The next stop on our tour was Chiang Mai and we were traveling there by bus. We met at the bus stop at 10am and waited for the coach. When it came there looked to be a lot of people already on the bus. There weren't enough seats so most of us ended up sitting at the back of the bus on a flat platform that is usually reserved for monks. It was a bit of a squash but it was ok. At the next stop even more people got on and were stood in the aisles. Our guide explained in Thailand they don't sell seat tickets just bus tickets with no maximum number so sometimes you don't get a seat at all! I'm glad we didn't have to stand up for 6 hours. When we arrived we had a short tuk-tuk ride to our hotel called Manne House. I was sharing with Pip again. That evening we met up for dinner again and then went to the Sunday night market. There were hundreds of stalls over several streets. They sold absolutely everything from clothes, bags, furniture, souvenirs and food.

The next morning we were all up ready to do our activities. I was doing elephant riding, white water rafting and quad biking! It was gonna be an action packed day. A mini bus came to pick us up and it was about an hours drive away into the forest. First was the elephant ride. We climbed onto a wooden tower to get on the elephants. The elephants had seats on their backs for 2 people. Me and Fabienne were at the back of the queue so we had to wait a little bit longer for some more elephants to come. We didn't mind as when an elephant came for us it had a baby elephant walking along side it. We climbed into the seat and the elephant began to walk into the forest. The baby elephant and a man with a stick followed behind. We soon caught the others up and they were all jealous that we had a baby elephant as well. The elephants kept grabbing the bushes and eating them as we walked through the jungle and had a drink in the river. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the view was amazing. We rode back to the platform and got off our elephant, giving it a pat afterwards.

We then got back in the minibus and drove to the white water rafting centre. When we got there they took us to the restaurant for lunch. Afterwards we got kitted out with life jackets and helmets. A local guy gave us the safety talk and explained the different commands and instructions we would be given. He was very funny. There would be 4 of us to a boat so I teamed up with Ben, Tim and Emma. The 2 boys sat at the front of the boat, me and Emma in the middle and our instructor at the back. The river started off quite calm while we got used to the instructions but got wilder as we went along ending up with grade 4 rapids. I think we did really well at following the instructions. The hardest bit was getting back up quickly after we had got down in the middle of the boat. On the calm flat bits of the river the instructor kept trying to push each of us in and he succeeded with all of us before we finished by catching us off guard. At one point we had to row backwards and Ben got a bit mixed up with his rowing and quite funnily the instructor said he "rowed like a lady boy!" On one of the fast rapids we got a bit stuck in between the rocks and struggled to get ourselves free. We were leaning to one side and the instructor wanted us to all lean even further to that side. We were convinced the raft would tip up so were a bit cautious but it worked and we carried on down the river. It was a really good couple of hours, we all loved it.

Back at the centre we got dry and changed into new clothes before driving to the quad bike place. There we were given a helmet, gloves and a quick demonstration of how to work them. We drove once around the yard before going along the road a short distance and then into a wood. That's when it got a bit more tricky. The path was very narrow, just as wide as the quad bike which made not crashing into a tree quite hard. I was concentrating really hard and was slightly scared but I managed it ok. Ben was in front of me and stopped suddenly meaning I had to do a quick stop but still went into the back of him slightly! Oops! He gave up as his bike was playing up and he didn't like it. I kept going and made it back in one piece. The whole ride lasted half an hour. I'm not sure if it was fun or if I enjoyed it as I was too busy concentrating on what I was doing. After that we drove back to Chiang Mai and got dropped off at our hotel.

In the evening we went out for dinner and to a bar for a few drinks. Then feeling very tired I went to bed after a busy day.