I'm not doing very well at keeping up this blog but its just been so crazy! Chaing Mai was amazing. We arrived feeling very tired after an awful overnight bus but we decided to make the most of it anyway and went straught into Chiang Mai where a man offered to show us around the temples on his tuk-tuk for 30THB. We crashed for a few hours in the afternoon at our guesthouse where a funny litle thai lady called Noo looked after us.

During our time in Chiang Mai we decided to do a one day trek for 700 THB (you'll notice I keep putting the prices after everything because I still can't believe how cheap things are... 50 THB is equivalent to about 1 pound). Included was a trip to an elephant sanctuary where we got to ride the elephants. Typically Kate and I got the naughty elephant which would only take about 4 paces before demanding more food to keep going. I have never spent so much money on bananas! After a short trek through the jungle -where our guide was more scared of snakes than we were - we reached a stunning waterfall and got to go for a short swim before the torrential rain started, it didn't matter much as we were drenched already but the trek to see the hilltribes in the middle of a thunderstorm was pretty funny. To end the day we went down the river in Thai style on bamboo rafts. Huge pieces of bamboo are strapped together and our guide used a long stick to push us down the river. People who know me will know I'm spacially unaware and have very little balance so I thought having to stand upright on some logs floating in the middle of a river would cause me more issues than it actually did. I managed to keep dry until one of the boatsmen decided it would be hilarious to splash us. It was an altogether amazing day!