So the next section of our trip was North and South Thailand. It started in Bangkok for a couple of days, which was basically shopping and visiting the spa daily. Chatuchak market was the best and extremely busy. It sold really nice vintage clothes to cute puppies which we nearly purchased. After meeting our new group we headed off on the luxury sleeper train up to Chiang Mai. We walked around Chiang Mai and saw hundreds of temples before heading off the next day to the hilltribes. On the way we stopped off at Mok Fah Waterfalls and hot springs before strapping lifejackets to us and walking into the jungle. That night we stayed in a Karen tribe village but were kept awake by pigs, dogs and cockerals - not that we would have slept anyway as the pillows were bricks! The next day was an even longer trek right up over the mountains so we could see the Burma border. We reached the next village to start our long awaited elephant trek on Pooick the elephant and our friendly, grunting mahoot. We slowly passed herds of water buffalos wallowing in the mud with the baby elephant running behind. This was our second night in another local village, this time filled with a huge pig and loads of chickens. We spent the evening watching some locals traditionally dance and sing before collapsing round the fire for the rest of the evening with Vaughn's guitar. We woke up on Valentines Day to yet another rooster before getting on our bamboo rafts, which were twelve pieces strung together. We rode the rapids riding past rements of past rafts on the banks to the pick up truck which took us to an elephant poo factory. In the evening to continue the romantic day we went to dinner followed by Muay Thai boxing, which we surprising loved. We got to watch an english man fight a thai, who not surprisingly lost, and then to finish off the evening a lady boy cabaret show! We arrived back in Bangkok and had a day of sight seeing. We visited the Grand Palace which was amazing and Millie loved all the gold everywhere. We went from there across the road to visit the Reclining Buddha which was huge! Then we caught a boat along the murky river to the skytrain station, which we were both very impressed with and much prefer to the underground. This took us to Siam square a really nice area and went to MBK, a huge shopping centre with levels selling everything you could want! Surprising though we both came away with nothing! The next day we boarded our last sleeper train where we finally got to go to the disco carriage - its a pity these don't exist in England, it was great fun! We transferred down to Khao Sok National Park where after a very wet boat ride we arrived at our rafthouses. After dumping our bags down we had a trek straight away down to a lagoon where we took bamboo rafts across to some caves packed full of stalactites and stalacmites. We later had a night boat safari where after waiting patiently for an hour with our head torches to see a monkey returned back after seeing nothing at all. We were rocked to sleep in our rafthouse, luckily avoiding the rats and snakes that other people had in their houses. We trekked through the jungle the next day and had a go at swinging on vines (tarzan style). We then reached a point where we literally had to rock climb up sharp spikey rocks to see the beautiful view below. After a lazy afternoon we had an entertaining evening with Tim singing opera as some people went night swimming in the lake! At 6.30 we were woken so that we could have an early morning kayaking session, where this time we actually spotted some monkeys and gibbons. We left the rafthouses for our new adventure of staying in tree houses which were luxurious! From here we went inner tubing in cementy, murky water, where we had to paddle ourselves down the river with our flip flops! As it was easier to do this backwards we all crashed many times. Absolutely knackered we were then taken to a cave full of monkeys, chickens and a dead rotting monk - a very odd experience! We finished the day by the tree house owner putting toads on some of our heads - luckily we both managed to escape this! For the final part of our tour we got ona minibus down to Krabi where we stayed in the beachy part of Ao Nang. We immediately got on a long tail boat across to Railay Beach and began sunbathing. The next day was action packed, getting on a boat for the day at 8.30. We visited Monkey Bay, Viking Caves and a Lagoon before heading to the famous Maya Beach. The sand is so soft and white, like icing sugar, and the sea is so clear, we love it here in the South! We then had lunch on Phi Phi Don before testing out our underwater camera whilst snorkelling mid sea. The trip was finished off by the best island last - Bamboo island. It was very deserted and beautiful. The day ended in a toga party as our final night with the whole group. After another day at Railay Beach we have now come across to Phi Phi Don to stay a couple of days before Phuket. It is packed with shops and we can't wait to start buying!