Days 7 - 9 (8th 9th & 10th May)

8th - We departed from our hotel in Chiang Mai around 9am by a pick up truck and then onto the Chiang Mai Inn where we met and picked up the rest of our group.We drove about 1 hour to the local market so that we could stock up on food, water and sun cream then a further 1 hour drive to the Elephant camp in the mountain (doi itanon mountain national park) where I went Elephant riding again, this time though not on my own.Although Cheryl still wasn't into doing this, this time rather it just being the two of us we were in a group of 7 so I paired up with one a guy called Mike from Manchester.The others in our group were a couple from Holland and two girls from Leeds who were all really nice.The ride was a lot better this time, it was longer, in a nicer location than before and we stopped for a while so that the Elephant's could have a drink and wash themselves down which was fun as the b*****s thought it was funny to get us drenched at the same time (good job it was hot that afternoon so we dried pretty quickly) There weren't enough guides to ride the Elephant's so the one that Mike and I were on was tied to the back of another so we were hitting branches and all sorts… more so on his side though so I was happy with that.After this we drove to Shan Village where we stopped for lunch before starting our Trek! The trek started off ok but it soon hit us pretty hard.This was without a doubt the hardest thing I have ever done (Sarah, never again will I think that our Boxercise class is hard going, ha!)Carrying our bags, walking up very steep hills in the humidity of Asia sure was difficult.Another level of fitness was needed for this and certainly wasn't one that I'm use too!I realized after this whole trek that my walking boots were definitely the best buy - thanks guys :o).We had water but this is warm when you buy it so a few minutes in the heat and it's the worst tasting water ever (higher not recommended!) but when you're as dehydrated as we were you'll drink anything.The thunder/rain came about half way into the trek and what an absolute god send that was! We stopped to pick some berries the first ones were called 'csaroupor' apparently they were energy food which was well needed and then we had some 'jungle pears' which looked like little yellow berries and were very sour (I didn't like these ones very much… in fact I had to spit them out, classy!).As it had been raining when we arrived at the Jungle Camp the bridge across the stream was no longer in site so we had to take our shoes off roll up our combats and walk through the fast flowing water over slippery rocks!That was a bit worrying especially seeing as we were carrying our personal belongings which included phones and camera's but it added to the adventure so we had a giggle about it afterwards.We joined another group at the camp who had been trekking from the other direction so there were 12 of us sleeping in the cabin.We had dinner, had a camp fire going and after an exhausting day it was early to bed!How I slept in there I'll never know…. We had huge spiders by our beds, grasshoppers and we probably would've seen a lot more if there was light! I felt like I was in a scene from The Blair Witch project so wrapped myself up from head to toe in my travel sheet and stuck my Ipod on to drown out all the sounds from outside which were pretty loud, what a wimp… but there was no way I was having anything crawling over me in my sleep!You can put me in with a load of man eating tigers and I'm fine not nervous one little bit but put creepy crawlies near me and I have fit! (How will I survive in Oz!)

9th - This was the hardest day of the Trek with even steeper hills and we trekked for four hours whereas yesterday was about 2 ½ hours.My shoulders were burnt from the Elephant Riding yesterday so carrying my backpack was impossible so I had to carry this by hand which made the trekking twice as hard.We ended up in Karen Village where we were staying for the night.As soon as we arrived there were women sat outside our village hut selling hand made jewellery.Cheryl and I both bought a bamboo bangle and I got an anklet too match.All in need of a nice cold shower we dropped our stuff in and then ventured over to the outside shower room which was interested to say the least… A tap on the wall with a tiny piece of hose pipe attached and only at chest level!The best part was having two physiotherapists in our group so Cheryl and I were treated to a lovely neck and shoulder massage and the day we'd had having this was pure heaven!We had a fun evening drinking Thai Whiskey (one was enough for me) and playing a game called 'Black Magic'.Each time you lost you had your face covered in black coal, so you'll see from the photos that we didn't do to well!For some reason though people found it more fun to cover me so when it was my turn I had about four of them on me whereas everyone else got away with just one, how does that work!

10th - This morning we were packed and ready to go again. We were given lunch in the morning to take with us on the Trek which was wrapped up in banana leaves, and surprise surprise it wa s noodles again!We were told that today was going to be relaxing with only a short walk to the waterfall no hills and then Bamboo rafting! Oh how we were lied too!There were hills after hills and a good couple of hours of walking.We walked through Paddy field and finally made it to the waterfall for a swim which was bliss.Once we'd chilled here for about 30mins we had a short walk from the waterfall back to the pick up truck and onto Shan Village for lunch.With all the trekking finally complete on we went to do some Bamboo rafting. This was great fun but as soon as we started the heavens opened and we were traveling down the river in a thunder storm.On the way down there were many locals chilling by the side of the river who found it highly amusing to get into the river and get us even wetter (not as though we weren't wet enough, so it was freezing) One women even pushed our guide off the raft.We had random people sat on the rocks offering us the rest of their beer and jumping onto the back to travel down the river with us.There were a few drops along the way which was cool but I don't think Cheryl thought so on the last one when she fell in, hehe!The break system was a quick head on crash into the rocks so that Cheryl could swim back to the raft and climb back on.She saw the funny side which was good.We were then taken back to our hotels to freshen up and arranged with the rest of the group to meet up for dinner later. Cheryl and I grabbed a taxi and headed for their hotel but were dropped off somewhere completely different, had no idea where we were so had to get another taxi and arrived with everyone sat there waiting for us for quite some time, opps not like me to keep people waiting!