I was still awake until 2.45am this morning, tossing and turning, it was a nightmare knowing I had a big day ahead today and not being able to sleep. When I did eventually fall asleep I was awake at 6am and my tummy was awful this morning. I literally thought I wasn't going to be able to go on the trek at this time because I felt so ill, and Lauren was going to have to go herself. When I went back to my bed after a good 20mins I checked my phone and I had a message from Lauren saying she had been up all night with diarrhea and vomiting and she wasnt going to be able to go on the trek and she felt she needed to go to the doctors. I went up to her room straight away and you should have seen the two of us... we were both pathetic haha.

I was still keen to go on the trek even though I truly didn't think it was the right decision or sensible one. I just felt so weak because I had no fluid or nutrition in me and had only 3 hours sleep. Lauren had decided she was too unwell to go and she wanted to see a doctor today so I went and got ready and had my shower etc. I managed to get her booked in for another night at the same hotel but she was going to have to move rooms to the building across the road but at least she had somewhere to stay.

I went to breakfast and forced myself to have two dry slices of toast to be able to take the ciprofloxacin. I didn't start it last night because I had already taken the metriadrazole. The rest of the group were being so nice and said they would help me with my bag etc and just to let them know if I was struggling etc.

The guide arrived at 9am to pick me up and by this stage I still wasnt sure whether I should be going or not so I spoke to him and told him about Lauren etc and asked what would happen if I needed to come back to the city. He said I would be fine and if I needed to come back he could arrange a motorbike to come in and get me. This made me feel slightly better that there was a way out if I needed it.

So all 7 of us... Brian and Val from England, Recelle and Alex from Sydney, Kelly and Cheryl from Canada and me piled into this open sided truck and set off on our 3 day Hill Tribe Trek.

It was a long morning in this truck heading north into the hills. We stopped at a local village for the guide to buy our food for the next few days so we had half an hour to wonder about and I managed to get a straw hat, which looked ridiculously sexy but I was feeling so ill I needed something to keep the sun off me. It was 36 degrees when we stopped at the Mork-Fa Waterfall where we all got out and went for a swim. The waterfalls weren't near as impressive as the ones we went to in Laos at the weekend but were still nice. I didn't go right in but it was enough to cool off and freshen up. Then it was back in the truck and we headed further into the hills, until we stopped for lunch at a small kitchen on the side of the road. I didn't eat anything here and just drank a rehydration sachet but I felt awful (apparently I looked awful too according to the group and they didn't know how I was going to do the trek haha). I was just trying to drink as much water as I could and conserve my energy. Someone at another table even came over and asked if there was anything I needed etc... haha so I must have looked bad. We then had even longer in the truck and it was really steep twisty roads which didn't make it enjoyable one bit. After that journey... I'm so glad I don't get car sick too!

At 2.30pm the truck eventually stopped and this was the start of the trek into the hills to see the hilltribes!!! All the food was piled onto a motorbike and it took off in another direction, then we headed for the hills :) We all went to the 'bush' toilets before we started and I felt OK considering. The trek would have been easy if I was feeling fine but I found it hard going on the 'ups'. I think the rehydration glucose gave me a boost because I kept up with the group no problem and fair enjoyed the walk. There were no real paths and we were just heading in the direction our guide told us. It was dry season in Thailand which meant the ground was really slippy with the dried leaves and the soil was just like dust, so going down some of the hills was quite dangerous. It was amazing being in the complete middle of nowhere in the Thailand hills.

We walked for over 2 and a half hours before reaching our first hilltribe and I was super glad to get there. It was a village of around 40 families that were Burmese and would have settled in Thailand around 45 years ago. They all have wooden houses with their living quarters upstairs and their animals underneath. They had water buffalo, cows, pigs, dogs, hens and they were everywhere. It was interesting seeing the lay out of the village etc but there was no electricity just solar panels.

Our accommodation was next to the river and to say it was basic was an understatement. It was probably the worst place I have ever slept, and when I was feeling so weak it was ten times worse than it actually was. It was just wooden boards down either side of a wooden shed (the shed walls were see through will all the gaps) with blankets and very hard 'mattress type things! The worst thing about it though was that it wasnt clean. The small pillows were black and who knows the last time they had been washed... yuck. There were two, what they call, toilets... which were in a shed outside next to the cows but they were the usual Asian squat toilets and one hose with river water that you could shower with. We all went for showers after we had got over the shock of how basic the actual accommodation was but by this time the temperature had dropped dramatically and it was freezing. Luckily Alex had a jacket that he wasn't using and gave it to me which was really nice or else I would have froze.

The guide Nong cooked our tea but again I hardly ate anything. I did have half a plate of rice because everyone was nagging me to eat but I just wanted to empty my tummy for a few days. The food looked lovely and everyone was saying how good it was. Because we were right next to the river the mosquitos were everywhere but I was covered from top to toe.. I was even wearing socks with flip flops, now that's a fashion statement and a half. Alex had also brought mosquito coils to light to keep them away which was brilliant.

At 8pm I left the table to go to bed and surprisingly 4 of the others got up too and said they were ready for bed. I had an excuse of not having much sleep last night and being ill that I was going to bed super early but the rest didn't. Anyways I piled on the blankets, covered the pillow with my towel and managed to get to sleep really quickly. All 7 of us were sleeping by 9pm according to the rest of them apparently.

I kept waking during the night because it was hard and uncomfy but the rest all complained of how cold it was but that didn't bother me tonight. It was totally crazy at how remote we actually were! No electricity, no phone signal and only 70km from the Burma border! xxx