hi,

The journey to Pai was stunning! Three hours of looking at the most awesome landscape I have probably seen since I've been away. Northern Thailand is amazing. The beautiful green mountainous terrain just rolled on and on. Just before we arrived in Pai there was all the land being farmed by the
local people with there cattle and their cone rice hats on. The odd sighting of an elephant too!

We shortly arrived in Pai and I took an instant liking to the place. The atmosphere was great and so chilled out. It was a really pretty place and it had a hippie vibe to it. After taking a bit of advise for a random French guy we headed off to get some accommodation. The huts were across the river
and there was only one way to get there, a rickety old bamboo bridge. The village looking out of this world. Such an amazing setting. It was a large patch of ground beside the river which was littered with bamboo hut with leaf roofs. In the background was the mountains that we had snaked
through to get here. It was like a little enchanted village all on its own. We enquired about a hut and they were only 150 baht a night, the cheapest accommodation yet and it was perfect. A hut, a mattress, a quilt and a mossy net in the middle of the countryside - fantastic!

We dropped our bags off and went straight out to explore the small town of Pai. Before crossing the rickety bridge again, the penny dropped! As soon as we had crossed the river there had been a really nice aroma in the air but I hadn't taken much notice of it. When we had left the hut I noticed what the local foliage was scattered around the bamboo huts, marajuana plants. It was seeming even more like a hippie community now......

The town (well if you can call it that) was really nice and we had some lunch before having the most amazing Thai massage for the bargain price of 150 baht. Now 100% relaxed we returned to the hut to read and chilled out in our little paradise village in the mountains. That evening we hit the streets again where the main road was filled with small stalls. We decided to have a street Indian which was fantastic and needless to say, five minutes after eating it I had to rust to the toilet or I was going to soil myself! We had a few drinks before seeing the zzzzzzzz. Christ it gets cold at
night......!

The next day was excellent, we went swimming with an elephant. We were picked up at ten and before you knew it we were trekking through the jungle on Boomba bear back. It was great as it was only us, the guide and the elephant in our group! It was so funny, Becki was petrified. Some of
the noises that she was making weren't human! After mossying through the jungle for about forty minutes we arrived at the river. We quickly discarded the camera and Boomba entered the water. With a couple of shouts from the guide Boomba sharply kneeled down and threw himself to one side and laid in the river. WELL, being on the back of an elephant at the same time was quality
but a little nerve racking. Both of us splashed into the water with a massive great thud! When I rose from under the water there was a several tonne elephant having a whale of a time yards away in the river. I quickly darted off in the other direction fearing to be trapped or squashed by the
monster truck of an animal.

With the guide shouting OK OK and laughing his head off, he indicated for us to get back on the elephant's neck while its head was under the water and just its trunk poking out of the water! So we climbed on and with an almighty rough and jerky movement we were suddenly about sixteen foot out of the water again! Splash!! Boomba decided to lay down again - it was scary but fun. Without evening consciously knowing I had made it to the shore pretty quickly. Boomba was rolling around and dashing his trunk into the water and splashing us.

It was time for Becki to have a solo go and it was so funny watching her trying to clamber onto this huge elephant. As soon as she was on and Boomna had stood up, he started sucking up water in his trunk and spraying it at Becki - excellent. After a good session of this he then quickly laid down and Becki hit the water again.

It was my turn! On I went and Boomba the comedian he is, squirted me in the face a few times with river water. Well done Boomba! But this time the guide called out a couple of different commands. OH MY GOD - without any wait he reared onto his back legs. I went flying but somehow managed to end up clinging onto his arse. With a seconds thought I started clambering up his back and jumped around his neck and gripped on for dear life. Absolutely s*iting my self by this stage as I didn't have a clue what was going on, the elephant bolted again! When a twelve foot, three tonne animal decided that he doesn't want you on it neck, its time to jump ship. I stood up and dived off and hit the water side on - it was only a foot deep there!! I was on the bank in a seconds. Becki and the guide were in stitches. I thought the elephant had lost it but it was just part of the fun and games!!

We both jumped back onto Boomba's neck and off we plondered back in the direction of Boomba's home. It was a quality experience but a bit nervey on the road back home as our elephant didn't seem to like cars but we made it back in one piece. After buying the main attraction two bunches of bananas which he happily scoffed in a matter of minutes we jumped into a 'hot tub' to wash.

The afternoon was taken up by relaxing, massages, reading etc which was really nice. That evening we ate at the street Indian again and had the best Chai I have ever had - it was fantastic. It was then to a bar to watch the Chelsea match. Just by coincidence I met a bloke that had lived just
around the corner from where my house is! He was a top bloke and I ended up watching the Bolton Arensal game with him too!

It was now 1pm and the sky was pitch black. Earlier in the evening we had purchased a Thai lantern from the market. We wondered back to the river were we lit a 'Good Luck' lantern. Apparently if you set one alight and watch it drift into the night sky, you are meant to have Good Luck and
Fortune.....It took a couple of minutes to get lit, but then it floated up and up into the sky and glowed for about 2 minutes before disappearing. It was magical.....special...awesome....bubbly and splendid darling!!! Wooooo!!!!

The next morning i laid in the hammock outside the hut, reading before packing up the bags and making the final journey across the bridge. We're heading back to Chiang Mai this afternoon and then on to Chiang Khong to begin the journey into Laos.

After 2 days on the slow boat, I'm sure I'll have some interesting stories to tell....

Bye for now

Miffy x x x