Thailand Encompassed Tour Once we reached Bangkok, we had got over our late arising and felt a little calmer! As we came out of arrivals we were greeted by a Thai man with a board saying Lisa and Clair, we sadly got quite excited! We were then taken to the New World Lodge Hotel in Bangkok, it was lovely and clean and not as basic as we thought! That night we met our group and our tour leader Sophie! There were 18 of us all together, Kathy, Dave, Audrey, Will, Alison, Helen, Lyndsey, Clairo, Abs, Bells, Hannah, James, Andy, Lisa, Graham and Martin mostly teachers so Clair felt right at home! It was a good mix of people and we all got on! We had our first Thai meal which was very yummy and then we went for drinks at the local Shell garage!!! Yes we were drinking buckets of Alcohol and some people were smoking at the petrol station that turns into a bar after dark, it was crazy. We reallly thought we were hallucinating when an elephant came along but it was real as we managed to get photographic evidence! We had our first trip on a sleeper train, which was certainly an experience! It took 13 hours to get to Chaing Mai, the weather was bad as it is Monsoon season here, but Clair and I managed to sleep right the way through ;0) After taking our washing to the cheap laundry we headed to the night market, where we worked on our bartering skills, it was so strenuious that we had to go for our first Thai Massage, it seemed to relieve the stress of being a backpacker!!!! We had another early start, hopped on to the pick up trucks and headed for the hills! First stop was an Orchid and Butterfly Farm, not the most exciting thing to see but we got to practice our close-up Photography! (We think it was more of a mum's place to go)! Next stop was a local market with a very unpleasant smell as we smooched around we found out why, there were frogs, locus, shark head's and lots of other crazy things to buy, we didn't have the guts to sample any of it but once again a great photographic opportunity. On our way to the next stop we had to drive through the floods, it looked so different from everything we had seen so far, hard to believe it happens all the time here. Once we crawled through the floods (good job we were on trucks), we got further into the hills and saw how they made sticky rice in bamboo shoots, it was quite tasty! We also seen how and where they make coffins. Made a quick stop at a tribal village and then began our trek through the Jungle! The scenery was amazing although we got bitten like crazy, we had to go over a few bridges and through a few rivers! Has anyone apart from Lisa ever sat on barred wire in the jungle????? Please let us know because my bottom got a bit of a hammering and I had to throw away my favourite trousers!!!! We reached our village where we were going to stay, it was beautiful and the people were lovely and welcoming! The children provided the entertainment round the fire that night and we taught them the Hokey Cokey! Going to the toilet with just a torch was certainly hair raising (if you call a hole in the ground a toilet) in the dark, and as for the showering facillities a plastic pan and a bucket of water seemed to be our only option! We fitted in nicely the next day as we smelt just like the elephants we went to visit! They were lovely and very talented. We watched them dance, play music, football, basketball, paint pictures and they could even collect their own tips at the end of the show! Unfortunately due to the rain we didn't get to go bamboo rafting instead we got a rocky ride on an Ox! We also got to ride elephants which was amazing. After that we went to see how they recycle elephant dung which they cleverly make into paper! Our next adventure was our trip to Kanchburi! We stopped of at a floating market which was good fun although there didn't seem to be any particular lanes for the boats! We took a trip on the Death Railway and crossed the Bridge Over the River Kwai! Had a walk on the bridge but we didn't like the big gaps that we could have easily fallen through! The war museum was very interesting and sad. We then took another dreaded over night train to the port to get the boat to Koh Phangan! What a beautiful Island it was, our resort was on the north side and was quite and just looked like something from a postcard, we relaxed here for 5 days. Our highlights were a beach party where druken people were allowed to jump through a ring of fire (certainly no health and safety here)! Fishing where we didn't catch a thing (not even a sun tan!!) We visted a waterfall which was good fun and hard work, plenty of rocks to climb! And then of course the main attraction was the Full Moon Party!!! It was mental, we met loads of crazy people and saw some crazy sites!!!! The boat journey over to the party was a good laugh but the boat journey home at 8.00am was even better! We didn't feel so good later on that day though, drinking buckets of Vodka is not the way forward!!! So our organised tour is over and we had to say a sad goodbye to our new friends! Just the two amigos again heading for Kao Tao and some new adventures. We are certainly living the dream - until next time - Lots of Love Lisa and Clair xoxoxoxo