08/10/2009 - We arrived in Chiang Mai and went to the hotel which also had a really nice pool. We decided to go to the Tiger Kingdom as tom really wanted to see a tiger. When we got there you had to choose which size tigers you wanted to go in with, I opted for the small tigers that were about 5 months old, Tom however went for the BIG tigers!! They were huge.

I went in first and the man was making me pose loads with the tigers, althought they were only 5months old they were pretty big, bigger than i thought they would be. Then it was toms turn to go in with the big tigers. I waited the other side of the cage and watched. He was stroking one tiger when the man told him to lay down on its stomach as it had rolled over. As tom did this the man said ' oh, we dont usually let people do this!! but as the tiger is in that position...!!' I think tom actually pooped himself when he said that haha!! we managed to get lots of good photos and will put them up soon.

We had a meeting later on the evening with our tour guide for the jungle trek, called Luke. He told us what we needed to take with us and what we would be doing and it all sounded pretty good. Then we went to the night bazaar to get a few bits that we wanted.

Day 2 - We had to be up and ready by 9 o'clock to meet luke at reception. We only took our small bags and left our big backpacks at the hotel. First we stopped off at a local market for peopel to get any last minute things they had forgotten. Then we went to visit Monk-Fa Waterfall. which was a massive waterfall. I took lots of photos of tom and some of the group trying to stand up underneath it but it was soo powerful that they kept falling over and it nearly made toms shorts come down!! Our last stop was at a small hilltribe hut where we had some lunch before heading off to the jungle. We got dropped off to start our tekking and we were told that we would be walking up four small hills today. It was very tiring as it was very hot and it was a lot of walking. Some of the views we saw were awesome and we really enjoyed it even though we were knackered. We got the hilltribe village late afternoon and jumped straight in the shower, which wasnt really a shower it was just a river with a pipe!! it was sooo cold but really refreshing. Then we helped make the spring rolls for dinner which was fun, the first bit of proper cooking tom has ever done that doesnt involve a microwave!! Progress.

Day 3 - We slept reasonable well on the hard floor, and there were loads of animals under the hut making noises all night. We started our next day of trekking, we were told that we had one big hill to climb, and it was a BIG hill. We walked for over 3 hours and it was really tiring but was rewarding when we got to the top. Then we trekked down to an elephant camp where the elephants would take us to the next camp. We saw a tiny baby elephant that was only a few months old, it was well cute. We had some lunch then went to get on the elephants. Me and tom managed to get the crazy elephant!! He kept going the opposite way to all the other elephants and picking up branches and hitting himself on the head. They took us along some tiny paths that we were suprised the elephants could even fit down. and everytime we went down hill we were literally hanging off the front of the seat. On one of his detours the elephant took us through a bush with sharpe thorns and i cut up all my arm :( but it looked like a tiger had attacked me! We arrived in the village and we took a tour round and went to the primary school and watched the children play football.

Day 4 - We woke up and had some breakfast then had to put on our life jackets we had been carrying for the last coupke of days and go down to the river for the bamboo rafting. Tom was at the back and he had to do the paddeling with the guide. The rafts were literally about 10 long pieces of bamboo tied together with string. We were told to stand up which was difficult to do. We were on there about an hour when the heavens opened, it chucked it down so hard that we were drenched right through, but it made it more fun. Tom had to row all the way down the river until the guide lost his rod in one of the rapids we were going through so tom had to give him his rod, he was very pleased about this! We went through quite a lot of rapids and on one of them i went completely under the water as the wave hit, it was soo funny. We thought that the raft was going to turn over, and we would have to jump off. We got to a river bank where we had lunch then got in the vans back to Chiang Mai. We chilled out at the hotel for the afternoon then in the evening we to a dinner and traditionally thai dancing place.

Day 5 - We just did our own thing today, not with the group. We had a nice lie in, but managed to miss breakfast by three minutes!! We went on a boat trip down the river and stopped at a local farm where they filmed some of Rambo 4. We had a look round the farm and had some free fruit and water, then headed back on the boat. We went to the Red Lion, an english pub for dinner where the man spoke 14 different languages and for some reason thought i was australian!! Then we met the rest of the group and went out for drinks to a roof top bar. Which was very hippy!

Thanks everyone for your messages and the photos will go on facebook soon.

Missing you all.

love you lots

Louisa and Tom

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx