Alot to read in this one guys, pay attention.....firstly, we have moved hotels like 4 times since being here, finally settled now with all our needs catered for. No more crack dens, no more men vomiting next door, no more mosquito invasions. SMILE HOUSE is where we live!!

Since being here we have been subject to an array of visual delights as well as a few physical ones. We watched some Muay thai boxing which was an experience, the one girl fight of the night had us shouting at each fighter. We made wagers against each other....jack lost, not much of a gambler he says ;) Between fight entertainment consisted of blindfolded young boxers swinging furiously at each other, quite comical.

Night markets are common place here, the smell of raw chicken and un-clean people is rife....however we found comfort in full moon wine and thai massage's which were wondrous.

Having seen the town and jack yearning for animal encounters, stacey reluctantly agreed to visit a snake farm. We were the only ones there which was good as we had king cobras, pythons and rat snakes thrown at us!! Most enjoyable!! Had some photos with some snakes, staceys face.......distraught.

After chilling we wanted adventure and organised a trek to the jungle (cue drum beat and monkeys) but alas we saw neither! Bundled into a taxi with a yank, two paddys and three frogs (translation_an american, two irish and three french) we went to a butterfly and orchid farm which consisted of two butterflues and a few flowers...cool. Went on to some bumpy roads from here with some hairy cornering and eventually arrived in the middle of sodding nowhere in the jungle. The trek had ...BEGUN!! We walked up and down....and down...and up...the we fell....alot (well stace did) but we got to a camp in the forest. We sweated our weight in ..sweat but it was worth it. The fews- spectacular, the people- amazing and even in the jungle you can find a volleyball net. We got to know our companions for safety if nothiong else but they were all great fun, even the french. We met up with some more americans at the camp and some germans. Our guide, Johny a.k.a the GENERAL was a ball breaker at times but alot of fun and dispite his mediocre english he made the trip alot of fun. He soon lit up a nice big camp fire and we were all forced to play the number game, and as the beer was to expensive the punishment was soot to the face!! alot of fun!

An interesting nights sleep in a hut... with the best mosquito nets we have ever seen!! And we were up and ready for the second day, with some toast minus the butter and some scrambled eggs minus any ingredients other than egg and no flavour we were off... A small treck and a pile into a truck... 15 people, easy! We arrived at the elephant sanctuary. We were lucky enough to have a ride on the elephants, a little unsavoury but an experience to remeber, especially when our not so little nelly tried to go into a bush to eat!! We wandered in the river with him and gave a wash, he was dam right gorgeous! A short while later and we were quickly ushered onto some interesting floating devices AKA bamboo rafts!! A slow leaisurly cruise down a very muddy river with elephant poo floating buy to add to the scenery we quickly hopped off, and was ushered to tarzans zip wires!! We only did one across the river but was alot of fun and left you wanti9ng more. We were supplied with some yummy food and then headed off to a waterfall! Finally clean!...

The waterfall was spectacular, gorgeous,l we all quickly jumped and floated down it, chilled in the lush water, never felt so clean! But no time to relax as we were soon eb shipped off to white / brown water rafting! On arrival, we were slightly nerved by the massive rapids beneath us and the fact they were trying to fix yet seemed un successful to the boat we and the two paddys were going in!! Interesting, i have never seen jack look so scared!! But we were fine and it was hilarious, top points, stacye falling off her seat twice!! Everyone getting drenched, getting stuck on a rock, and having to all climb back, stacye hitting jack in the face with her paddle... happy days!! And with that it all came to an end! Sad times! A quiet tired drive back and we all said our goodbyes, a treck to remeber with some amazing people and alot of fun was had, even if we were ripped off for the beer!

Back to chiang mai with memories and lots of travelling tips and knowledge we enjoyed a long shower cleaning off all of the mud! Back to smile house!

Three days till a week of elephant fun, so we are going to chill by the pool stacey is already getting her oil ready to try and tan up! Beard update, its getting a little longer, staceys hair update its getting bigger by the day!

Hopefully off to see batman today, and we will try and stay up for the olympic ceremony!

Lots of Love

Jack and Stacey x