Hi! 

We have now been to Chaing Mai in northern Thailand.  It is Thailand's 2nd capital and the city is surrounded by a moat. 

The best day we had here by far was a one day trek.  The day started with a long hard walk/climb up one of the mountains to the Mong hill tribe village, it was really hot even though it was only 8am in the morning.  It was pretty tough and a few people kept stopping and one even dropped out, but we did it, overtaking most of the group on the way! 

After making our way back down we visited the Karen hill tribe village and then had a stop for lunch.  In the afternoon came the best part- elephant trekking!  We rode the elephants for around an hour and then went back to the elephant camp where we fed our elephant a bunch of bananas- he loved it! Haha!  After the elephants we visited the Mae Wang waterfall and then took part in some bamboo rafting.  We had an Irish guy on our raft who made the whole experience so much more funny than it should have been! He managed to fall of twice- once when he collided with a tree and fell backwards into the water with arms flailing! The 2nd time he managed to get his foot stuck in the raft so we all had to jump in the water to get him out!  We asked him at the end if he was accident prone and he denied it, something tells me he was telling porkies! 

While in Chiang Mai we also took a day trip to Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle which is where Thailand, Burma and Laos meet with the Mekong river inbetween.  We also went to the land border with Burma and stood at "Thailand's most northern point".  Another highlight of the day was the hot springs- which wern't quite as we expected- the locals use them to boil eggs in, constantly, so we didn't hang around long because of the pong!

Whilst in Chiang Mai we also went to the 2 local markets- the tourist one which we knew about before arriving, and the Thai one which we were told about by a few friendly Thai people who stopped us in the street for a chat!  The people of Chiang Mai are definitely the most genuine and friendly we have met so far.

Last but not least we visited a temple high up in the hills, after a local truck-taxi ride and 300 steps we arrived at the temple, and it was well worth the effort!  The view was amazing, you can see for miles, accross the city and beyond.  It was so peaceful too and the smell coming from the surrounding trees and flowers was beautiful.  It is such a tranquil place and we really appreciated the calmness, I can't describe in words how nice it was!