Part 2- Thailand

We arrived in Chiang Mai after our 16hour train journey which was quite funny and were taken to our hostel. Looked around the town that afternoon and went over to the night market for some more shopping, yay! Left in the morning for our 3 day trek in the jungle. We stopped at an orchid farm and a snake show where these Thai men were dodging snakes trying to bite them and pretending to throw them into the audience. Also stopped at a local market before starting our 3 hour walk. It was quite steep at times and we were sweating soooo much! Our accomodation that night was in a hill tribe village looking out over the jungle which was a spectacular view. Sat round the camp fire singing and chatting with our guides and got some sleep ready for 5 hours of trekking the next day.

We stopped along the way at 2 different waterfalls which was so refreshing after the 1st hour of uphill which we all struggled with! Our 2nd night was spent in a wooden hut that looked straight out onto the river as it only had 3 sides to it which was brilliant. The following morning we watched the elephants being bathed before we set off on our elephant ride which was loads of fun! We also did white water rafting and bamboo rafting before we were driven back to our hostel. It was a fantastic few days and worth all the sweat and hard work!! And that night as a reward we got delivery McDonalds where they even brought it right to our hotel room!! Why doesn't England have this system?!

The next day we did a Thai cookery course, so went to a market in the morning with our tutor who showed us what ingredients we would be using that day. We got to make 6 courses and of course eat them all so it was a brilliant excuse to eat like a pig!! Maz and Char made a green curry which was delicious and Kell made a yellow one which was hotter than she had imagined so struggled to eat it all! All the food was yummy and as good as what we had been eating in restaurants.

We left early the next day to go to the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre where they train elephants who otherwise be redundant in modern society. They were so sweet and did all sorts of things; painted, picked up logs, walked along a tree trunk (with much more agility than Maz had managed in the jungle!!) played instruments and even did a bow when their name was called. We jumped back on a bus to Lampang where we were catching the overnight train back to Bangkok so spent the afternoon wandering about, getting a horse and cart ride and eating! Back in Bangkok we went to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha which was very intricate and beautiful and then went to Chatuchak market which was just mental...around 15,000 stalls and more people in that space than we've ever seen! We then came back to Khao San and bid our farewell to Kell who had to catch her flight home that evening as Char and Maz went to meet up with their tour group and guide for the next few weeks.