Our reason for heading to Chiang Mai now was so we could see the Loi Krathong lantern festival on 16nov, and spectacular it sure was!The festival goes on for several days,streets are filled with people,food, entertainment, fireworks,then on the Saturday they worship Krathong & thousands of people release big lanterns into the sky,we released 4of our own,the sight was spectacular &quite moving!I enjoyed CM, it's nice & relaxed,beautiful mountain,nice old city &river. I met up with Anthony biddlecombe an old school friend which was great,he helped us so much with advice!he met us several times,we all rented mopeds&he helped make sure Saraya,lucy&sophie felt confident on them&took us on a lovely ride 1afternoon to a reservoir where we ate lunch in a hut touching the water,walking over a monkey bridge to get to it,then carried on up the beautiful mountain stopping at the lookout to take in the stunning views of the city. Where the festi was still going on,we could see so many sparkles of fireworks whilst the sun set &it got dark,was so beautiful,full moon too!We then drove back into the old city &walked round the Sunday market which was fascinating &stopped for local food from a stall which was delicious!Renting mopeds for a few days was great,I'm a pro now!We were unfortunately in awful accommodation for4nights when first arrived in CM as everywhere was so booked up,we had a toad in our bathroom (which was disgusting), ants & Mosquitos everywhere,a massive lizard came out from Sophie's bed frightening the life out of us,plug sockets sparked when plugging something in,a rat woke me up by rustling away in my plastic bags by my bed looking for food &ran off when we turned the light on!was awful! But we managed to find a new better place in the old city thank god for the last 3days we were there!we hit the main area of bars♣ a couple of times too which was great music so had a good old dance!Another big highlight in CM was going to elephant nature reserve for the day where I saw beautiful elephants,learnt the commands&rode them starting on a medium sized one then up to a mahoosive one!Riding one is quite scary,obviously you're very high up&feel quite unbalanced whilst they walk!We trekked for quite some time too up the mountain (felt sore after)then down across a river,which was amazing dipping my feet in whilst the elephant strolled through,then we got off& bathed/scrubbed our elephants &fed them bananas!They eat so many!The elephants sprayed us with water,one kissed me on the cheek which was very slobbery!It was an incredible experience!Then we visited Tiger Kingdom where we spent time in the enclosures with small,smallest then BIG tigers!!They're stunning animals!We had to stay away from their faces&only approach from behind but where they're bought up with human contact they're fine!I do feel they should be in the wild though!But they assured us &there's notices highlighting that they are not drugged at all! (I pray)! So two absolutely incredible animal experiences of a lifetime now ticked off the list! Thai people seem very friendly too,I'm definately loving it so far!We took a cheap 1hour flight from BK to CM so haven't experienced the buses yet!will see! 3hour journey north up to Pai District now!