trek before lunch when my legs were wobbling all over the place!

The second night we stayed at an elephant camp in the mountains. The huts here were even more basic, as were the beds, etc. But it meant that we were able to bathe the elephants in the river - something Mike resented deeply as he didnt understand why the elephant needed our help - and then ride the elephants though the jungle. The camp keeps the elephants in there general land, but the elephats are free to roam, then collected when people stay at the camp.The camp originally had loads of elephants, but as tourism has grown many of them were taken to other camps so there were only two left. We could see that the elephants were pretty well looked after which was good as we'd heard a lot of horror storries about how many people trian the elephants, etc. The elephant ride was terrifying, as you sit in a wooden seat ontop of the elephant (which is a lot higher than you expect) and cling on. As the elephant went up and down the mountain Mike and I hoped for the best, and Mike took to complimenting the elephant to make sure it liked us and didnt throw us out.

Back on solid ground we had our last dinner, used the squat toilet for thankfully the last time and went to sleep in the hut. The floor wasn't completely covered, so we struggled to sleep for fear of a spider/snake poking its head through one of the many gaps!

The last day was spent taking a bamboo raft down the river back to the road. The raft was made of 5 or 6 long bamboo sticks tied together, so when the water got rocky the raft would go under and you'd have to hold on to stay afloat. The weather was good which meant the views were good too and all in all it was a fab way to travel through the jungle! (Much better than walking!)

We then had another bumpy ride back to Chaing Mai, and went out for a massive mexican meal wit Bri and Rik who had been great company over the last few days.