We arrived in Chaing Mai station to be greeted by a dozen touts offering cheap accomodation, we looked at the guest house names and consulted the lonely planet guide, found one that was in it... the rama guest house... 300 baht (per night) for a room with aircon hot water, worked out at two pound fifty each! (half that if we didnt want aircon and hot water!!) ok the room was pretty basic...

The first night we visited the night bazaar in the main street, which sold everything from freshly cooked food (scorpions, fish etc...) to trainers and other snide gear (very cheap copies), bartering did take a while to get the hang of... For example: I asked how much some really nice looking scandels were, man replied (250 baht) i thought... hmm thats under 3 quid, I'll take them :) he then knocked off another 50 baht in simpathy i think... (i now realise that i should have offered 80 baht and worked up!! d'oh! :) (it was like a scene from "the life of brian")

We decided to be adventurous and booked ourselves onto a 3 day jungle trek.

Jungle Trek day 1

We were picked up about 10:00, there were 10 of us sat in the back of a pickup truck, another 2 standing on the tail gate and 3 up in the cab!! We must have looked like refugees! We stopped off to get supplies in a town called Mae Taeng (just north of Chaing Mai).

We picked up the trek guide (yes thats 16 people in a standard pickup truck!!) and then travelled on to the Chiano Doa mountains (120km journey)... some of the road (dirt track) was so steep we all had to get out and push the pickup uphill!

We then started on foot, and walked for about 2hours, the rain came, i have never felt a shower like it! we were completely soaked before having time to get a water proof on, it was warm rain though... we had two guides, Nopi a local lad, he could speak very good english and the other was called Moon (a real Thai bushman, he must have only been about 5ft, and he carried most of the supplies and walked at quite pace)

Our first night we stayed at a Lahu tribe village, it was a crazy feeling to be in the middle of nowhere, with no electric, no communications and no toilet!! :) we had to do it the natural way... the village consisted of about five huts and 8 villagers.

The other people on the trek were a couple from kent, 2 couples from holland and couple, one scotish and his girl was spanish and a man from guam and his son (they went off alone to hunt some deer - they were doing a seven day trek alone)... surprisingly everyone could speak english, which does make me feel a bit ignorant only able to speak one language... the food was good (sweet and sour with sticky rice) ...although there was milk, it was only for the kids ;-)

Jungle Trek day 2

After a good nights kip, we trekked for 3 hours to a Karen tribal village, this was alot larger than the previous one.

Moon our guide made some bamboo firearms which amused us for several hours... being about to fire bits of wet toilet paper at each other was quite funny.

We also met the village medicine man, who had a huge tattoo on his back and he showed us his magic stick, we each had to sample a taste, it tasted of paracetamol, and was used to cure most illnesses...

We moved on for another 3 hours (crickey my legs were almost hanging of (the journey was through a very steep jungle - up and down), we stopped to see a venomous spider which was the size of my hand (it lives in a deep hole, the guide put a twig in the hole, you coud feel the spider biting it, as he pulled the twig out, it came to the mouth of the hole, in its attack position, front legs up, ready to pounce... danger danger!! whoohoo deadly spiders!! a steve irwin moment)

We arrived at the next village (where we camped) which was also a Karen tribe, it was right on the Taeng river, we had a quick dip and a game of football on the sandy mud beach, there five of us (the lads) and about 6 little thai children, then as if by magic 6 turned into 20! it was a great experience, they played quite well and utilised their thai boxing skills...

We later sat down to a traditional Thai meal consisting of vegetable green curry, a sweet and sour soup and sticky rice. This was followed by a few local beers, which were well needed after all the walking we had done!

Jungle Trek day 3

We set off on bamboo rafts down the Taeng river, 6 people per raft, 1 guide and us tourists! The guides had been busy constructing the rafts for us earlier that morning.

After an hour we arrived at another village and travelled another hour or so on elephants... had lunch at the Lahu and Akha tribe village, then back on the rafts for a white knuckle ride through the rapids... the rafts arent very stable and dont float too good! but saying that only 2 people fell in (hats of to paul and Jason the guy from kent - who also managed to put his foot through the bottom of the raft and get it jammed :))

We then arrived at the last village after a hectic hour and a half of rocks and rapids... this was the Shan village, then back in the pickup for an hour and half drive back to Chaing Mai...

On the evening myself, Paul, Hannah and Jason (the kent couple) went for a traditional Thai meal with Nopi (the guide) and his swiss girlfriend... it was an excellent experience, we were given a big pot with a raised centre and cooked meat etc on the centre part and a soup, noodles and all types of veg etc in the outer part, yes we actually cooked our own meal in a restaurant, but it tasted great and none of us were ill, so a result!