Kap-Kum-Kaaaaaaa from Thailand!

We have done soooo much amazing stuff since the last blog and its only been a week - its going so fast.

We had the worst flight ever from Hanoi to Bangkok on the tiniest little plane. It was hellish! Mark thought we were going to die and I even got a bit spooked when we seemed to drop several feet and the engine sounded sick. Anyway, landed safely and got our transfer to the little convenience lodge thing next to the airport. Was nice to stay in a clean hotel-like place coz the place in Hanoi was infested!! ick!

The next morning, after only 3 hours sleep, we got on another rickety plane to Northern Thailand, Chiang Mai. We started worrying on that plane when the landing equipment didnt seem to work. The co-pilot came to our seats, feeling the floor with a worried look on his face and we thought we were gonna die again. fun times!!

That morning, we got to the B. M. P. Resident hostel, where we are now and its great. A real chilled out environment with live music in the evenings and cheap yummy cocktails for under a pound! Definitely recommend it.

We had about half an hour sleep before going to the thai cooking course - we were dead but so excited. The lady was lovely, she took us to the local food market and taught us about the main ingredients and spices used and related it back to england, telling us the substitutes we could use if we couldnt find the real thing. We then took all our ingredients back to the outdoor kitchen, where she taught us to cook 7 different courses throughout theday and we got to eat them all! best and yummiest day ever! We were so stuffed and slept so well that night :-D Gonna have to have a shindig when we get back and see how well we do :)

Next day we got up early again and head off in the back of a truck up into the mountains for our 3 day 2 night jungle trek. Not kidding when we say, word cant describe how rewarding it was and how amazing the scenery is up there. The first 1 and half days was spent going uphill. no joke - never sweated so much ion our lives! the heat, plus a 45 degree climb with your backpack on is one heck of a challenge, but so much fun at the same time. Mark had his Indiana Jones head on, searching all the nooks and crannies for hiding snakes and spiders and i kinda flitted between thinking i was tomb raider and nearly falling backwards coz my head was in the clouds staring at the hundreds of beautiful butterflies dancing all around us.

We came across some beautiful waterfalls, the pix dont really do them justice. The water was cold but soo nice when you're so hot you could fry an egg off your forehead. The first night we all stayed togther in a village hut. We were travelling with 4 really great Irish girls, 3 aussies and another english couple from manchester. A night we all stayed in the same big hill tribe bamboo hut with a mat on the floor, a blanket and a mosquito net - one massive spooky sleepover. ever so often a noise or a stray hair would spook someone out, they'd scream, then everyone would scream!

Next day we didnt walk as far and stayed overnight next to a massive waterfall, which was lovely and we stayed up all night playing games like fuzzy duck with our tour guide, Joshua - Legend!

the final day was more exciting trekking, having to go single file clinging onto the cliff face while edging round on a slippy path. We saw a shedded python skin, a green snake, some funky poisonous caterpillars and luminous grass hoppers. Most enjoyable day yet :) We then went elephant trekking for about half an hour - great experience but will never do it again. We could relax cox the guy in charge of the heffalump was so mean to her. Kept stabbing her in the head with his spike, so we gave her loads of extra sugarcane and bananas to say thanks. Our elephant was called Tattoo and she didnt like to follow the others, but to go up the steepest hills in all the trees away from anyone else, then get stuck up the top! was funny tho :)

After the elephants, we wen bamboo rafting with the cowboys of the river! It was very relaxing in between the crashing and the fruit throwing wars! I think between us we had 4 rafts and alll 4 drivers racing eachother and splashin everyone. They got pushed in in the end after they got too cocky! :)

Last night, everyone was shattered but still managed to get merry on the cheap cocktails and we carried on the music acapella after the band left, aaaaalll the way until 3am! Met a great bunch of people here and we are all travelling down to Laos on the slow boat together tomorrow so should be a great laugh.

Hope everything is still cool at home and everyone is ok. We love to read the comments everyone has written so keep em comin! Prob blog again in laos.

Take care! Mark and Em xxxx