Chang Mai is a beautiful place!

I have missed out my tales and tribulates about Kanchanaburi but will fill in later....this is all about my last few days in Chang Mai.

I took the 13hr overnight train to get here from Bangkok after being in Kanchanaburi since last tuesday staying on a bamboo raft on the river kwai!! and off to Laos on sat morning.

I have been to many temples around chang mai (there are 300) and tomorrow I am going to oe where you can chat to the monks, have already got a few questions for them!

Had a thai massage (cost a whole 150 bhat - Just over 2 quid) It was amazing, painful in parts and he totally gets amoungst it, feet go in many part of our body including inner thigh and he stretches you, pulls your arms up like he is going to pull them ot of te sockets and then he puts pressure on legs and arms but all felt good!

Monday we had a lazy day and went to a swimming pool at a plush hotel, wish i had the budget to stay there but the guest house we are staying in is amazing, the family are lovely, helped us with all our trips and where is best to go. Their children are so cute, want to bring one home with me!!!

I went on a thai cookery course on tues. First we went to the market, got our ingredients then made 6 dishes including our own green curry paste for green curry. Made spring rolls, pad thai, bannana in syrup with to die for coconut ice cream,hot and spicy soup and sweet and sour chicken. Watched the Constant Gardener in a nearby bar which was cool to have a bit of me time.

I went on a trek yeaterday and today. Just the four of us and a middle agesd guy named Eddie from Hawai. First day we went to the market to get supplies then driven to the hills/rainforest. We first had lunch then trekked 30 mins to a waterfall which was stunning then back to the truck (sawthong - don't know if that is how it is spelt but a pick up truck with benches in the back) and drove for a nother hour before trekking began. OMG...we all though we were going to die, it was like climbing up primrose hill 20 times over!!! Nobody told us it was going to be this tough!! It did get easier but we treked for an hour before stoppng at a Karen hill tribe. Boon, our guide is part of the tribe. Like nothing i have even seen, these people live in such primitive basic conditions...pigs in wooden cages below the huts they live in, sifting the wheat from the chaffe...get the pic, all in the middle of the rainforest!!! We then trekked for another 2 hours with lots of stunning views and one brown snake!By the time we got close to the hill tibe we were staying in for the night it was dark and some of the routes were only 50cm wide and a sheer drop on one side...my head torch is amazing even though the girls scoffed! We had a lovely dinner, our bed for the night was one hut for all of us, matresses on the floor (if you can call them that!) and blankets.It is absolutely freezing in the rainforest so we had a camp fire and some drank beers and we shared stories with other people on the same trek - btw met a girl from san fran last night who knows the creators of flickr!!!!! The night was tough in our mozzi nets, v. cold and the 1am trip with Lucy to the toilet was hilarious!!

One of the girls got sick in the night and one had blisters so instead of walking to the third village we got a bamboo raft... thought i was going to die! The water came up to my neck and i only had the 18 bamboo logs underneath me to hold onto without any life jacket as the rafting was not planned. It would have been a hard hill walk but i had loved every minute of yeasterady I wanted to carry on today. I can not describe how scary our white warter rafting experiece was. We crashed onto a rock and nearly turned over, half the raft and our backpacks were in the water, we had had to put all or valuables in a plastic bag...that should have explained it! The two guides managed to get us back on track before we submerged...what an experience! Last bit of fun...once we got to dry land to have lunch, a massive spider crawled up my leg...oh how i squeeled!!!

Our last day in Chang mai was spent by the pool relaxing in the day and then myself and Emily took ourselves off to a temple where you can chat to a monk...that's right i now official have a Buddist monls e mail address as he wants me to tell him about Laos as that is where he was from! It was amzaing, we asked them about their way of life and rthey asked us about what life is like in the UK. All very strange but a wonderful thing to have done as it helps to improve their English.

It was our last night so while the others all stayed in i decided to go to the Chang Mai night market...what it is most famous for. It is one street both pavements lined with stalls, tightly packed and fake designers gear as far as the eye could see...all i bought was a chocolate pancake!

Saturday 26th saw us north bound to Laos. A 6 hrs mini bus drive awaited us!

Loving it all however!!!