Just arrived back from the Northern Hilltribe trek today, got one night in this hotel in Chaing Mai now and then catch the overnight train back down to Bangkok tomorrow evening, and everyone splits and heads their seprate ways. A few of the guys are going down south to the beaches etc, i may tag along or I may stay in Bangkok for the last week as I did buy a guide book and everything and havn't even opened it yet. Trekking was great fun, not too physically demanding but had a few tricky climbs. Our two guides are absolutley crazy, the head guide - Lek, is actually drunk 70% of the time, a fact that i think may have escaped Intrepid's attention. After a very professional introduction on the first day and the usual safety talk etc, he actually appeared to have forgotten his language skills the next day as not one of us could understand him. We went to the Thai Boxing competition (which, incidently was great) and Lek (of all people) went mental, for want of a better word. We thought we were all going to get chucked out! At one point he stripped of his shirt and was demanding to be let into the ring for the next fight. Needless to say, we had to restrain him and bribe him with (epmty) promises of more beer. The beer here, 'Chang beer' is actually 6.7% alchohol...maybe that had something to do with it. And the fact that he had a small hipflask always within arms reach. I actually fell asleep/passed out near the end of the night and found a spot at the back of the arena to sleep, I woke up and didnt know where I was or who i was with and why i was at a boxing match and why there were no white people around. A weird, and slightly terrifying feeling to say the least.

The trek itself was great, near the end of day 1 i emerged from the jungle heading downwards to the river only to round the corner and see a herd of elephants, nomore than 20m away. It was like a scene from Jurassic Park. Then a baby elephant began to charge us so we retreated back to the treeline while our guide went upriver to the village to get a few locals. We rode on our elephants to the next village, a 3hr or so ride through quite dense jungle, hanging on for dear life and only stopping periodically to allow the animal infront to drop one extremely large turd or two. It was great fun, if a little uncomfortable. We reached the hilltribe village, home of the Karen people which was a lovely place, very simple and built around a river at the bottom of a steep valley. No electricty etc which i was pleased about as I half expected, in this day and age, them to have Sky satellite dishes and a Starbucks or something. Had an amazing hige traditionaly Thai buffet for dinner, and played games etc untiil it was time to turn in. Next morning was a longer trek, and we walked to another village where we had lunch and once settled in challenged some of the local kids to a 'soccer' match which was great craic yet also extremely painful on the old feet (it was barefoot,on sandy gravel, the ball was made of wood and the lil monkeys hacked you to bits). Drank beer, chilled and had a BBQ. We chose our chicken and watched as So (our other guide) did the deed and ''neutralised'' the chicken, and 2hrs later we were all feasting on it with lots of rice, curry sauce and noodles. Freshest chicken I've ever had. I was reminded of this when I picked up a piece to eat which i thought was a little bit chewey only to discover that it was the beak and a portion of the head. Yummm.

Next morning we went down to the river and boarded our bamboo rafts and set off down the river. Then the rafts sunk and we had to go back up the river. We added another 3 bamboo poles to the raft and again set off. The raft itself actually stayed about 5inches beneath the water, giving the continous feeling that we were sinking. Every now and again we would hit the rapids which was all hands on deck just to keep the thing from sinking, which as it already partly was, was quite difficult as you can imagine. We caught up with another group of Spanish folk on the river and attacked them, tipping them over and at one stage daringly boarding their raft and relieving them of their tour leader. All fun and games! That night we all met up and played drinking games (well, we didnt drink as we didnt have anything to drink but the spanish people were smashed). Everytime you made a bollix of something in the game you got a facefull of dirt and grime which a local gladly dispensed from a big dirty cauldron and pan set in the middle of the table. We looked a right state in the morning, something like a cross between a Chimney sweep and an aboriginee.

Right, enough of this, im off to do some laundry while i have the chance.

P.S. Yes Clare, i did kiss my elephant and he apparently enjoyed it too, and Kat, Monkey island? Sounds like you made that up. But we do have that beach where that film with DeCrapio in it was filmed, 'The Beach'.