I've been away for just over a week now and I've had a fantastic time.

I'm now in Chiang Mai but I'll describe Bangkok some more first. The day before I left Bangkok I thought it would be a good idea to do some typical tourist sightseeing, so I went to lots of temples with a Dutch girl I'd met the day before. Navigating through Bangkok was challenging, if only to fend off the tuk tuk drivers. We went to Wat Pho, Wat Arun and the Grand Palace. Once you've seen one, you've seen them all. Not to do them a dis-service though, there is an interesting aura about them, particularly with all the Buddhist chanting going on.

The bus journey from Bangkok to Chiang Mai took about 12 hours and I hardly got any sleep. There was some entertainment in the form of the film Executive Decision but nothing else of note. On arriving at the hostel at 6am, we were told about a trek we could do to a place in the jungle to the north, called Pai, which lasts three days. I decided to book myself on that, then get some much needed sleep. After, I went to get some food, and got chatting to an Aussie guy called Ben. We hung around together seeing some temples and chatting. I had to get back to the hostel for the evening though, to meet up with the people I'd be trecking with. Ben met us later and we all went out for food and drinks.

The trip to the jungle was brilliant. On arrival at a tribal village, we were met by the village children chasing our van. They seemed cute at first but turned out to be rather uncivilised, trying to unashamedly steal from people's pockets! Soon after, we set off with our day bags and began the trek through the dense forest. It took a couple of hours to reach the next village, where the children were just the same! The hut we stayed in was basic, as you can imagine, with a blanket over the thatched bamboo floor for a bed, a shower that ran from a small tap with one side open to the forest, and a toilet which was essentially a hole in the ground. That night, our guide cooked us food and we all talked until it was time to go to bed. From our hut you could see the sky from an opening in the forest canopy. I couldn't believe how many stars I could see, there were far more than I've ever seen before.

The next day we trecked until we reached the next base, where we could do some elephant riding. There were elephants we could ride, a smaller adolescent and a baby elephant. We were split into groups of 2 and in my case 3. Fergus and Nicki got onto the wooden seat on the elephant's back, which meant I had to ride on the neck, with only it's head to hold onto! It was so much fun, riding through dense grass, and streams. Every now and then our elephant would reach with its trunk to break branches off the trees to eat, which meant holding on a little tighter! We rode the elephants for about an hour, disembarked and continued walking. It was the same thing for the next camp, we chatted, ate, drank and were merry. After more walking the next day, we arrived at our last stop where we could do some bamboo rafting. It was a lot of fun, trying to capsize other people's rafts and generally messing around. And yes, I got a little sunburned on my back.

I'm sure there's things I've forgotten to mention here...and things I've chosen not to...but I'm having a great time and looking forward to the next few days. Tomorrow I'm heading to the Laos border. Vic, Fergus, Nicki and I are going to take the slow boat along the Mekong river. We'll stop at Muang Pakbeng before heading onto Louang Prabeng, which will take two days in all. After, I'm looking to go to either Hanoi or Da Nang in Vietnam, possibly a week from now.

I've taken lots of photos but the internet cafe here is having a bit of trouble with the net connection, so I may have to upload them another time. I'd have updated the site sooner but for the lack of internet access in the tribal villages.

Until next time...