Well my time in Thailand is almost up-I fly back to Bangkok this afternoon and then out to Colombo, Sri Lanka tonight. The past week has flown by . I took the train up to Chiang Mai from Bangkok on Sunday. To be honest I was pleased to leave Bangkok. I found the city too big with the worst traffic problems I have ever seen!! It took me over an hour on Saturday to get to my hotel from one of the shopping malls-a distance of only a couple of kilometres! I would have walked but crossing the road is no easy task and road signs in English didn't seem to be too common. I'm sure if you're there for longer and perhaps with a few people the good things about the city would come through but not for me in 2 days! I arrived in Chaing Mai on Sunday evening after a long but interesting train journey up through the Central plains of Thailand (where much of the rice is grown) and into the hill country of the north. There was a beautiful sunset and full moon. It was "Loi Krathong" (full moon festival) so there were beautifully decorated statues (with flowers and candles) in the waterways and lanterns floating in the sky. All very effective and beautiful. The constant noise of firecrackers spoilt the atmosphere a bit! While in Chiang Mai I have been staying in "Eaglehouse" guesthouse owned and run by a Thai and Irish couple. Simple and clean accomodation with very friendly staff and an excellent restaurant. The food has been very good. I read about this place in a couple of guidebooks and was impressed with their efforts to be environmentally friendly, supporting local communities (most of the food comes from local farms and markets) and they are members of various environmental and social justice organisations. On Monday I set off on a 3 day trek into Doi Inthanon National Park organised through Eaglehouse. There were 12 of us in the group including our guide and a trainee guide. We were good mix-Thai, German, Dutch, Scottish, Australian and a kiwi! and we all got on well which was great. We initially stopped at a Buddhist cave which was rather large and had heaps of bats and jumping spiders in it! Bon, our guide, convinced one of our party the tree outside the cave was growing sweet chillies (not hot) and that he should try one. One look at his face told us all it was not sweet at all and extremely hot!! We were all wary after that! We stopped for lunch at a nice picnic site inside the national park then drove for another hour or so. We unloaded our packs and started our journey (the food was taken by truck to the first village and from then on carried by porters). The forest (or jungle as they like to call it here!) is sub-tropical. Lots of creepers, bananna trees, bamboo etc but also some trees that looked like conifer/pine trees which surprised me a little because I thought it would be too warm in Thailand for them but then I realised we were nearly 1000m above sea level so they probably find the climate okay. We walked for an hour then we got to go elephant riding! I think that was the highlight of the trip for me. Such beautiful, intelligent animals-it was a real privilage. There were 2 of us on each elephant and the trainer of each elephant initially rode on its neck then walked along beside it occasionally giving commands when the elephant decided it would stop for a long feed of bamboo! While on the elephant we saw a snake in the grass (only after the guides pointed it out!-coming from NZ I'm not used to looking for them!). We rode the elephants for around an hour then walked for about 30 minutes to a village (where members of the Karen hilltribe live). Eaglehouse has its own bamboo hut there with mosquito nets (essential!) where we stayed for the night. I didn't get a lot of sleep as the noises of the jungle intrigued me (no lions or tigers but plenty of frogs and birds) and the roosters started crowing at 3am in the morning and the villagers started husking rice at about 4am!! But that was all part of the experience! The food was great and we had a great evening with a guitar and song sheets. Tuesday was our trekking day-about 6 hours of walking through the jungle-across streams and up and down hills! The track itself was farily easy but it was the heat (even at 1000m above sea level) that made it reasonably challenging (and this is the cooler season!). We had a very welcome dip in the river at the second village where we stayed the night. At this village we were invited in to one of the houses where Bon told us a bit about the Karen people and their customs. It was interesting to see in this village solar panels hooked up to each house. At first I thought this was a good step but found out from Bon that most people don't use them because the government installed them to provide electricity for lighting (to try and get the local people to stop chopping down so many trees in the forest) but people don't see why they should use the lights because they only provide light whereas a fire provides both light and warmth! A good argument to me! Maybe they should have looked at solar panels for heating water instead..it just shows the real need for good communication and consulation between government and local communities if efforts for better environmental protection and sustainability are going to become a reality. On Wednesday we started with a short truck journey to the bamboo rafting site. Here we split into groups of 4 (one guide at the front steering(!) and the rest of us spread out down the raft-the person at the back also had a pole to help push it along) I made sure I was in the middle! It was great fun. The rapids weren't that big but in a bamboo raft it was exciting enough! After that we walked for about one hour where our trekking truck picked us up. We drove for about an hour to a village for lunch then drove to the top of Doi Inthanon (Thailand's highest peak at 2595m). There was quite a lot of cloud at the top so didn't get great views but it was still nice to be there. Here on this moutain are a pair of bronze and gold chedis (memorials) dedicated to the King and Queen of Thailand and have been built to reaffirm the unity of Thailand. They were also very impressive. We travelled a bit further down the mountain to the Wachiratan Falls which are over 100 m high-very impressive although a bit too much water thundering down to go swimming!! We then had a 1 1/2 hour drive back to Chiang Mai. We were a tired but happy group! I had a wonderful time and so pleased I went. It was so nice to be in forest again and to have lots of greenary around. It is one the I miss a lot when in large cities. Yesterday I spent in Chiang Mai-did a bit of shopping but generally had a quiet day. Sri Lanka next-can't wait to see you Chamika! Love to you all, Sonia :-)