I just got back from the treking in Chiang Mai's hills and loved it! So far in Thailand I have seen the Grand Palace, which was very beautiful, colorful and ornate...lots of gold. I also saw some other Wat's (temples) like the "lucky budda", etc. that were pretty cool, but nothing compared to the Grand Palace. It took me a little while to accept that anyone that comes up to you to be "friendly" is really just trying to make money off of you. My tuk tuk driver was like that, but I didn't let him ruin my day too much. He kept on trying to take me to all of these "special deal" stores with their "one day of the year sale going on" where he got commission to bring me there, but I wouldn't stay or buy anything there, so finally he gave up and took me to where I wanted to go. I got to take a long boat thru the canals of Bangkok to see how the locals lived there. My favorite parts were the little kids swimming and the mini-temple set ups infront of most of the houses. They are very Buddist here and really into their king. The 60th anniversary of his succession is this year and they were having a national celebration in his honor while I was in Bangkok. Most of the Thai's were wearing yellow shirts with the Royal emblem on them and street vendors were selling posters of the King and his wife. The streets were all decorated too. I had to cut my day of sight seeing off early because it was sooo hot and humid I couldn't stand it any longer. I went back out at night to walk thru Khao San Rd. It is a really interesting place, full of really interesting people. Lots of young people, Thai and foreign, lady-boys, street vendors selling everything(food, drinks, clothes, jewelry, copied cds and dvds, etc), barely clothed beautiful young Thai girls(or boys?) outside of clubs(I think) to pull people in and lots of bars and restaurants all full of people. It was fun to do some bargaining again and everything here is so cheap. There was a crazy religious man preaching/yelling at all of us and our "sins"and I couldn't help but laugh at how much crazier it made the place. The next day I flew to Chiang Mai. There were 5 of us in my group. Two South African girls and two Irish guys, all of whom were lots of fun. The first thing we did was ride elephants! I got to sit up on its neck instead of on the chair they put on its back. It was a really amazing feeling. My elephants name was Togo and he reminded me of a stubborn child=) We moved very slowly because he kept on getting side tracked everytime he saw something he wanted to eat...which was pretty much everything. It was a lot a fun to be able to interact with them so closely. The first thing Togo did was to smell me with his trunk. It was also really funny when I would lose my balance a little because then my elephant guide would grab ahold of me...to keep me on, but also, once or twice, to take the opportunity to touch my chest and tummy, which he was so curious about...the Thai's really aren't timid. =)I'm definitely not the only girl that happened too... Anyways, we then hiked thru rice fields and then up into the jungle hills to a waterfall where we spent the night in bamboo huts. It was very beautiful and the swim in the waterfall after a two and a half hour hike (which was very hot and humid) felt amazing! That night we sang and played guitar around the campfire and drank the locals moonshine...I'll stop there. =) Today I hiked back down and then took a bamboo rafting trip down the river. The raft polers were really playful and fun and kept trying to tip us off the rafts and into the river. They would also yell "crocadile!" and then pretend to slap their poles down on the water to hit it, but it really was just to get us more wet. =) Tomorrow I'm flying down to Phuket, where hopefully I'll get to do some diving.