Hi, We have spent a great few days in Chiang Mai and have finally seen a bit of sun although still quite a lot of rain! Our trip to Chiang Mai from Kanchanaburi was not the best and by the end of it I think me and Caroline both could have quite cheerfully got on the next flight home. It started off with a minibus journey from Kanchanaburi which was not only packed but also stupidly hot. Me and Caroline were squeezed in together on the front seat with no seatbelt and feeling quite vunerable. It was 2 and a half hours of hell - even worse for Caroline as she was sitting over the engine so was even more hot. After that the last thing we felt like doing was getting on another bus but unfortunately we had a nice 12 hour bus journey up to Chiang Mai to look forward to! It was not the best journey as it was quite cramped but at least it was cooler. I think i managed about 20 minutes sleep so that wasn't too bad! After we got off the bus we had to get a van to our accomodation. There was no room by the time me and Caroline got in so my bag was just laid on tailgate which would usually go up to make sure you didn't fall out. So not only was I sitting next to an open back which offered me no protection against falling out I also had to try and hold my bag in! Though as it turned out that was a better option than the roof where the rest of the bags were as Carolines came flying off the roof as we were going down the road. All in all we were tired and moody! We basically slept the rest of the day but we went to the night bazaar in the evening which was really good and I managed to resist the urge to buy more tat! After a day to recover we were in a better frame of mind luckily as we set off for our trek the next morning. It was great fun. There were 7 of us in our group - a Spanish couple and three Irish girls. Everyone was really nice which was cool. We headed off to the Pai area of Thailand which is about 3 hours from Chiang Mai. It was a really gorgeous jungle area up in the mountains. Our first stop was a Thai hill village. We had our lunch there which was nice but it was really strange as it was so traditional and there were just chickens and pigs trotting around everywhere. The kids were really cute though and kept putting bracelets on us. After lunch we set off on our trek and we definitely did not know what we were letting ourselves in for because it was absolutely exhausting! We treked for about 4 hours and it was all either up hill or down hill and the very occasional bit of flat. The uphills were like hell and the down hill bits were pretty much as bad as it was really muddy and had been raining and was very steep so we just slid our way down! However, we were trekking through the Thai jungle so it was absolutely gorgeous. Really green and hilly and the views were really good.After about 2 and a half hours we got to a waterfall so we had a swim. It wasn't the most beautiful of waterfalls but i have never been so sweaty, dirty and generally minging in my life so it was definitely welcome! The heavens opened right near the end of the trek so our path turned in to a stream which was fun! Our camp for the night was an elephant camp which was cool although they are let out to wander at night so weren't there when we got to the camp. Despite being the most minging people in the whole world when we got to the camp we were all feeling ridiculously happy that we had made it and we did actually manage to enjoy it - well almost all, one of the Irish girls hadn't really eaten before starting and they had been on an overnight bus then straight to trek so she described it as the worst day of her life! After a gorgeous meal of Thai curry and sweet and sour veg we sat and chatted around a camp fire which was very twee! Then we went to our uncomfortable beds which were just the floor in a bamboo hut that was open so all sorts of bugs came in - but we were tired so we didn't really care! The next morning was great. We woke up and went outside just in time to see the elephants having their bath which was really cute. There were four elephants and one baby one which I just wanted to take up with me because it was soooooooo sweet! After we had breakfast and the elephants had their bath they took us for a ride. We had to sit on very uncomfortable wooden seats on top of the elephants. Mine and Caroline's was called Capian and was a very good girl although she kept trying to take shortcuts which involved her stamping trees down and us getting hit by branches! The baby elephant came along for the ride too and just walked next to its mum the whole time - bless! We had over an hour on the elephants walking through the jungle so it was a briliant experience. After we got off we had a short walk. It was easy compared to the day before and was once again really gorgeous scenery as we were walking along side streams and through Paddy fields. After this we got picked up and went bamboo rafting. This was definitely interesting as the raft didn't really float very well with us in it so most of the bottom half of us was in the water - nice and refreshing! I was lucky and wasn't in charge of steering so just had to sit there like a pudding but the people who were were hot and tired and not really enjoying it I dont think! But i enjoyed it despite the slightly suspect brown water of the river and the huge number of spiders and insects floating past me! We went back to Chiang Mai after this but it was a great although exhausting couple of days. All of our stuff was wet and filthy dirty and we looked like tramps but we had fun! Today we absolutley brilliant too and will definitey go down as one of my favs as we did a Thai cooking course. The day started off with a trip to the market and our teacher for the day took us round and told us about all the different vegetables, herbs, noodles and pastes that we would be using that day. Then we headed off to the cookery school which was a really sweet little building. Our first dish off the day was Pad Thai which has become a firm favourite of ours so we were quite excited! We had a tray of ingredients and the teacher talked us through the all and showed us what to do with it.Then we went to the woks and she showed us first how to cook it and then we did it for ourselves. It was very hot and a bit stressful at first but so much fun! After it was done we got to taste our creation and even if I do say so myself it was delicious! After this we made spring rolls - mine even managed to look like spring rolls! Then we made a Thai soup, Thai Green curry and Chicken and Cashew nuts. We got to eat everything we made so were absolutely bursting by the end of the day but everything was completely gorgeous and it was a really really fun course to do. We get a cook book with all the recipes so I'll have to try it when I get home! We are leaving Chiang Mai tomorrow and are going down to the islands - and hopefully we will finally get a full day of sun! xxx