21 October 2004 Sawadeekah!!!!!!! We have now been in Thailand for 6 days. Bangkok was just one big stress trying to organize our flights within Asia and Laos visa with only a smidgeon of time to check out the Palace and Jim Thomsons House. We were both glad to leave the big smoke and thankfully the stresses with it. We took the overnight train to Chiang Mai in a sleeper carriage whereby instead of compartments of four or six it is just one open carriage but you have a curtain to pull across for your own privacy in your bunk. It wasn't long before I could hear snoring and had to wonder if it was Rob!!!! He swears it wasn't. Chiang Mai has been brilliant. We both now feel like we are on holiday. It has such a relaxing feel about it. So we signed up for an elephant trek only to find out yesterday that our first 2 hours were walking uphill to a Thai village - so I have now fired Burnell Tours as I had thought we'd both retired from walking, especially uphill, for a while. The village wasn't very interesting either, with streams of tourists coming in and out. The elephant trek was cool. Of course Rob and I ended up on the biggest one and got to go down into the river. Coming out again was a bit scary as the riverbank was high and if I hadn't held on I'm sure I would of toppled out the back. The afternoon was spent at a waterfall, and then bamboo rafting down the river. Today we take a minibus at 12pm to Chiang Khong (the Thai border) and stay the night before crossing tomorrow into Laos for our 2 day/1 night river boat ride to Luang Prabang. So its bye to Thailand for now. No more Pad Thais - boo hoo. Kylie and Rob xxx