the journey - part 3

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Hey all - i cant believe so many of you have even read the first one never mind reading the second!! Thanks for all the messages its nice to know we are being missed but i'm sorry i'm not ready to come just yet!! As for the pictures ben tried to download them one of the first few days we were here and nearly lost the lot so we decided it was better just to wait and bore you all when we get home

We leaving Chiang Dao tommorrow so not sure where the next internet connection will be so just a mini update!!

We stayed a couple more nights in Chiang Dao (fantastic place). We finally decided to go on the trek up Chiang Dao mountain - supposedly 5 hours up see sunset, a nights camping, next morning watch sunrise then 5-6 hours down dependig on speed of group (something we failed to realise when we booked the trip - how is it even remotely possible to take longer to come down a mountain than to go up?)

Anyway we set off 30 mins ride to national park i'm happy the higher we drive the less to walk, we start walking and it soon becomes apparant why it takes 5 hours to get up the hill and it has nothing to do with how steep the path is or how hot the sun was!! no we have to stop every 20 mins for a 20min tab break!! we teamed up with some other people for the trek. They decided not to stick with the guide and to just carry on up instead of stoping every 20 mins, he got to the top and was well within being halfway down when we passed him still going up!!!!!!
Eventually we stop for about 2-3 hours just waiting while the guide is running round the hill making phone calls. He then indicates for us to keep moving (he doesnt speak a word of english) up we get to move 100yrd up the path to the campsite with lovely views, Why he didnt just take us there is beyond me!! another hour of sitting around it is very clear the other 3 have gone home so its just me n ben not thats a bad thing of course!

Despite a fustrating day we head up for the last bit of the hill to watch the sun go down - awsome well worth the trek up there!!! we agree to get up at 5am to watch the sun rise hoping it will be just as spectacular as the sunset! We head off for an early night while the guides have other plans! 4am they woke us up again making all sorts of rackets but didnt come near our tent so i'm guessing they didnt want us up then? 5am comes round....silence apart from a few snores!! so me and Ben despite my better judgement take ourselves off up the hill again to watch the sun rise - beautiful was well worth getting up for!! even if i was conviced we were going to be eaten by the tigers!!

after breakfast we head back down the mountain! and again it becomes VERY apparent why it actually takes longer to get down the mountain than up! after only 45 mins we stop for a 20 min tab break after a further 20 mins we stop for guess what? yep a 10 min tab break we get within 45mins of the bottom and we stop for dinner (its only just 12pm) an hour later we set off 25mins in we pause oh yep another tab break!! AAHH!! ben's had enough so we just carry on with out the guide which must have made him feel gulity cause he soon caught us up and we didnt stop untill we reached the road!!

Shame really cause the route has some fantastic views and for anyone who hasnt experienced camping and doesnt like walking fast it would have been great but for us a little disappointing cause we had to keep waiting around for so long!

we still had a good time even though reading back it sounds very negative!!

Tommorrow we head back to Chiang Mai to get the train back to bangkok then change to go to Katachanaburi (river Qwai) then off to puket for some much needed beach relaxation!!!!

not sure when we'll get back to a wi-fi spot so might be a few days before i can update it one last time before we head home!! cant belive i'm saying that only just feels like we got here!!

miss you all x

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