Sawatdee Ka still!! (not for long)

Just got back from a 3 day jungle trek. I survived!!!!

As soon as we entered the jungle we saw a snake : ) so I freaked out, however the torrential rain soon took my mind off snakes!! We trekked to a clearing where we rode elephants. Fun and rocky but also quite upsetting due to the way the handlers hit the elephants with metal spikes!! Next we trekked to a village hill tribe where we stayed for the night. They were part of a Currin tribe and were so welcoming!! They cooked for us and our group of ten slept in a big room in a hut! Next day we woke and were cooked brekkie. We then went trekking for the day (in the rain again) and visited other hill tribes. There are hundreds in the mountains of Chaing Mai. They cooked us dinner and we trekked some more before arriving at a waterfall. It was sooo cold but we all jumped in to wash of the mud we were now caked in.

We settled at this village for the night again in a big room. We all bonded in the evenings by chatting and drinking. Our tour guide Surin was from a Currin tribe and he told us lots of stories and set up stick games for us. In my group were 2 English boys, a Dutch couple, an English couple (who we will now see everywhere as travelling same route around Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam), us three girls and a very funny Austrian chap.

Our last day (today) was spent trekking down the mountain - hardest day yet due to the rain and mud!! At the bottom of the mountain we had lunch and then got a truck to the river. Here we went bamboo rafting!! Very scary!! The rafters were soo crazy! They were intent on trying to get us soaked and into the water. Luckily if you stand up you can sort of surf on the raft which seemed to be the best way to stay afloat. 2 of our group fell in however! (they were made to sing as a forfeit!!) Tonight we are all meeting up to have dinner together and some drinks.

It was soo nice to get back to a clean DRY room at our guesthouse. I have about 3 stones of washing to get washed so the lucky guesthouse laundrettes have been given that joy!! (Mum understands!!)

Right well the next few days will involve still getting clean and packing. On tues we travel to Laos border then wed and thurs will be spent on the long boat : ( everyone says it is the worst experience ever!! Never mind.

Laos next - I'm looking forward to tubing - travelling down a river in a ring and stopping at bars along the way!!