I'm in Phuket now but as i'm crap and haven't written 4 ages thought i'd catch u up on Chaing Mai first.

So i believe last time i wrote i was about to go to a traditional thai banquet thingy. It was ok- the food was good (you'll b proud of me i'm getting much betta with spicy food!), we all sat on cushions on the floor and the thai watresses and waiters bought us out lots of food (and i mean lots!!) whilst we watched the thai dancing on the stage that was in the middle of the room (everyone kinda sat around it- it was very infomal). The dances were interesting, altho perhaps a little slow as the focus is mainly jus on different hand movements. The guy dancer was cool tho- he did a sword dance and that was very fast paced. Some of the audience then got dragged up to learn a dance (myself and nat included- very embarrassing as i pretty much got it all backwards..oops- o yeah and my skirt i think was a bit see thru in the light..hmm).

That night we checked out the local bars which are basically jus wooden huts, very raggae! We met some hippies, flow and raif from America and Suffolk respectively who tried to convince us that egyption pyramids were made for and by alien spaceships.. launchpads or something(alright boys..put down the wacky baccy!) and all this mother nature stuff and how the earth is god (you'd love them dad- def your kinda conversation). They almost converted faye- she even bought one of them a drink cos she felt 'connected' (and he was dog so it def wasn't cos she fancied him!)

The next day was spent chillin and organising..(recovering!) cos this is where we wanted to do all our adventure tours!!

so the day after that we did white water rafting- which was wicked- altho a little worrying as last year when i did it we had an hour session on how to do it whilst this guy jus threw us each an oar and was like 'GO!"!

Bless him tho- imagin trying to control a raft alone which 7 ppl are meant to control, cos the ppl u r taking are a giggly bunch of english girls that don't know an oar from an earlobe!

A very entertaining experience- esp on the flat bits when Anne would shout 'come on girls..put some welly in it' and we'd all shout 'yeah' enthusiastically and frantically paddle- and the boat still barely moved!! o yeah and i managed to break my oar!

Next day we decided to do a 2 day trek to the middle of the jungle to spend a night with the Karon tribe (yeah i kno, what were we thinking?!) It prob wasn't 10 minutes into our trek before the whining begun!! haha- there were 4 other ppl with us too (3 canadians- ben, jo and kyle and a german girl leony) who must of thought we were terrible!! every 10 minutes at least one of us would complain- we're hot, tired, being bitten... or ask our thai guide (called Doh) endless annoying questions like 'r we there yet?',' how much longer?' 'is it more uphill or downhill?' 'How much more uphill?' (it was WAY more uphill!)- bet he loved us!!! But we did get to see a pretty spectacular waterfall and eventually arrived at the tribe place by 5ish (very smelly and tired- bare in mind we had to take backpacks with us- not the big ones tho thank god considering i can barely carry mine a foot- i really think i have someone stow aways in there..mum?). It was really cool to c tho- such a simple way of life- jus bamboo huts really, no showers jus cold bucket showers (refreshing actually after that trek!) and squatters for loo's!! That was probably the most entertaining part of the day- who needs eastenders when u r sitting around a fire, with a crystal clear sky full of stars above u and the sounds of rose and faye trying to help anne use a squatter who has some isues with it!!! all we can hear is 'i can't do it; (thats anne) and rosie reply 'your doing really well hon..do u wanna come back and try again later?' lol- she did manage to go eventually...we were all very proud of her.

that night we were fed traditional thai food (so rice and chicken basically!) and slept (kinda..)on the floor of this bamboo hut and were woken to the sound of a satanic rooster at stupid-a-clock who went on and on ' c*** a doodle!!!' for hours..we killed him later..not really- would of tho if i had a bigger penknife (seriously heath did u not think about the roosters i may have to gut when u bought me that penknife- poor forward thinking on your part.)

That day we begun the much easier jouney back that involved an elephant ride (im an old hand at that now!) and bamboo rafting- which is basically where u try and balance on a raft made out of some bamboo tired together with..yep u guessed it bamboo (by the way our cofffee mugs were also jus cut up bamboo- they love their bamboo!!). Was not filled with confidence when we heard the group before us had crashed there raft (there were lots of rocks and hence little rapids). But we didn't crash, jus laughed at the ppl who had sitting on the side of the river waiting for new raft while we floated on by..muhahah!

o yeah then i had a siobhan stress because they made the girls get off and walk up thru the jungle 4 five mins cos apparently that bit was too dangerous for us to be on the rafts....but the boys could stay on..sexist pigs!!! but i got over it...ish

That night we left at around 8 for our 12 hr train jouney back to bangkok (fun fun- was shattered tho so did sleep for most of it- not very comfortably tho as once again we were not able to get sleeper seats.. and then took a much shorter plane journey (thank God!! we jus couldn't cope with the thought of another 14 hr train) to phuket- where we r now.

First night and last night we went out to a wicked club where we made lots of friends- 2 aussies- cameron and karl (who met us both nights and today at the beach and have promised to take us out in melbourne..were holding them to that!!)and some other aussies and kiwis whose names i forget.. brilliant nights- both of which ended up with us all swimming in the sea...even anne whose scared of fish!

So obv both days have been spent quietly dying on sun loungers on the beach (no complaints tho- if u have to be hungover it may as well be on a beach in thailand!)

This is a very tourist area tho (like a holiday location) so we r keen to move on (and our dorm is like the burning depths of hell its so hot!!!- no a/c!)

Tomorro we r up at 6 to catch a 7am ferry to phi phi. Not sure whats gonna happen tho as we do not have n e accomodation booked (having a bit of a nightmare- everywhetre seems to b full)- so we r jus gonna take a chances...thats what travellings about right?!

So i think that is u all up to date. Sorry its so long but im far to busy having fun to write more often so think u may have to get used to long ones!!

Miss u all- will let u know how it goes with the accomodation thing!