Even though we paid slightly cheaper for our tour we got the same itinerary - 3 days & 2 nights in the Thai Jungle with elephant trekking, bamboo & white water rafting! The group we had were really cool - Zoe & Paula from the Midlands, Casey, Eyal & Martin from the US, Aussie Jason & 2 Dutch girls! Our guide Mr T looked like he'd just stepped out of the 60's - a stoned male version of John Lennon's Yoko Ono. His motto was "If you're happy I'm happy, if you're not happy I'm still happy"!

The first night we all stayed in a gorgeous bamboo hut on the side of a mountain looking over the Jumbo Elephant camp. Just before sunset we went on a half hour Elephant trek, East & I got the cushioned seat & poor Zoe got chafed from sitting bear legged on its neck. It was lots of fun but also pretty scary because of how high up we were. East had a fascination with them and grown really fond of the Elephants, he even went and fed them at night in the pitch black (scary but awesome was his comments). That night after the Jungle BBQ we had a big camp fire where the group of us got to know each other better & Mr T got out his "local home grown produce" & rice rum…was a really good night!

After the early starts on the South American tours, it was so nice to be able to lie in till 9am, then shower in the nearby waterfall…complete with rock formed water slide, It was absolute bliss. We had lots of fun there until dinner time when the trek started. Even though it was only a couple of hours up to the top of the mountain the midday humidity & the fact that we had left our hiking boots with Mum at Heathrow made it a massive task! Once at the top the view made it all worth it! Plus the local tribe women were offering cheap massages…how could I resist! After a delicious Yellow Thai Curry dinner, the local children performed a little song & dance for us. They were also fascinated by Aussie Jason's Long Blonde Locks of which they platted and played with for hours!

My granny bladder woke me up at dawn & as I left the hut to go to the toilet the sun was just starting to rise over the jungle and mountains, with absolute isolation it was probably the most majestic moment of our entire trip. White water & bamboo rafting was on the agenda for today! Our raft guide was just an amateur and East thought he would do a better job at directing us as we must have got stuck on every rock possible. The rapids were pretty tame but good fun, with water fights and ore slapping adding to it all. When we swapped to the bamboo raft our guide left us and gave East the job, however we all got very wet under his guidance as the bamboo capsized several times. A fantastic 3 day tour overall, all for the bargain price of £30!

That night back in Chiang Mai we'd arranged to meet everyone from the trip for dinner & drinks. Plus Jonboy had come to meet us for a few days on his way back to the UK from Oz… complete with prezzies (Thai looking clothes and a monkey hat - thanks JB!) We had such a brilliant night, so much that Eyal, Martin, Jason and Casey decided to come with Jonboy and us to Vang Viang in Laos for some crazy tubing fun!!