Day 3

Last day in bangkok, headed to the grand palace to explore. By grand they really do mean grand, completely different from buckingham palace. Its covered in gorgeous gold jewels and vibrant colours. The palace is built up of several parts, including the emerald buddha. We are learning a lot about the thai culture and thier religious beliefs on this trip, in most buddha temples they have huge shrines where you are able to pray. You are not to wear shoes and you must sit in the mermaid position so your feet do not face the buddha.

After the grand palace, we went to a nearby market and sampled some delicious noodle soup - yum! We returned to our hostel and taxi'd to the train station... where we embarked our night train to chiang mai!

Day 4 + 5

Thursday morning we arrive at chiang mai train station, where we were picked up about 8am, with about 10 others and taken on a 2 day trek... starting off with a drive into the jungle, then the most amazing elephant ride through the national park, followed with a 3 hour hike (and by hike i mean a f***ing marathon) up up and up through the hills, rewarded with a splash in the waterfall which was extremely cold but needed. Finishing at a small tribal village where we slept in a bamboo hut, cooked a pig over the fire and drank beer. Today (friday) we awoke to a few sore heads, then headed off on a 2 hour trek back through the jungle, another splash in a waterfall, lunch and then we went bamboo rafting down the river! Amazing!

We are now back in central chiang mai, we've been for dinner and planned our day tomorrow... which will concist of a thai cooking course, where they take us to the market to get our own ingredients, then to a cottage to learn the art of thai cooking. In the evening we have booked ourselves in for a thai massage (costing 3pounds), cant wait!