Hello Everyone,

Just a little update for you all! At the moment we are in a little town called Pai (pronounced Bye) up in the hills North of Chiang Mai. The town is very cute, but there is little to do except sunbathe, wander around and EAT!

Yesterday we went elephant Trekking!!! It was from an elephant camp called 'Thoms' where the ellies are very well kept. We went for a 2 hour elephant ride with no seat, through the mountains. For most of the way Tom sat on the neck and I sat on the back. It was actually quite a difficult route and going downhill on an elephant is quite an experience! After the trek we rode the ellies to the river, where we played with them in the FREEZING water. They sprayed us with their trunks, and bucked us off their backs! Tom, being the natural born mahout that he is, managed to stand on the elephants head whilst it put its trunk up for him to hold. I tried this - and FAILED! We have put up loads of photos, but none in the river as the camera isnt waterproof!

We have come to Pai after 3 days in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai was lovely, with winding streets and lots of flowers! There were some really nice places to eat in Chiang Mai - one of which was Mikes Burgers (Do a Google Search). MMMM... In another place I also managed to get a surprisingly nice English Chicken Pie!!We went around a lot of Chiang Mai's temples - In one we saw a monk meditating and to this day we dont know whether he was a sculpture or a real monk just sitting very still!

In North Chiang Mai we found a lovely part of town which was filled with boutique shops, galleries and cafes and wished we could have stayed there longer!

Tomorrow we leave Pai on the 4 hour, hideous windy bus journey back to Chiang Mai. Apparently there are 763 bends between Chiang Mai and Pai and we can believe that!!! We are only in Chiang Mai for lunch and then leave on a 12 hour coach journey to Udon Thani, and then an hour bus to Nong Khai. Nong Khai is a little border town on the edge of Laos. From there we can cross to Vientiane Laos, where we hope to be in time for Valentines Day as it is supposed to be a French City!

Love to you all - Hope you enjoy the photos!

Lucy and Tom (The Mahout) xxx