just finished our trek today!! wow what an eventful 3 days!!!!!!

We got to Chaing Mai ok on the sleeper bus - not much sleep! Arrived at 6am and then left on our trek at 9am! So was knackered! There was a group of 12 of us, a few australians and finnish and the the rest english. We had an easy first day - doing more waiting around than trekking. We stayed at a home stay in a tiny village which consisted of about 4 huts. The beds were made of flat wood with about 1cm matress and very holey blankets (thank goodness for bringing our sleeping bag liners!!). We helped our guide cook tea and then sang songs around the camp fire.

The next day we woke up to trek for about 2 hours to get to a waterfall. It was gorgeous and freezing cold water to jump in after a very hot and sweaty trek! We had lunch there too (yep you guessed it noodles!) and then took another 1hr walk to the elephants where half of us got on and half of us walked to the next 'station' to get on the elephants. We were the second group to ride the elephants with four others, and when we sat on the elies....after about 5 minutes it started pouring with rain. We found out today it was from Cyclone which hit Burma, so you can imagne not just ordinary rain but really really heavy!!. The baby elephant that was following spent all its time playing in the rivers (which at this point were quite low). We then got to a bit of land which was surrounded on either side by rivers, flowing really fast at this point. The baby couldnt go through the fast flownig rivers so we were stranded for about 2 hours on this bit of land, absolutely soaked through, my shorts going see-through and all of us shivering. It was horrible because we couldnt go anywhere so just had to sit in the thunder lightening and rain while the elephants were happily eating while Melanie was screaming and crying!!! Two of our group went on to the platform as they were on the big elephant which could get through the river. It eventually came back to get the four of us left (aussy guy sat on its head and me, melly and aussy girl sat in seat meant for two people!) and we had a very scary and slow ride to the platformdown these tiny paths which were obviously not made for elephants!!! When we got there we met the other two, and had another 40minute walk to the homestay. But it was no simple walk! We were nearly washed away by the gushing rivers, brown in colour and so fast, we had to hold hands going across, while it was still pouring with rain!!! We got to the homestay just before dark, wet through and the other half of our group nice and warm wrapped in blankets drinking hot choc! Tustch!!! Anyway, you'll have to see the photos as describing it doesnt quite give the picture to how bad it was!!

We had a rubbish nights sleep in more uncomfy beds! and got biten alive by something other than mosquitos (ewwwww not sure what it was!) And had the delight of putting soaking wet clothes and sandy socks on. A 2 hour trek to the river brought us to the bamboo rafting - which was really fun. Though there were 3 of us girls on our raft and a thai man. We had to stand up on them (a bit like punting) and we often hit a rock which we didnt see before which meant us all flying forwards landing on our fronts......once melanie flew into the water and we both have cuts and bruises to prove it!!! So in the end we sat on the raft and sunbathed while the thai man steered us!! :-)

Now back in a hostel in chaing mai and about to go to the night market! hopefully wont buy too many things as my rucksac is very full!!

Anyway glad we're here to tell the tale........there were some points when we thought we wouldnt survive......and i wasnt insured for elephant trekking!! lol!!! anyway will write blog soon xxxx