Hi everyone,

It's nearing the end of the New Year period over here, will be quite glad when its over and I can be dry again! On Sunday, the tourguide who took us on our trek last week took us and a couple of other people from our group around Chiang Mai with him and some of his friends, so we really felt like we were celebrating Thai- style! The city was absolutely crazy - the roads were completely choc-a-bloc full of cars and vans, people were sat in the back with huge buckets of water ready to chuck over your head and then drive off! Both sides of the moat as well were crammed with people with buckets and water pistols, some of which had ice water in them! The Thai's especially liked soaking me and Freyja more than anyone else...maybe we had some bad karma or something?! The rest of the group found it very amusing though.

Although Sunday was the biggest day for the water fight, we knew it was still carrying on at the beginning of this week so we decided to get out of Chiang Mai for a bit. We travelled about an hour and half North to a small town called Chiang Dao in the mountains. It was really beautiful there and so peaceful compared to the city! We went on a little walk around the area, where there were lots of street parties celebrating the New Year. We then looked around the caves inside Thailands biggest limestone mountain, where there were millions of bats. We then ordered a taxi home, only to find the driver arrive on a motorbike! We were a bit scared but they didn't go very fast and we got home in one piece (don't worry mum!)

We came back to Chiang Mai this afternoon, and are planning on doing a Thai massage course tommorrow, which should be fun. We're then heading down South to the beaches, the tan isn't very good yet so I'll be able to work on that! Hope everything at home is OK XXXXX