Sawatdee ton kum ka! Good evening!

So we are now in Northern Thailand, in Chiang Mai. It is very beautiful! And of course the people ate wonderful and friendly.

Chiang Mai is the previous capital of Thailand and has the most amount of Wats (temples) per squared area. Seriously every corner you turn there's a beautiful golden temple! The crowning jewel of them is in the heart of old town, a 600 year old temple on top a pyramid, Wat Chedi Luang. It is so awesome! It has these huge scary dragons at each of the four sides of the base and life sized, possibly bigger, elephants all around the top. We got some great pics of it (on the camera).

The train journey here was fine, we both got a good sleep (even though it was in separate beds, it was the most amount of time had spent apart for a month and a half ;) ) we then went to a hostel where we would be doing the jungle trek. Neither of us really knew what to expect but now we're both so glad we went. The people we met were great and we'll both remember it well looking back!

There were ten of us to start with (before the tigers got to us haha!) And we walked for about 4 hours a day for three days. We walked steeply up and the dropped down for most of it. Until we came to paddy fields where it levelled off. Our guides were great and showed us tarantula holes and poked at the dens to get them out. Snakes spiders bugs beetles plants etc. They were great! And their English was good too! A group of three went back after the first night (wimps) so then there were seven.

We stayed in bamboo huts, 6'x6'. No electricity no water etc. The loo was a hole in the ground and the shower was a waterfall! It was a great way to start the day - bracing to say the least! The group was great and we spent the evenings chatting. I think we're starting to find the people you meet really make a place and that's what you remember most! We've all kept in touch and we'll give em tours of London when they come to England :D

We saw spiders as big as your hand and one even guarded our hut ;) one of the guys we were with found a scorpion in their hut eeeeeek!

We then went on a bamboo raft followed by an elephant 'trek' (they walked round a route they probably do fifty times a day) and at first I was amazed at seeing and stroking and feeding an elephant but then we saw how cruelly they were kept. The metal bench was put on their back and the mahout leading kept hitting her on the head with a pole and putting a spike in her ear. And she was pregnant. I wanted to cry it was terrible. I don't know what I was expecting but it was heart breaking! It is sad to know we were part of it and our money is funding such cruelty! There are conservation projects around where you can go a stay with elephants but they're crazy expensive!!! So maybe just donating is all we can do.

We have been staying on the north east corner of old town in a really lovely guesthouse. The lady who runs it is soooooo lush! If we come back to Chiang Mai we'll stay here :D nothing is too much and she's given us lots of help and advice! It's called Jira guesthouse.

We did a cooking class where we learnt to cook tom yam soup, tom kha soup, fired rice, masaman curry, penang curry, chicken and cashews, stuffed omelette, spring rolls, how to cook sticky rice and jasmine rice etc. And we got to eat it all after! Some of the best food we've ever tasted (if we do say so ourselves ;) )

There were fireworks tonight for a monks birthday and we went to the Sunday walking street at one of the old gates to the city. It was huuuuge! We ate well for next to nothing!

We're going to a meditation retreat where you stay with monks and learn about Buddhism and meditation and the meaning etc. We have to wear all white and I don't think we can sleep in the same room!! It'll be worse than the train haha!

There's some great markets here, we've got an apartment with a kitchenette after the meditation for half a week or so which will be great to do some of our own food. We've been here over six weeks now and Eddy's craving my cooking (not really - we just want something vaguely British!!).

It has been mental hot!! About 40 and it's 30 now at 2330! And we've not had air con so we're biting the bullet and paying a bit more for it tomorrow!!

All in all it doesn't feel like six weeks at all!! It's so amazing it's flying! We're flying out to Vietnam on the 30th from Bangkok so we're slowly making our way south.

Love you all and miss you lots xxxxxxxx