We met our trekking group at 9am, they were Jenny, Georgina, Tom, Joe, 2 French people that we didn't really talk to, and Date, our guide. We drove to a local market for a few supplies before heading to a waterfall where we swam. Sticking your head under the water was what I imagine being hit by a sledgehammer would be like, just constantly. We only stayed about 15 minutes before heading to the national park where we saw the hot springs and started our trek. The trek was to last about 3 hours. The route itself was fine, you were either going up or downhill, there was no flat, but the task was made a lot more difficult by the heat and humidity that had everyone sweating by the bucketload within minutes. We passed a small village on the way and saw the rice paddies. Date showed us all of the vegetation along the way which was edible, including a leaf that tasked like the sour skin of a plum. We arrived at the village we would be spending the night, planting our bags on the mattresses before promptly collapsing. We spent the night talking by candlelight and playing drinking games with Date and his mate which involved soot on faces. For being him and his mates game, Date wasn't very good at it, ending up with a face covered in soot. We went to bed, dropping our mosquito nets behind us, and woke up for breakfast, another meal of rice, it is pretty much all people eat, especially in the mountains. After a sweaty 40 minute trek we arrived at the elephant park where we had 3 elephants between 8 of us, and we walked, or they walked, for just over an hour down the river. It was fun but incredibly uncomfortable. When we got off, we waited for 2 people to build us a bamboo raft. We had 2 rafts between us all. Your feet are constantly in the water and you steer using long sticks of bamboo to dig into the riverbed. It was hard work. Most the time the water was calm but there were some smallish rapids and lots of rocks which required negotiating, both rafts hitting some occasionly and everyone falling on top of each other as we hit one with speed. It was a lot of fun, but by the end everyone wanted to be back on dry land. We grabbed lunch before being driven back to our hostel.

We went our seperate ways and cleaned up before meeting up and grabbing a couple of Tuk Tuks to a nice resturant where we grabbed dinner. Next was a rooftop bar where we met lots of people from, England, Germany, USA, and Australia. We then moved on to another bar later in the night before heading back in the wee hours.

The next morning, we got up at 8 and got ready. We had a days cooking course at 9 which was run in the courtyard of our hostel. We were given a menu and got to choose 5 dishes each that we wanted to cook. I chose Chicken Yellow Curry, Chicken in Coconut Milk, Chicken with Cashew Nuts, Fried Golden Parcels, and sticky Rice with Mango. They were really quick to cook and very tasty. We got to keep the booklets which include the recipes for all the dishes I cooked and more. It was well worth the money.

We will be on the Laos border by tomorrow after booking our minibus this afternoon.