Having arrived in Chiang Mai on Thai new years eve, all the fun started! The whole city just goes absolutely mental! Chiang Mai is surrounded on all four sides by moats, and has rivers running through it. Literally all the moats, rivers, hoses, taps, any water you can lay your hands on get chucked about. Within one step of stepping out of our guesthouse, we were completely drenched from head to toe. Spent the next two days chucking buckets of water around Chiang Mai, and thats about it. Went out and got plastered for New Year, chucked some more water etc etc!!!

The day after New Year, we took a two hour journey up into the Thai jungle North of Chiang Mai. We spent about 4 hours trekking on the first day. It is very hilly here and there was a lot of up and down to get to our first village stop. Our house was right beside a river with a huge waterfall right beside it. Great pics and a really nice meal to end our first day. Got bitten really badly by mozzies though which i didnt enjoy - and didnt sleep much at all!

Next day we trekked for another 4 hours, and reached our second village stop. Having washed in the river nearby, we were given a tour of their village - 130 people all living in houses made from wood and bamboo. Really interesting, and amazing that there are still people living in this most basic of ways in the world. In the evening we played some great games of cards and drank the local rice wisky - which is horrid and v. strong. After we were treated to some songs by the local children - really great and we gave the some presents (books, pencils, pens etc) and sung a few songs to them - though i dont think they were to impressed with the levels of our tone deafness!!!

Today, we trekked for 3 hours back to the river and went rafting which was mental. The amount of people there because of the Songkram festival was amazing, and really quite dangerous - but an experience all the same! Kids jumping all over the rafts and splashing everything in sight - all fun!

And now am back in Chiang Mai, going to a Thai boxing match tonight, and heading off to Chiang Rai tomorrow morning - going to go have a well earned beer after all the trekking! x