Hello from Bangkok!

We arrived straight onto the legendary Khao San Road and started shopping pretty much straight away. It is my DREAM road ...boho beautiful clothes and all sorts of jewellery in every colour imaginable, handbags, shoes, hammocks and pretty lights. Lea was in her element too. Ha ha! (only joking dave..)

We headed up north to Chiang Mai where we experienced the trip of a lifetime. It began at an elephant park where we hoisted ourselves up and enjoyed the ride. We then trekked for hours and hours through the jungle in the blazing heat, it was challenging and hurt at times -those calves of mine were not designed for uphill treks!!! we found parts of it pretty dangerous too, especially the way back where it was practically a vertical straight drop down where the best option was to just slide! despite this, it was so worth it as when we reached our destination (a hill tribe village) it was like nothing we had ever experienced before. The tribe we stayed with let us into their homes without too much fuss and even joined us for a meal where we ate together, played guitar, sang songs, and had a laugh with the children. They especially enjoyed my magic tricks, which makes me want to persue my dream of being a magician even more now with reactions like those! the views were spectacular, and when the stars came out it made the experience so much more surreal. We couldnt grasp that there is civilisation like this, where it is just so different to what we know. The highlight for me was watching the children content with playing for hours with a piece of string and an empty tin can! After spending the night sleeping in a bamboo hut we headed back down for another 4 hours of trekking until we reached some amazing waterfalls. After arriving back at the elephant camp (completely exhausted and filthy) we then went white water rafting and bamboo rafting which was so much fun and gave us a chance to cool down abit -though i wasn't too happy as i thought i had a lovely tan however as soon as the water hit me i realised it was just orrible dirt.

Next in our plan (yes parents see-we do make organised plans!!) we are heading to north west thailand to a place called 'pai' but pronounced 'bye-eeeeeeeee' for a few days then hopefully laos then back down on the trian of doom (it took 19 hours before instead of 14) to bangkok where we start our journey to the south and the islands!

Anyway we think thats enough of us rambling for one day!! thank you for the messages, pics will be up soon as soon as we have more than 60 baht to put in the meter!

Loads and loads of love,

us xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx