Chaing Rai and a bit of Pai

The white Wat, A purpose built Temple for tourists, still quite a spectacle, Chaing Rai is about the size of Trowbridge, with not a lot of tourists so quite relaxing though. As I am now up dating this from Laos and it's painfully slow so these will be short-ish. I also can not remember that far back from now, but it does seam like an age away since I left the UK.

The hands in the pic are supposed to be coming up from hell, and the view over the rice fields with the mountains in the background is from the guesthouse I stayed in when I was in Pai

No pics as it takes to long to up load them I'll try again from a different internet cafe.......

Maehongson

Well the food we had in the village was spicy enough to sting the ring off a Water-Buffalo let alone little o'l me(picture of said water beastie attached). Despite that it was tasty. The second day involved crossing the river several times some sections were quite deep, and quick which made for some great entertainment. Not too many wee nasties as in the pic out a few snakes and a bunch of wasps which our guide was quite nervous about disturbing.

Also note the ultra modern wash room facilities, which weren't quite tall enough for me to stand upright in. We stopped at at waterfall for a cool off and swim, the guy in the clip is an Italian, the only other person on the trek with me apart from out guide and porter, who's house we stayed at dinner on the floor with the kitchen in the background. The temples in the pic were opposite our guesthouse, so not a bad view I think you'll agree.

Check these out Flight of the gibbon experience www.treetopasia.com I reckon the biggest drop was betwen 40 - 50 meters, so quite high, no railings on any of the platforms, but we all had safety harnesses on and the guides were very good as far as safety goes, as you wern't going to walk away from a fall. Most of the time you could not see the platform you were going to land on, which made for some interesting touch-downs when travelling backwards. I also have a picture of a viper, which I nearly stepped on walking up the waterfall we went to, the photo is blurred so I've not attached it. Ziplinning was fantastic fun, and the big vertical drop at the end was wicked.

Chang Mai

Well a trek through the jungle is basically one big sweat fest, almost from start and certainly to finish, throw in some amazing views, some Aussie/Thai humour, white water rafting, Elephant trekking, Bamboo rafting and a night in a Hill tribe village on the side of a mountain, traditional food and luke warm beer and you end up with a recipy for a bloody good time. Shame it all seams to end so quick, I have another day in the jungle planned for tomorrow, flying through or just below the canopy on zip lines. Mind you its an early start as I'm being picked up at 06:15 so more jungles picks to follow. But for now you can delight yourselves with ones attached here. I'll try to attach a video clip or two of my trek, but as I have not done this before it may not work, if it does I think you'll agree it is quite an awesome view. take it easy folks and more updates coming up. Brendan