Hi All,

Finally about time that I wrote something! Has been a couple of posts.

At the moment, Em Em and I are having a "chilled out" afternoon at the Little Bird Hostel (voted our favourite hostel of the trip to far). However it is insanely hot so the chilling is minimal!!!

By the evening of Thursday night, we were all finally feeling a bit better and decided to organise a 1 day trek. We were picked up at 8:30 Friday morning and our first stop was the Orchid and Butterfly farm. Was very pretty, but one can only stare so long at Orchids! We then zipped off to do the Elephant trekking. We had to cross a very suspiciously made swing bridge over the river to get to the elephants who were just hanging out right next to the exit of the bridge. It was quite strange being so close to these huuuuge animals. There were 4 females (we were told they were 45 years old) and then a naughty 5 year old who was on a chain to one side. Then a free roaming 4 year old and a 7 month old baby. So sweet! We climbed onto the elephants and proceeded to "trek" through the jungle. This was a slow and rather bumpy/wobbley ride, and sometimes on quite a thin and steep trail which was kinda stressful. The babies came along with us, so the elephant that I was riding got a little aggrevated with her baby playing around. The Chinese lady who I rode the elephant with and I decided to buy a bag of bananas and feed them to our elephant and her baby. This entailed us sitting on their heads and having their trunks wave in our face. WHen we were buying the bags all the elephants got excited and started sniffing around with their trunks. I had one sniff around my bag which was weird, esp when it breathed hot warm air down my back! Our guide then let the Chinese lady stay on the Elephants head as we rode back to the base. I however had to hang on for dear live as our security belt (a rope) was no longer attached. When we got back we had plenty of time to pet and take pictures of the elephants.

After we took a bamboo raft ride for about half an hour down the river, which was nice as we got to relax and watch the sceneary flow by. We were then brought back to the base and had a quick visit to the hill tribes (Lisu and Palong) and visit one of their homes. After we had some lunch and then off to white water rafting. We had a very bumpy ride up to the start of the rafting, as it was all unpaved roads. The rafting was fun, but the rapids were somewhat minimal. The most exciting bit was the first 5 minutes where we were just chucked straight into the rapid. However, the rmajority of the journey was just floating down the river. At then end we got to jump in and swim. Emma who was on the other boat with the 3 other chinese ppl all jumped in, however their guide kinda of let go of the boat so they all had to float down after it! We had a few minutes to dry off and have an ice cream and then off to the waterfall. It was kind of small but very beautiful and we had a nice cool off there as well. Emma managed to get right behind the waterfall and check out a mini cave.

The day overall was very nice, but seemed as if we were just getting a taster for the several day treks where you can stay overnight in the jungle. However, we didnt have enough time so this was our only option. We may look into doing some trekking in Vietnam and actually do some walking in the jungle rather than just be driven everywhere!

We got back to the hostel around 3:30 and then had a very girly afternoon. We decided to have an oil massage which was soooooo nice and then off to the amazing market for some shopping. We found a nice cheap food court and tried out a traditional Northan Thai dish which is called Khai Soi, a curry and noddle dish. When we got back to the hostel, Emily and Emma recognised some friends from Uni, who we were meant to meet up with at the Full Moon Party. Such a small world when backpacking! We went out for a few drinks (Reggea bar!) with them so they could all catch up!

This morning we had our Thai Cooking class. We went to the market which is right next to our hostel, and were taught all about the different herbs and seasoning, as well as the different noodles used in Thai cuisine. We each had our own little shopping list which we had to find. After we had all successfully found our ingredients we were driven outside of Chiang Mai (about 30 minutes) to the owners amazing house. It has two huge cooking stations next to his house, as well as a dining area and a demonstration kitchen. We were each assigned to a work station and then shown how to make each meal before attempting it ourselves. Of course we then got to eat everything we made, which were amazing if I do say so myself. Well I should more thank the assistants who taught us how to make such delicious food.

We made: Flat noodle with pork in sweet soy sauce

Yellow Chicken curry

Fish in Banana leaf

Chicken and Cashew nuts

Spicy Prawn salad

Banana in coconut milk.

As part of the course we were given the cook book that includes all the recipes from the 5 days course, so will have plenty of fun trying to create those dishes when we are back!

Tomorrow we are going to visit the temples in Chiang Mai, maybe rent a bike. Then we head off on our over night bus to Laos. The plan for tonight is still undecided but there is talk about going to a Thai boxing match. We shall see!!!