The more astute among you may have realized that during a (rare) moment of brain freeze I misnamed the last blog entry. It should of course have been titled Ayutthaya and this is the authentic one and only Chiang Mai blog post so please don't confuse yourselves and get in a pickle.

We arrived in Chiang Mai feeling refreshed and awake after a superbly comfortable 12 hour overnight train ride up north from Ayutthaya. After being duly cornered by a horde of travel agent types pushing a guesthouse called SK House and waving a picture of a swimming pool in our faces we were herded like the easily persuaded travelers that we are into the back of a truck to go and take a look at what they were offering. Although we were feeling very skeptical and ready to march out at the faintest whiff of a scam the room was actually great, really big with a private bathroom and the swimming pool looked most inviting so we were sold and checked in immediately.

The first day was spent exploring the city which on first impressions seemed lovely. Far less crowded than Bangkok with a much more chilled vibe and with tons of stuff to do, we could see ourselves staying here a while. The evening was spent wandering the buzzing streets of the Sunday market where they closed off a whole section of the town to be taken over by hundreds of market stalls, a few purchases were made but the highlight of the evening was seeing some fellow Histoners! Tom spotted a couple of lads from IVC Badminton Club which was more than a little strange and made the world seem impossibly small but I was loving the intrepid spirit of the Histon folk, we just get everywhere!

Tom had been tipped off about a spot where he could fish for Mekong Catfish so Monday was set aside for an excursion on a hired motorbike out to a lake about 30 minutes out of Chiang Mai. After a little persuasion and many promises of sunbathing and book reading I agreed to accompany him and after a long time driving round searching for the entrance we were finally set up on the lake.After turning his nose up at the proffered bait of bread Tom actually had a very successful day and caught 5 catfish much to his delight. Unfortunately as the day drew on I started to feel a little sick and as we were driving back to the hotel in the evening the bug went full steam ahead and we had to stop on the side of the road for me to throw up. I will spare you all the gory details suffice to say that I felt pretty rubbish all night and into the next day and was restricted to the confines of the hotel room.For Tom however Tuesday was another exciting day as he went mountain biking down an actual mountain. He joined a group who were then driven up to the elevation of 1650 metres and then spent the day riding down what was apparently a very challenging track.

Wednesday I was feeling miles better so we decided to take a trip out to the monkey school just outside of Chiang Mai on a Tuk Tuk.I was expecting to see a whole range of monkeys and learn a bit about them but unfortunately when we arrived it was just a bit of a cheap con for tourists. We were ushered in with about 4 other people and monkeys were duly wheeled out to do tricks like counting, unscrewing coconuts and riding bikes. It all felt very uncomfortable to me as the monkeys were on very short leashes and when we saw where they were kept it got even worse as they were chained to stumps of wood by a chain of less than a foot. With the space available to them I didn't see why they couldn't build a large enclosure to keep the monkeys in,it all seemed very conniving and money grabbing and put us off going to any of the other animal themed attractions around the area such as the snake show and tiger kingdom. We had decided to join the 3 day two night jungle trek run by our hotel the following day so the rest of the afternoon was given over to preparing our things for this and in the evening we went to a Thai boxing tournament that we'd booked a couple of days before. The boxing was very impressive but I must admit that I was more intrigued by the ladyboys that were serving our drinks. They looked amazing and had they not been working at a ladyboy bar I would definitely been fooled by some of them!

Thursday was the first day of our trek and after a fairly early start we set off at 9 am for a three hour drive to our starting point. This was not the most comfortable of journeys with 11 of us crammed into the back of a truck and it was made rather longer by trips to drop off baby chickens (don't ask me why!) and a unscheduled stop by Police whereby our driver was found to have the wrong information on his license. After all this faffing we finally made it to our starting point near a Mong Village in the mountains. After a quick look round the village inhabited by the Mong people who originate from China the trek started in earnest with around 3 hours walk to our first overnight stop at a jungle camp. The walking on this first day wasn't too hard going but nevertheless we were glad to make it to our camp which was really beautiful and next to a freshwater stream and small waterfall on one side and neatly kept farmland to the other. We washed our sweaty selves in the stream whilst our hilarious guide 'Captain' Jack began cooking a feast over the fire. Myself and Tom had already realized that with a fairly poor group of trekking companions Jack was going to be the highlight along with his (very) little assistant a Thai dwarf called Rambo! Dinner was lovely and was followed by the obligatory circle round the campfire which was all very dull until Jack arrived and began singing Thai songs and encouraged everyone to sing their own. At this point I needed Erin's trusty guiding song skills to help me out as I could only remember the most ridiculous of tunes which would make little to no sense to a group of English people let alone an international gathering! It was a less than comfortable night's sleep as the mountains are cold at night and despite trousers, a fleece and 3 blankets the chill still got to me so I wasn't as fresh and awake as I would have liked to begin the epic 6 hours of walking that Day 2 would bring.

After a long sweaty and arduous 3 hour ascent of the mountain we finally reached the peak at lunchtime where we ate our rice wrapped in banana leaves whilst drinking in a magnificent view of the jungle. The afternoon's descent was mildly easier and we reached the waterfall where we could cool off and shower around 4pm and from there it was only 30 minutes to the Karen village where we were spending the second night. Unfortunately, other than a quick whizz through the village and a visit from some village ladies trying to sell their wares when we arrived we didn't get to see too much of village life despite being camped only 100 metres from their huts. We did buy some bracelets though as being so far out they have very few opportunities to sell their crafts other than the Western trekkers that pass through. Rambo had taken charge of leading us that day and we waited on Jack to arrive to begin the cooking. After a couple of hours we were starved and Jack finally waltzed in apologizing to us all because not only was he late but he was also drunk! Apparently he had started on his whisky stores whilst he was walking through the jungle and so he was more than a little merry when he arrived! If only it had been rum he could have truly earned his beloved title of Captain Jack Sparrow. His inebriation had no impact on his cooking skills though and in the pitch black he still served up a fabulous meal.Although it was slightly tainted for me when I ate a whole chilli and almost cried it was so hot, I couldn't really taste anything after that. We played some cardswhilst Jack plied us with homemade Thai whisky and told us stories about his Cockfighter called Bin Laden… The sleep situation was slightly better on night two as we had sleeping bags and blankets so I was pretty cosy and slept much better.

Day 3 and the final day of the trek was set to be a good day as it involved elephant riding and bamboo rafting in addition to the essential walking. After a tough 3 hours where we really earned the title of trekkers wading through streams and clambering over trees we finally reached the truck which signaled the end of our walk and was to take us to the elephants! The elephant ride was good fun although it lost its novelty after about 30 minutes and Tom was terrified that the elephant was going to lose its footing as it attempted to walk a tiny path which bordered a ravine.Unfortunately Tom was on the ravine side and the flimsy bit of string holding us onto the elephant did nothing to reassure him of our safety! After the elephants it was lunchtime and then some much more sedate bamboo rafting along the river. This was essentially a punt made of bamboo with no sides so of course being a Cambridge girl born and bred I was an expert although the punter never called upon my bounteous knowledge to help him out. If he had I bet we would never have got stuck on that rock! The river was beautiful and we passed lots of waving children on the riverbank as we meandered along. After about an hour on the river we spotted Rambo chilling in a riverside bar probably chatting up some dwarf ladies and we knew our time was up. Another bumpy ride back to the hostel was in order and we arrived back at 6pm totally exhausted but pretty pleased with ourselves and our achievement.

The final day In Chiang Mai was set aside for recovery and we both had a full body massage and chilled for most of the day before ending our week there with another trip to the night market. Next stop, across the border to Laos and a 2 day boat trip along the Mekong onto Luang Prabang.

Apologies all for the epic nature of this post but it was an action packed week and I still haven't learnt the skill of being concise!