Hey again I'm in Thailand now! Been very busy as well.

Arrived last Thursday in Bangkok - so much nicer than Delhi - and got hit by some really uncomfortable?humidity. It's been much better since Bangkok. On my first day I wondered round the local area on the skytrain and became lost. Found a big shopping mall and for some reason went to an aquarium??? Then I went to the best cinema in the World which had reclining bedchairthings and blankets and service! I watched 28 weeks later and found it pretty harsh.

Next day I went to the lobby of my hostel (which has the friendliest staff ever) and met a group of 8 girls from San Francisco. We had an awesome and chaotic day. Got the wrong riverboat and had to get into tuk tuks to get to Khao San Road. These were insane - a lot faster than the Indian versions, like big go-karts on three wheels. Khao San Road was?a pretty weird place. It's a street that's been?taken over by backpackers and it's full of strange people. Got drunk and were surrounded by men offering to take us to the ping pong show, yeah I'm serious, and other weird stuff like that. Went back to the hostel and went out in the local area which turned out to be the main?red light district. By this time we had no money and were bartering for drinks with magic coconut biscuits we got free from 7 11 and oh my god that was a weird night :D.

 Morning after said goodbye and went to meet my tour group. They're all great; there's 5 English people (me included) two Americans, two guys from NZ, a Canadian and a German. Our tour guides called Sam and knows many a great bar! The next day we went to the bridge on the River Kwai and learnt a lot about WW2, seemed weird it affected all these remote jungles so far from Europe. Had an awesome day after that; went by pickup truck to some very beautiful waterfalls with pools you can swim in. Was very quiet and peaceful and there were little fish which nibbled off you're dead skin. Then we drove to the Tiger Temple where monks look after wild tigers. Here they let the tigers out each day so visitors can meet them. I got to stroke about five tigers. They only let you stroke the sleepy ones, there were some pacing around that we were led away from :). They're all secured but they could just turn around and bite you if they wanted. Then four of us went canoeing down the river Kwai. I was in a two person canoe with Suzy and we crashed a hell of a lot (nearly into the bridge itself) but it was very funny. We stayed on the river in floating bungalows which were pretty good (well mine and Ronny's was, some of the others had holes in through to the river!)

 Next day we got the pickup thing called a songtheaw to Ayuthaya where we chilled in a pool and visited some impressive temples where the head in the trees is. Then we caught the overnight train to Chaing Mai which was so much better than the Indian trains! I still didn't sleep much though as I was too tall for the berth :). Next day I relaxed and then a group of us went to a mountain monastery. We didn't actually see much of the monastery though as there was an elephant which we couldn't stop feeding. We climbed 300 steps looked around and then found the elephant again, by itself, chained to the ground in a hut and dancing. So the six of us then played unsupervised with an Asian bull elephantl. We fed it, danced with it (it swayed to make it's bell play) and shook it's trunk! After about half an hour we were told off and had to go but hey it was fun, and a little scary; they're trunks have so much grip.

MAY 28TH

 I got back from the hilltribe trek yesterday! It was brilliant. We did a proper elephant ride through jungle (not Jaipur city) and got a platform rather than having to climb up it! It was brilliant, mine and Al's elephant was really hungry and it had a baby as well! The trek wasn't too difficult, just very hot and the forest and scenery were very beautiful. I wasn't too ill during the trek either! On the first night we stayed in a bamboo hut next to a big waterfall (which was our shower) and it was really uncomfortable but worth it. Next day we trekked to a Karen tribe village. It rained just as we'd started lunch so we were really lucky, the paths turned to streams, the whole trek was dry otherwise! The village was beautiful, beneath it were loads of rice paddy fields and there were animals everywhere and the rainforest all around. We crossed the paddy fields to a waterfall and washed (I dropped Sam's soap :) and it was never seen again) and then most of us fell in the paddy fields coming back and needed washing again In the evening we cooked a big meal for the villae kids who sang for us and then we sang back but were a bit rubbish.

On the trek back our guide caught some huge tarantulas and cooked them, but I couldn't eat it, or hold them, or go anywhere near them because they were the biggest spiders I'd ever seen. It was such a different way of life. Then we stopped and did bamboo rafting. This was awesome, we had three rafts between us and kept battling to capsize each other, nearly crashed into a snake and jumped off some huge rocks. Today I had a Thai massage which was actually quite painful but relaxing at the same time.

Yeah it went long again, sorry :)

 Happy birthday Sam for today!