After 13 hours on an overnight train we arrived in Chiang Mai. After settling into our hotel we headed out of the town centre into the country side where we were going to go Elephant riding - how exciting!! Well what an experience its quiet scary being that high up and no control!! The owners had the elephants voice trained though the one i was on seemed to do his own thing most of the time we often ventured off track into the bushes so he could eat!! We also brought a bunch of banana's which i think he could smell as he would take a few steps then stop and put his trunk up for a banana and if we didn't give one he wouldn't move. In the end the owner hopped on too - well he stood on its trunk and got left up to his head - how cool!! This was much beter as he kept him on track by squeezing behind the ears. After stopping for a water break for the elephants which ours sprayed more over us than he drunk we headed back to base. After a few pics on the elephant i got to get up close with a baby elephant and feed him some banana's which was very exciting. We then headed to the river and jumped on board a bamboo raft - we then flooted calmly down the river and got splashed by the local kids playing in the river along the way. We got picked up a little way down the river then headed back in to town. It wasn't long before we were off again this time in a local taxis (more known to us as a pick up truck) then headed up the mountain to Doi Suthep - which is a very famous Temple. From here you could see right over Chiang Mai though it was a little cloudy. After a tour around the temple we sat and listened to the Monks chanting. Then we headed back down the 300 steps we climbed to get to the temple hpped back on the taxis and headed back to town for dinner. A few of us had dinner at the Night Market before wondering around for a few bargains!!

The next day we headed to Chiang Khong where we crossed the border into Laos. We spent the night in the village just by the border which was nice and after a wondering around the village we grapped some dinner and a few beers in a cool bar which we found - that seemed a little out of place in the village!! The next day we headed off for our boat trip down the Mekong river to Pakbeng.