Leaving Umphang on the 10th we then headed back to Tak to jump on another bus up to Chiang Mai. This journey only 4 and half hours didn't seem too bad. Again with no wehre to stay we headed into Tha Pae Gate (the backpackers area) to find somewhere to stay, it was really easy and a much cleaner nicer place than our last. I was happy. Our first day in Chiang Mai we sorted out trips and things for us to do whilst we were there and just bummed around the area after our travelling times. My birthday (12th) we found a pool at a hotel and chilled out again. That evening we went out for a slap up meal for the extragavent cost of £20 for the both of us, including cocktails. That night was the first time I had worn make-up since leaving, felt rather odd, but I did feel a bit more normal looking for once. The following day we had deicede we wanted to go to some hot springs out of the city bus transport was going to cost quite a lot. So instead we hired a moped and Rhiannon drove and we found the springs, they were rather impressive and the surrounding gardens were spectacular. There was a pool there so like the day before we chilled out by the pool, it was so hot couldn't really do much else. As we drove back into the city we still had the moped so decided to go to a temple the other side out of the city up a hill. Once there we saw the most amazing views of Chiang Mai and a wonderful temple. But driving up and down the mountain was a bit scary my knuckles did go white. But we made it and what a great day we had.

On the Saturday we had booked ourselves onto a Thai cooking course. The day began with a tour around the local market learning about the different local products. I didn't realise that there were 24 different types of banana! Then back to the kitchen we I cooked and ate spring rolls, green chicken curry, chicken with ginger, papaya salad, pad thai noodles and friend bananas in coconut toffee. I wasn't a fan on the papaya salad, but I do now feel with my excellent cooking skills I could now open my own restaurant. HAHA! I did however feel like a bit of a fat egg after all the eating, we could barely move. Good times. The following day we had booked ourselves onto a one day trek We were picked up at 08.30 then taken to the forest/jungle. We walked through a tribe village, it was amazing to see how these people live, with animals everywhere, wooden huts, roofs made from dried leaves. The one thing I found most shocking was that they were Catholic, one thing I never expected because I assumed that most Thai's and tribes would be Buddhists. After our trek we were taken to some waterfalls, they were nice, but nothing in comparison to what we saw in Umphang, here we ate lunch next to the falls. After our trekking we were taken on an elephant ride for about an hour. I wasn't so keen as i had heard how the elephants were treated but here they were treated well and we saw a 4 day old baby elephant, was so cute. Then the last part of the day was bamboo rafting. Basically like punting but sat on bamboo. I got very wet, espcially through the small rapids. As we got closer to end there were small wooden verandas on the waters edge where the locals would sit and eat and drink, paddle in the water and generally hang out. Was lovely to see that they make the most of the natural beauty around them, very unlike the British i feel.

Our last day in Chiang Mai was one of sorting things out. Selling the books we had read, unpacking and re-packing. We both had a massage to sort out the horrible knots in our shoulders, was nice but a little bit painful at the same time. We then went to see another temple, one read about in my rough guide. Was huge and had the biggest Buddha I had seen yet, amazing, made me want to become a Buddhist slightly. Seems like such a tranquil, calming religion, all about the inner peace.