Chiang Mai

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We arrived in Chiang Mai Wednesday morning after a 12 hour bumpy overnight journey and were taken straight to a guesthouse where we met our tour guide and headed straight out for day 1 of the trek.

We headed off at lunchtime and did a 3 hour trek 2,100 feet up a mountain with Deaks at the back of the group informing everyone, in all seriousness, that she was about to have a heart attack and die!!! Luckily a nice Columbian boy who has climed Kilemangaro gave her lots of encouragement all the way!!!

After what seemed like forever, we arrived at the first night's accommodation - a bamboo hut at the top of the mountain!!! It belonged to a little village of anamists who worship nature and consisted of 28 families. We all had to sleep on the floor in this hut on blankets. We went for a shower, if you can call it that, which consisted of another little hut outside that trickled freezing cold water. The toilet next door was even worse - a hole in the ground with a bucket next to it to wash down your business. I had a pleasant experience when a pig tried to join her in the shower!!!

Day 2 - we headed off in the morning and thankfully the whole day was mostly downhill althought the first bit was uphill, much to Deaks's distress. At lunchtime we stopped at a waterfall and then continued on our jungle trek towards our next bamboo hut for the night. On route, we were all happily walking along in single file on a really thin pathway and Suzanne heard a little squeal and turned around to find that Deaks had disappeard down the side of the cliff and was holding on for dear life!!! Two people helped her up, checked that she was ok and then everyone burst out laughing!!! Absolutely classic Deaks!!

Night 2's accommodation was even less sturdy than the night before with more mosquitoes and was a lot colder. The shower and toilet were even worse if that's possible and we had to go in pairs so that one could hold the torch over the open air roof after dark so that the other could squat in mild comfort - so attractive!!! Eternally grateful for anti-bacterial hand gel!!!
Day 3 started at 4am when cockeralls starting their morning singing and sent Deaks into despair (what I wouldn't have given for a shot gun! - Deaks). We set off and arrived for our elephant riding after our last bit of trekking. Deaks went on with her Columbian friend Felipe and Suzanne and I went on together. Quite scary at first, especially when the guides jump off and leave you unattended and the elephants are heading for the river - yikes!! After the elephants we went white water rafting - good fun but water wasn't very high so not very rapid. I had trouble keeping upright after being splashed by the germans and frequently ended up in a heap at the back of the boat!!! Bamboo rafting was next which was very calm with nice views of the elephants along the way. After that we had lunch and headed back to our guesthouse.

Absolutely fantastic 3 days with many laughs and many injuries (mainly Deaks obviously!!) and we met some great people. We all went out for dinner in the evening and then on to a bar with live music where we sampled the local buckets of Samsun (whisky) - filth but v cheap!!

Earlier today we set off on our 2 day journey to Laos which involved a 6 hour bus ride which was so bumpy that sports bras should have been provided and tomorrow morning we set off on a slow boat into Laos which will be another 6 hour journey. Our room overnight here looks like a prison cell and we have a feeling we will be joined by many mozzies tonight so will be piling on the insect repellant!!!

Will update when we next can and will upload pictures soon but the connections are really slow and it takes forever!!

Lots of love
Lisa xx

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