After already enjoying our first few days at the Banri Lanna, we decided to take advantage of the free bike service offered by the resort. We headed for the Motfu waterfall which was 10 KM away. It was a great route which went through a number of small villages, we didn't realise that we would get soaked by water though - as it is Thai New Year they have a tradition of waiting on passers by and then chucking loads of buckets over them. When you are on a bike you really don't have much protection. Poor old Jo took the brunt of it and ended up getting soaked, some boys even made her bike come to a complete stop before throwing repeated buckets of water over her, while all I could do is roll around in hysterics!!!

Once we got 7KM into the bike ride, we then probably got to one of the hardest up hill climbs I have ever had to deal with - it made wimbledon hill look flat! I pushed our bikes up the last 2KM, which was pretty much a sheer cliff face! It was all worth it however as the waterfall was beautiful even though it was obvious it was a tourist destination (photo's already on the site).

The trip on the way back was relatively easy in comparison! In the evening I sat in the resort kithen for an hour chatting to the staff as they were all so nice and very funny. I also think I set my dad up with the chef who was 4ft 2 inches! A match made in heaven.

We were the only people on the resort on our final night and we managed to get to watch the chef prepair our food - so have a good idea of how to make Tom Yam Goong soup - outstanding! We stayed up and chatted to the staff for quite a long time and then retired for the evening after a few games of master mind!

After saying good bye to the staff which was hard - we got picked up by Sunny and taken to the centre of Chiang Mai and to our hotel called Montri. A cracking hotel which was very good value, location, and even had wireless which I was very happy about! And was able to download the last 4 episodes of 24 thanks to Dunc - cheers dogg!

In the afternoon we went round the city looking at all the temples which were outstanding and then got taken by a tuk tuk to the Laos Airways office to collect our tickets. I have never seen such smambles - they only had a trainee in the office and she went to the bank and asked us to look after the office while she was out - I hope that the airline its self is some one better, otherwise I'll be asked to fly the plane!!

I can't belive the water festival here, there are thousands of people lining the streets and everyone is throwing water - such a great atmosphere and highly recommend any one come here during this time of year.

The following day we did the Thai cookery school which was unbelievable - we learnt so much, would have been great to have done two days - but never mind. We met a nice Irish Guy, but a very annoying south african who thought England was an awful place and that South Africa are the best team in the world - nothing new there. We learnt to cook Thai spicy salad, chicken coconut milk soup, red cury with fish, banana cake and pork with oyster sauce. We will have you all round for a Thai meal when we get back!

In the afternoon we went up to another temple which overlooked the whole of chiang mai, but it all of a sudden rained and misted over, typical! It was still well worth the trip.

We are now at the airport and awaing to fly to Laos - Luang Prabang, so will kep you posted, but I doubt we will find an internet connection until we get to Vietnam!