Chiang Mai was great! So great that we ended up staying there for 10 days...and wanted to stay for longer. We arrived there from Bangkok at about 6am after a 12 hr bus journey from hell (as per usual!).

We ended up staying at 'Nice Place' for the entire time that we were there. We wouldn't necessarily say it was such a nice place but it was cheap (1.60 each per night) and it had a swimming pool-bonus!

Chiang Mai is where everyone goes to carry out their trekking experience which we did do but put it off for a good few days while we were spending time with the Irish lads and lazing around.

After a heavy night out with the boys (we always get in at sunrise for some reason!) we spent the rest of the day in bed and feeling sorry for ourselves. That night we were asked to go and see the Thai boxing which wouldn't really be our first choice of entertainment but as the boys invited us, it would have been rude to say no!

We were greeted at the entrance to the boxing place by a really ugly ladyboy. She took us to our seats which were right by the boxing ring. All of us were hung over and I thought it might be a good idea to get back into the wing of things with a bucket of whiskey to slurp on (it wasn't a good idea actually) Anyway this place was pretty weird, the mixture of testosterone oozing from the boxer and the testosterone oozing from the ladyboy waitresses was possibly too much to handle with a hangover! The best was yet to come....

We watched some fights which mainly consisted of young boys and girls kicking and punching each other which didn't really lie easily with us. Half way through the boxing we had the pleasure of a ladyboy cabaret show within the ring....hilarious. It was so bad, the main ladyboy was miming out of time to Cher!! After that performance it was time to leave!

Chiang Mai has quite a good night Bazzar market. Women were always trying to sell these little wooden frog things that croak when you rub its back with a stick. It was almost tempting to buy one just to bring home and show you all how annoying they were! We managed to pick up more fake clothing for 'cheap cheap' as the locals would say.

We spent one day visiting Tiger Kingdom with the boys, this was great. A chance to play with tigers and such like. The boys being boys went and saw the big tigers while Sal and I opted for playing with the baby tigers - not an opportunity to be missed! As cute as they were I was still a little dubious about them, babies they might be ... Once we were in the room with them it was fab. Watching them jump all over you trying to eat your camera case and nibble you etc. We weren't able to pick them up because they were so young and they might have been sick if we did that so we had to let them come to us! They weren't that soft though and it did hurt when they had a nip!!!

A second night on the tiles with the lads was the last heavy drinking session we were to have in a while. The blue drinks we were consuming can't have helped the hangover...I blame the Irish- totally.

The boys left for their next destination and it was time to get focused again. We set a day to go on the trek and stuck to it! 3 days and two nights out in the jungle, arrgghh.

The trek was one of the best trips we've done so far! We had a group of about 10 of us. Mostly 18 year olds but I wasn't going to let that get to me, we're not that old?! Luckily we had a couple of Irish lads the same age as us to befriend if it got too much! We had the most funny guides. A bloke called Jacore who was so full of energy and 'love' for all of us it was hilarious, probably the most tactile man we've ever met in our lives-we loved it, the lads however weren't quite so sure! His name changed to Jacob, Jacko and finally Wacko Jacko throughout the duration of trip.

The first day was easy enough, just an hours walk to the village where we were staying. We all became such a close group by the end of the first day. When we arrived at the village we watched the boys play football with the locals which was quite funny as there was a massive muddy swamp in the middle of the pitch, they were all covered in mud by the end of it.

Jacore and his companions made us dinner, Green curry-very nice. By this time it was getting dark and there was no electricity in the village so candles were our only form of light. We spent the whole night drinking and singing in this little hut. All the locals came and joined in too- the young thai boys were all mad, far too hyperactive! The locals also came and sang and danced for us wearing their traditional attire which was really quite touching!

Day two of trekking was quite hard work! We spent all morning walking until we reached a waterfall. We swam in the waterfall it was definitely very fresh but after a sweaty morning of walking it was just in time! The afternoon consisted of more walking and a trip on some elephants. One elephant had a baby with her which was so naughty all the time we were walking though the forest, it really kept us entertained! We were on a massive elephant it was hard work trying to stay on the seat...and a long way down!

The second night we were all so tired but manged to fit in a few drinking games, consuming the local whiskey which was horrible! We managed to pay games such as Fuzzy duck, Bunny Ear and the number game, it was quite funny! The loser would have to drink the whiskey and have something drawn on their face with the charcoal from the bottom of the cooking pot! Obviously drawing rude pictures and words was too hard to resist for all of us!

The last day we walked for a couple of hours or so which was hard by day 3...no energy at all! Our final part of the trip was travelling down the river on bamboo rafts. This is where things went slightly down hill for me! We were floating along dodging the overhanging branches on trees when we finally crashed into a bush at the side of the river. I fell over the other side and the raft came over me, I was trapped under the water. Natural instinct took over and as I tried scrambling to the side I couldn't find space to get out so I had to try and reach the end of the raft pulling myself along. Luckily Sal saw my hand poking through the raft and helped me back up out the water. I'm sure God helped me through...ha ha it felt like forever but it think I was only under water for 10 seconds or so! Scary. Unfortunately, I swallowed water and thought I was going to die as the parasites in the water would kill me off. A visit to the doctor confirmed that I was just being parnoid as per usual!!

We loved the trek, the guides, our group, our accomodation and Chiang Mai. We would definitely go back there and recommend anyone to go and see what's on offer there!

Next destination is Bangkok and then onto Phuket to meet up with Vicki and Christie and Soph (from back home).