We have made it to Chiang Mai. Arrived on Monday afternoon after a 1 hour flight from Bangkok. We ended up taking a package deal from Bangkok to here so our guest house (HollidayGarden View Guest House) and some tours were booked a head of time.

We got picked up at the airport and transported back to our Guest house. The broucher of the guest house was a lot nicer then the actual rooms but they are livable. The mattresses I think are actually the box springs, move and squeek every time you roll over. And the room could have had a good wall washing but all and all it was ok. We only stayed in that room one night.

Nov 7th

Next morning we set out on a jungle trek for 2 days/1 night. Our guides name was Bond & liked to been know as Jame Bond. Bond is the last 4 letters or his full name which has about 20 letters in it so I can understand why he uses Bond. Very nice friendly guy. There was 12 of us on the trek from all different places. 2 from North Vancouver ( Canada ), 2 from Holland, 1 from Paris, 1 from the uk, 4 from Germany & us from Surrey Canada. Good bunch of people. We started with lunch at a small family run restaurant before heading for our Elephant trek through the jungle. We bought some bananas to feed the big guy along our journey. Our elephant guide did not speak english so we could not ask him anything about the elephants. We all heading through the trails then down to the water with a small walk though the river & back up to the starting point. Could have taken us about 40 mins(I can't really remember how long the ride was for) but it was a lot fun. Another couple from another tour had been riding the elephant on their own with the guide walking beside them when the elephant got spooked and took off running for home. Could here the poor girl saying "hey hey" all the way down the trail and to the road. We found out later that it just ran back to the starting point.

After our 40 minute or so Elephant ride we headed up to out on our trek. First we had to walk up a small mountian (or maybe it was only a hill). With not being in shape for an uphill journey it was a lot of work. But i survived. We walked up and down hills, beside small river or large creek, throught the jungle untile we came to a small water fall. We all stopped here and went in for a refreshing dip. Our guide, Bond, had a bit of a wash down/shower at the falls. After a short stop there we were off again. Up and up and up it felt like to me with the odd leveling out area. I beleive we walked for about 2.5 hours or so.

Later in the afternoon we arrived near the Karen village of Hoo Hoo(sp?). We stayed in a bamboo/wooden (sort of) house that evening. We were staying on the side of a hill in the bushes. Hopefully I will be able to upload the pictures on to the site soon so you will get to see what I am talking about. The porch was jutting out from the hill and this is where we hung out. A few of us did head up to the village to take a walk around & Rene, Edward, John & I ended up having a little chat with some of the men in the village. The boarder crossing policeman brought out a guitar and started to play and sing for us. Unfortunately we could not stay for long because it was getting dark our and we knew that dinner would be soon. We arrived back to our camp in time to have a great dinner that Bond had cooked and all of us ate it down quickly. That evening Bond played guitar and tried singing some english songs. He had this silly game that we all played to that had all of us laughing and dirty faced. Then off to our beds. One hut for us all, thin mattresses & a mesquito net. It was interesting sleeping in the hut but by the morning our backs were on the sore side.

Day 2 of our hike was a bit easier for me. Although there were still many a hills that we had to walk up but this time many of them were slightly paved or unpaved streets. At home they would look more like lanes. We walked for about 1.5 - 2 hours until we came to a river were we all took a dip. And Bond had a bit of a wash again. Got to keep clean & stink free for the hike. After that we walked to a small village and then off we headed to have our bamboo rafting experiance. My favorate time of the trek.

The rafting was great fun as we floated down the river. Bamboo rafts tided together with what looked like pieces of cut up tires. The floated about an inch below the water so you were wet the hole time. Our boat guy kept trying to get us even wetter by leaning on one side of the raft to take us under by about 1 foot & then the other side. Rene was steering from the back and he had to keep an eye on our raft guy to make sure he did not get knocked off. Eventrually there will be a few pictures added to the site so you can see our raft trip and our day 2 advantures.

After that we ate back at the restaurant we stopped at on the way up & then off to the guest house.

That evening Bon/Bond came and met a group of us for a drink at the guest house. Later that evening Jeff, Monique, John, Edward, Rene & I headed to a Thai restaurant/pub called The Riverside (I think). Small quaint bar that was full of Thai people eating and listening to the live band that was playing. Many of the songs that they sang were in english and they were pretty good.