We all slept a bit better in the second village and felt a bit more lively after our breakfast today. After breakfast we walked for about 20 minutes to a massive waterfall where Dave, Stu and Chris jumped into the pool at the bottom from a ledge about 10 metres off the ground. It was a big drop and Dave hurt his back a bit doing it but he's ok! Later we walked on to a restaurant where we had lunch - some slimy noodles, rice and fruit and after that off to ride ...

We were woken up this morning by Ray at 8am but everyone was really tired as noone had slept very well. Most people kept waking up in the night as the hard bamboo floor was really uncomfortable and it got incredibly cold in the night too. I had on my fleece, trousers, sleeping bag and blanket and was still cold!! When everyone slowly got out of bed we congregated around the fire where there was tea and coffee in big tin kettles and after that we sat down to a b...

Today we got up early as it was the first day of our 3 day trek. We packed a small bag with our essentials, leaving the rest in storage and got onto the back of a truck with seats down each side. Altogether there were ten people in our trekking group - dave, me, 3 more English people (Stu, Mickey and Chris - just finished school), a Japenese bloke and a Danish family (mum, dad and two kids). We drove for about an hour then stopped off at a local market to get som...

We were woken up early this morning by the guard wanting to put our beds away as we were both on the top bunks, even though our train didn't get in til 9am. When we arrived at Chiang Mai station we had to put on purple stickers so our tuk tuk driver could recognise us and we were then whisked away to our new accomodation. This guesthouse is very basic - no towels, loo roll or top sheets and no shower curtain so the whole bathroom gets wet when you want to have a ...

This morning we checked out of our room at the New World Lodge, then leaving our bags in reception went off to see some more of Bangkok. It was incredibly hot today and we did a lot of walking! We went up the Golden Mount - a temple at the top of hundreds of steps with impressive views of the city. The hardest thing about Bangkok is crossing the roads! Even when the lights are on red it doesn't mean you will arrive at the other side of six lanes of traffic in one...