The scenery on the way to Chiang Mai was awe inspiring, composed of jungle covered mountains and idylic looking rivers. When we arrived we were suprised to find that Thailand's second largest city is actually no bigger than a small town. Very few office blocks or hotels permiate the the two story norm. We got to the hotel, which lay within a small square moat at the heart of the city, and relaxed a little in preparation for our jungle trip the next day.

We were collected not too early, around 9am, and picked up the only other person on our trek, Juan Carlos - a 39 year old Spanish bloke - on the way to our breakfast stop. Breakfast also included a quick look at a butterfly and orchid farm (used for gold broaches), which was fairly interesting. It was then another hour and a half to the jungle where we began our trek. We stopped seemingly in the middle of nowhere on a small dirt road. The guide was friendly, but not too conversational, and proceeded to walk almost straight away at a pace which we knew was going to be unsustainable. Sure enough, after about 20 mnutes we were ruined. We stopped for breath, inhaler and some pictures. We were on our way to a hill tribe, apparently only 3 hours away. After another hours walking the weather went from perfect sunshine to the heaviest rain we've ever seen (heavier than the heaviest rain we'd ever seen in Bangkok). That is the last i'll say about the weather in the rainforest because it just didn't stop at all the whole time we were there. About 5 hours after starting we finally made our way to the hill tribe. Unfortunately the weather, the exercise and the fact that there was so few other people in the village, meant we felt a little isolated and bored when we got there, so fell asleep really early.

The next morning we enjoyed some eggs and bread for breakfast in preparation for another trek. The guide said we had 1 hours walk ahead of us to the elephants, so we mentally planned for at least 2 hours. Sure enough, it was around that much later that we arrived at the elephant, boat and rapid area. The elephants were first and I was really disgusted to see the guide hit the elephant over the head with what I can only describe as a pick axe. Having said that, the elephants seemed happy and in good condition; the keepers also seemed to show them lots of affection and were strictly monitoring their diets and number of treks they had. After the elephants we went on a bamboo boat, a really relaxing trip down the river - ruined by the fact that there were several spiders bigger than my fist on the boat, one which crawled over my leg, provoking me to scream. We then met up with a small group of people to take on the white water rapids. We had a crazy, former drug taking, alcoholic German; one Canadian and an American girl and a dutch bloke who knew everything about rafting based on a single experience he had 10 or more years ago, as well as two charismatic Thai guides. Having received no training we jumped in the boat. Half way down we learned a new manoevre - crouching down in the boat - a little too late: the Canadian girl was thrown into the white water. Luckily the Thai guy grabbed her and pulled her back in and everyone laughed, although I suspect that it was actually quite a lucky escape.

That evening, home and dry, we decided to meet up with the American/Canadian girls. We visited the markets where Sophie purchased some more, much needed, jewellry and I might have bought some stuff as well. Having a drink later on we met another group of people - 2 Belgians, 2 English - one of whom was called t***'. We played some pool and set up a date for the following evening.

The next day came and went doing absolutely nothign until the evening. We went and spent our last night in Chiang Mai by drinking with the friends we had made, a group of about 10 or more in the end. This led to some silly pictures etc and hangovers the next day.

Next stop was Laos (where I've writing this, actually) - a car journey, night, boat trip, night, boat trip and arrival away. We'l include details of these in the Lang Prabang blog.

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