Hi all This account is essentially Mandy's (so it should be of a slightly better standard) with me sticking my twopence worth in every now and then. I'll put the rest of Chiang Mai on a separate postcard. Suffice to say for now that after a couple of days mooching around we decided to go on a 2 day jungle trek. So I'll pass you over to Mand... Still having a fab time. We have been a bit less lazy lately and actually went trekking in the jungle for a couple of days with four Irish lads (Mick, Will, Charlie and Conor) and a Thai guide called Sun. Sun is 21 and works for our hotel. He is originally from a hill tribe village himself so he can speek the same language as the tribe we went to visit. The treck was a bit intense with lots of shear drops a couple of hundred feet high (I found out that I dont like heights much) and a path only about 30cm wide to walk along (Think the donkey trail with balls). You would never get it past health and safety back in England!!! The first day we drove about two hours out to the south east side of Chiang Mai, stopping at a market on the way so Sun could pick up some supplies for dinner. Our first destination was elephant trekking. The four Irish lads with us had two elephants between them and me, Neil and Kimbers got a MASSIVE one to share. Me and Kimbers sat in the seat on its back and Neil riding bareback on its neck! This probably wasn't the best way to do things as Neil almost fell off twice. Each time the elephant grabbed his foot with his trunk, we're not sure if this was to steady Neil back on or so that he could dangle him upside down when he fell off. As well as being the biggest, he was also the worst behaved and constantly did what he wanted and no amount of yelling and hitting from the guide made any difference. At one point he went off the side of the track and through a fence just to get some obviously tasty banana leaves. Reversing an elephant is even harder than getting one to go forward. The trek led us though the elephant park up ridiculously steep hills and through huge mud baths. It was really good fun but all our bums agreed that an hour was plenty of time to be sat on an elephant. We got back and fed all the elephants except our one because he kept being naughty. After that we stopped for lunch at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere and had some really nice seasoned rice. The next destination was the Carmen village where we were going to be staying for the night. We walked for around two hours I think and just when we were all beginning to think that it wouldn't be possible to sweat anymore we reached the first waterfall. Brilliant. It was on the outside of a small village and one of the local boys was shampooing his hair in it. In we jumped no messing. Aaarrrhhh bliss. We swam around and messed about on the rocks and under the waterfall for about half an hour then set off for the village again. Now not that i'm moaning, don't get me wrong, but when we booked the trip we were told that we would have about three hours walking in total on the first day. Another 2 hours later after walking though forest/jungle (what is the difference anyway, answers on a postcard please) and along tiny embankments that sepperated the paddy fields and sheer vertical drops we reached the second water fall. This one was better than the first one as it had a natural stone slide and a jacuzzi made when the sheer force of the water entered the rock pools (I think I put the pics on yesturday). Another hour and a half of uphill trekking and we finally reached the village. We sat on the veranda of our brand new (finished that day) bamboo bungalow and basked in our triumph, for a couple of minutes before the locals desended. The children came first selling beaded necklaces and bracelets and then the women laid out the local handicrafts they produce. We bought a couple of things from the children and the women (incl;uding you birthday presesnt Ange) then went back to relaxing with our beers still feeling very pleased with ourselves. The view from the veranda was absolutely amazing, overlooking paddy fields, the forest and the mountains. Sun is a really good cook and made us a delicious dinner of sweet and sour with tofu and red thai curry with pork and rice. Sun later tried to tell us that it was actually squirrel in the curry instead but it tasted pretty good to me. After dinner the women lit candles for us and we sat around drinking with the local men until the early hours of the morning. The locals were really friendly and a guy called 'the whisky man' (real name BinLaden!) gave us some of his home brewed magic water made from rice and water. It tased really smooth but was infact leathal. lol. Whisky mans job is to look after the cattle but apparently he can do this just as well if he is wasted, which apparently he is most days. That particular day he had started drinking at 8am, trust me this guy was proper hardcore. After we'd all had a couple Sun got out his guitar and started playing some Thai tunes mixed in with some Westlife, well they do say variety is the spice of life. One of the Irish lads (Mick) mixed it up a bit with some Oasis, Nirvana and Pink Floyd. Whisky man was very up for it and joined in with the singing even though he didn't know the words. Trust me it was hilarious!! Micky and Whiskey Man ended up having a bit of a sing off which Micky won so Whisky man picked up the pace and made us all join in with his native dancing. This was a song about elephants where we all had to do the conga and make elephant trunks with our arms. If only someone had a camcorder!!! lol. Another of the Irish boys (Coner) told them he knew a dance and got up and did the David Brent (The Office) arm thing. I think bemused is the right word for it. We got to bed at god knows what time and everybody slept like babies. I say everybody, what I actually mean was everybody except me, who was told there would be mosquito nets and was a bit put out when not only were there no mosquito nets but there were no windows. Dont get me wrong, I wasn't expecting glass, but there were just four great big holes in the sides of the building with no shutters or anything. Sun woke us at about 9 the next morning for breakfast. Scrambled eggs on toast with tea and coffee (very native). As we were all feeling like death we poodled around for a while before getting ourselves ready it was 10.30 before we left the village so we were already an hour and a half behind schedule. This meant that we had to pick up the pace for the rest of the day which, trust me, wasn't good when your walking along a foot wide path with sheer drops a couple of hundred feet steep on one side and what can only be described as a cliff face on the other. After a couple of hours of this mixed in with some tightrope walking through the paddy fields (I slipped of the path once and paddy fields twice) we FINALLY reached another waterfall!! There wasn't as much of a rush to get in this one as everybody just wanted to sit down and acknowledge the fact that they were still alive. Once it had sunk in that we were all still in one piece we had a quick swim, no time for dawdling today, then set off for another three hours of hiking. Part of the way up the side of what I like to call a mountain we had to stop because one of the Irish boys (Will) was having such bad heart palpatations you could see his t-shirt jumping from his chest. He didn't want to cause a fuss so he tried to gat us all to carry on. We were having none of this. Mainly because we were worried about him and wanted him to be ok, but partly because no one fancied carrying his body the rest of the way to the truck. Onced he'd regained his composure we set off again and rounded the corner to find we had to walk along a fallen tree trunk to cross the river. When I say river what I actually mean is that we were at the top of a waterfall with the river raging across the rock face 20 feet below. BLOODY BRILLIENT!!!!! We were tired, hung over, unstable, shaky, dehidrated and our little trek though the forest had just turned into the Crystal Maze. Fantastic. A couple of the lads went first, then Sun, then me. After realising my fear of heights the day before and having slipped a number of times throughout the course of the day, I had to pause mid log to regain my composure. Back on the bank Neil saw this and actually did something sensible. There was no way Captain Calamity was going across that log. Edging his way along the bank of the river he found some smooth rocks and with hat, sun glasses and rucksack in place he began his safer river cross. It was all going so well. By this stage everybody else was safely across the other side watching Neil have to paddle knee deep through the not quite raging waters. "Not that way" Sun shouted over to him, but it was too late now. One more step and he was in. Up to his neck, hat on head sunglasses still on and rucksack acting as a boyancy aid he grabbed for the nearesr rock. "YES" I thought. "NO!!" I thought a moment later when his grip faltered and I watched him being carried towards the mouth of the falls. Sun, who had been very carefull to take his shiny new belt off every time we entered the water, dived along the rocks and into the water and grabbed Neils hand just as he floating passed last rock before the falls. Heaving him onto the rock and out of danger they paused for a while to check themselves. Then Neil looks up with a big grin on his face announces "That was f***in brilliant! I feel just like Indianna Jones with this hat on". We fell about the place laughing, although I think some of it was nervous laughter and continued with our treck. Thank god we didn't have much further to go!! We got to the van that was picking us up for lunch at about 3pm. I'm not sure what the driver was saying to Sun but I guess it was something along the lines of where the hell have you been? I've been waiting here ages!!! We got some lunch, same as the day before but this time with noodles and all just had a little calm down. After lunch was the bamboo rafting. We drove along the river for a while and were dropped of a a little village where the rafts were. The Irish boys had one between the four of them and us three were in another. This was supposed to be a leisurely end to the day but we ended up splashing each other the whole way down and the lads were in the river more than on the raft, at one point boardinmg us in some kind of Pirates Of The Carribean fantasy. When we arrived back at the hotel, a two hour drive in the back of a truck later, we were battered and bruised and exhausted and all agreed that the best thing to do would be to get showered as quickly as possible, go get something to eat and then go and get drunk. Afterall we deserved it!