After partying it up in the southern islands we took the 17 hour boat and bus journey back to Bangkok to meet Eve and Emma.

We arrived at Bangkok at 5am but couldnt check in our hostel until 12 so we spent several hours in Mcdonalds sorting our lives out! After meeting all our new Aussie friends and having always wanted to visit Australia we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to go with the limited money that we have. Our friend Jarryd has said we can crash at his apartment in Melbourne for 2 weeks so we've booked for the first of Feb! Woop! It was done quite spontaneously without much thought of money or visas but im sure we will be fine (we hope). Weve been told of so many other amazing places to visit in Australia that were thinking we might have to save up and do it proper when were finished in China. So after booking our flight to Aus we checked in at the hostel Eve had booked for us and spent the day round the rooftop pool working on our tans.

Richard who we know from China was also in Bangkok the same night too with 2 other teachers so we all cracked open a few Changs and went to a bar for a few more bevvies. With the beer being a strong percentage we were all pretty drunk. Emily got a guy to pay for a scorpion to eat because he thought she wouldn't do it. Little did he know we've been living in China and have eaten worse!! The next day was nice to catch up on stories with the girls and have another chill day by the pool. Eve is the first person we have seen from back home since being in China so it was good to catch up and hear funny stories about people from home (i.e. Joycey).

After our pitstop in BKK it was off to the north on a sleeper train to start our more chilled and cultured stint of our travels. We arrived to a clear blue sky in Chiang Mai and found our way to the hostel. We were pleasantly surprised with where we were staying. The hostel had a great vibe and was made all the more better by the crazy Thai lady who ran the place; she went by the name of Stella. Ironically Stella was partial to an alcoholic beverage or 3 every night. After dumping our bags we went for a wonder to check out what Thailand's 2nd largest city was all about. Chang Mai is famous for it's night market (the night bizarre). There was so much tat that we wanted to buy but now we are on a budget for Australia a few Changs in one of the bars was all we bought. It would be nice to come back here when we are rich and buy a load of random great things.

Having been here 2 weeks already and done nothing but party and sunbathe hungover we thought we best book up some excursions for our short stay here. So for the following day we booked to go mountain biking, elephant riding and white water rafting.

The bus picked us up at 8.30am and after eating our pre ordered brekkie Stella had cooked up for us we were ready to start our adventures. We picked our mountain bikes, put on our helmets and nicknamed us team GBs next olympic cycling team! Shame we didn't live up to the reputation. The first part of the biking trek was mainly up hill and Eve and Emma decided to sit on the Van as Eve felt faint. The bike riding was so much fun and the scenery was beautiful we definitely took the chance to take a few photos.

Next stop was the elephants . Unlucky for us we weren't the only two on our elephants but Derrick was nice enough and was also from England. We called our elephant Bud and enjoyed an hour walking round on him in the sun with the amazing views of the mountains and the river. The only downside of the whole day was the treatment of the elephants, they would just hit and punch them for no reason sometimes with like a pix axe, it was heartbreaking to see. It was probably a good thing the Thai guy leading ours didn't understand english as Nik called him every name under the sun to try and get him to leave our Bud alone. He soon got the message when she then tipped her bottle of water on him which definitely did the job as he then left us alone. Although we then realised we might have needed him to steer the elephant away from the edge of the cliff .. but we got back in one piece and got Bud a few less hits! So we said bye to our new friend and biked it again to have lunch, Emily opted to sit in the van with Eve so Nik and Emma placed 2nd and 3rd for team GB. This biking was a lot more downhill and a lot more fun.

As anyone that visits Thailand will know it can sometimes give you a very dodgy stomach which we have definitely suffered from since being in Thailand. More so for Emily when we made our way to the white water rafting when she took a turn for the worse. I don't think Emily's ever run so fast as when we finally got there and the van door opened and it was definitely funny seeing her running about trying to find a toilet lol. So the EP ( emergency poo) situation as we now call them was over, having reached an immediate threat we were now all back on high alert.

With Emily missing the Crucial safety talk for white water rafting as she was stuck on the toilet, niki too busy laughing about it and Eve day dreaming it was left to Emma to guide us on the rules of rafting. At first our raffting skipper 'Ball' ( yes that is his name) must have thought he drew the short straw with us 4. Eve asked him if we were the best he's ever had and Emily told him she liked it hard, a few sexual innuendoes later and he soon said that we had got better. That was until we hit the middle section of the river. This was ten times more fun/scary than the log flume!! Emily lost her paddle twice but that wasn't the only thing to go overboard! The image of Niki falling out of the raft and trying to get back in whilst Ball was trying to save her was something too funny to put into words. We definitely made Balls day at the office a funny one and provided him with pure entertainment. It was definitely an emotional roller coaster with only a few injuries sustained along the way.

After an action packed day we were all soo tired. After showering and going downstairs with our hair wet we were definitely ready for bed!! That was until we bumped into these lads from New Zealand who we got speaking to at breakfast. They managed to persuade us to go out and after spontaneous pre drinks it wasn't long until we all crammed into the back of a tuk-tuk and were dangling our heads out of the thing. We even managed to find a bar similar to dom ones except they didnt sell quadvods! After what was supposed to be a quiet night we continued the party in our 4 bed dorm room .. Much to our neighbours annoyance! We found it appropriate to share a bed even though we had one each and take a ridiculous amount of photos in a very drunken state! The free wifi that is available in all the hostels is not so good when you come home and Facebook and tweet while drunk lol

After setting our alarms for three hours later we were all up at 8.30 ready for the days adventures. Emma and Eve opted to go on a private tour of the temples which turned out more to be a double date with some creepy thai guys lol but they still had fun. We decided that we would have a day of Ziplining in the jungle, with a hangover though we weren't sure how the day was going to go.

We were picked up and were the only western people on the tour all the rest were chinese which wasn't too bad for us. We started of the day visiting a butterfly and orchid farm. We only managed to see one butterfly and it was black and there weren't really that many flowers. Maybe it was the hangover or lack of sleep causing our less than impressed attitudes but we went and sat back on the bus and opted for an extra 10 minute nap while we waited for everyone else. We soon realised that the ziplining wasn't until the afternoon so we had to wait until everyone had done their other activities before starting. We took this time to visit the long neck village ... This is a tribal village of people who are not from thailand but live on their land .. They wear the neck rings around their necks from the age of five and as their necks get longer they add rings to it. You will be able to see from the photos!

We still had time to burn so Emily opted for a nap in the middle of their village on the mud and then was kindly invited into one of their tribal homes to lie down and so we did. After lunch we did an hour or so of sunbathing and waited for the Zip lining. While we have been in Thailand we have picked up various injuries along the way and Emilys mystery foot injury since the black out we had at new year started to get worse. It doesn't help that alcohol acts as an anesthetic and all our injuries are forgotten about until they are ten times worse the next day. Her foot swelled up and as she couldn't walk had to sit out of the ziplining and slept in the van while Nik went off with the other chinese people. Although living in china we can only pick up the odd sentence or so in chinese and these weren't the most sociable chinese people. Even though the Zip lines were amazing its not really the same on your own so will def be doing it again when Ems foots better. Tired and hungry we came back to the hostel met back up with the girls, had dinner and called it a night. The next day we checked out and spent the day on the hostel rooftop, blasting the music and working on our tans.

We are now on our way to Kanchanburi and although none of us know how to say it we are looking forward to visiting waterfalls, chilling seeing lanmarks from WW2, visiting tiger temple and staying in our 2 pound a night guesthouse. Bargain!!!!

Much love
Nik & Em
Xxxxxxxx