Arrived in Chiang mai after catching the overnight train from Ayutthaya. Wasnt sure what to expect, ive never slept on a train before but woo hoo was pleasantly surprised!!

The chairs and tables were rearranged to make cabins with a top and bottom bed, the staff were like the hostesses you get on a flight and the drink was flowing lol!!

Met people on the train from all over the world, canada and australia to name a few, so we decided to have ourselves a little party!! Great laugh, ended up staying up most of the night so you can imagine the state of us when we arrived in Chiang Mai lol!!

First day ( after we'd slept off our hangovers ) we went a wander round the city, seen some of the thousands of temples it has.... i've seen enough temples to last me a lifetime!!!!!!!!

Tuesday morning bright and early we headed off to start our 2night trek in the jungle!!

Started off with elephant trekking, this was fab!! Got to go out on the elephants for a few hours, closest ive ever to been to one they really are enormous!!!

There were around 6 or 7 of them in the sanctuary, in amongst them were a mum, dad & baby elephant!! Nina & i got to go out on the mummy, Miko and baby Jenny followed us along, you'll see them in the photos, great fun!! Fed them bananas as we went along lol.

After that, our truck dropped of the 5 of us plus our guide and another local guide in the depths of the jungle! Seriously this is exactly what it was, middle of nowhere!!!

We started our 4 hour trek to the camp. Oh My god, though i was going to die lol!!

It was the middle of the afternoon, 40 degree heat, mostly uphill and with our backpacks on!! We all struggled especially the first hour, even the Thai guys were sweating!

We stopped every now and again for water but managed to make it there in 4 hours, Absolutely done in by time we got there!! The camp was a bamboo hut in the middle of nowhere, some of the local hilltribe people had come down to see us, just wandering down the road with a baby strapped to them and leading a cow in one hand lol amazing to see.

Had dinner which the local guide made, lovely thai food, noodles chicken & vegetables. He had a kind of bbq idea going inside the hut. Then went for a 'shower' which was in a stream and small waterfall nearby!! After that we got our beds laid out ( on the bamboo floor, uncomfiest thing ive ever slept on, makes t in the park look like the hilton!!!) and just chilled the rest of the night, think we were all asleep for 9pm!!

We were up at half 7 the next morning to start the next day of our trek, another gruelling 4 hours to get to the local Karen hilltribe village where we stayed that night. The 2 day trek is easily the hardest physical thing ive ever done, worth it now looking back, wasnt saying that at the time though lol!!

When we arrived the local people just stopped and stared at us, strange, they dont speak Thai never mind english, they have their own language! Got our camp set up again, same idea the good old bamboo hut, had dinner and went for another wash in the local river!!

Later on in the day the local kids came round to see us. The guide that was doing the cooking had made a sweet soup kind of thing with coconut milk rice, the kids all came round with their bowls and queued up for them to be filled.

This was so sad to see, made me realise just how poor they actually are. Although they are very happy and dont realise how poor they are as its all they know, i found it really difficult. There are also stray wild dogs everywhere that look awful, they probably fight all the time so the majority of them are injured in some way and some of them are in bred so have hideous disfigurements, they look starving as well although the local people feed them its not much. Had a wee cry at this, thought it was horrible. The kids only get taught 3 subjects at school as well, Thai, Maths and farming/agriculture. Made me really sad to think there is a big world out there and im sure many of them will never see it.

Anyhoo, on a lighter note it was amazing to see how they lived, there are animals wandering around everywhere, cows, buffalo, chickens, pigs you name it! Rice fields all around and all sorts of fruit and veg plants, even a coffee plant, im told starbucks buy from them!

They basically just live off the land, their work is to tend to that, and hard work it looks too! No running hot water and no electricity, they only recently have radio!! The kids came back round later on that night to sing to us, so sweet, and we had bought them some toys as a gift, werent allowed to give them sweets as they dont have any dental care!

So, that was that! An amazing but also very sad experience, glad i did it but i'll be in no rush to do it again lol!!!!!

Next day we headed back to civilisation woo hoo!!! Mobile phones and hot showers!!

Going out tonight for a well deseved drink and a nice meal!!

Missing everyone loads!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope you're all good xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx