Feels like a long time since i last posted but think we've just packed a lot in a few days again that it's not that long at all :-)
We had to say goodbye to another couple of Intrepid-ites in Chiang Mai so it's now just the Brits, me, Chris, Rosie and Pete and portuguese Jorge left up north. We didn't do much in Chiang Mai as we were all pretty knackered from 6 weeks of non stop travel, so we booked ourselves in to a very funky guesthouse and chilled for a couple of days.
Random shots of Chiang Mai:
Chris eating a cricket
Just when we were recovering, we decided it would be a good idea to spend the day hiking up a mountain and then mountain biking back down... it was kind of a good idea, but a very very tiring and sweaty day :-) The hiking was going well until the guides took us 'extreme hiking' down to a waterfall and then straight up through the jungle with no path... owch. We were glad to reach the top and have some tasty tasty nooooooodle soooop and a few litres of water! We got all kitted up (the only time i've seen health and safety in SE Asia) to cycle down - helmet, knee and elbow pads and chest protection! Little bit excessive and made us all really hot! The cycle down was scary but fab- pretty much straight downhill on dirt tracks - Chris bimbled off with one of the guides to go really fast and on single track paths instead of having to wait for all us wimps :-) It was a wicked last day to spend as our mini-intrepid group of 6 :-)
Just when we were recovering, we decided it would be a good idea to spend the day hiking up a mountain and then mountain biking back down... it was kind of a good idea, but a very very tiring and sweaty day :-) The hiking was going well until the guides took us 'extreme hiking' down to a waterfall and then straight up through the jungle with no path... owch. We were glad to reach the top and have some tasty tasty nooooooodle soooop and a few litres of water! We got all kitted up (the only time i've seen health and safety in SE Asia) to cycle down - helmet, knee and elbow pads and chest protection! Little bit excessive and made us all really hot! The cycle down was scary but fab- pretty much straight downhill on dirt tracks - Chris bimbled off with one of the guides to go really fast and on single track paths instead of having to wait for all us wimps :-) It was a wicked last day to spend as our mini-intrepid group of 6 :-)From Chiang Mai, Chris and I jumped on a wee plane to fly 35 mins to Mae Hong Son - a tiny town near the Burmese border surrounded by beautiful mountains. 
The highlight of our couple of days there was climbing hundreds of steps up to a hilltop temple to watch the sunset over the hills - beautiful :-) 
We also hired a man and a jeep to drive us round the countryside to see some waterfalls and a cave full of fish, and we stopped at a mud spa on the way back for a mud mask and a soak in a mineral bath which smelt like farts! Skin felt good (didnt smell good) afterwards though!
The highlight of our couple of days there was climbing hundreds of steps up to a hilltop temple to watch the sunset over the hills - beautiful :-) We also hired a man and a jeep to drive us round the countryside to see some waterfalls and a cave full of fish, and we stopped at a mud spa on the way back for a mud mask and a soak in a mineral bath which smelt like farts! Skin felt good (didnt smell good) afterwards though! We got up at stupid o'clock to catch the bus to Pai - 100km of crazy windy road northeast. Pai is a very chilled, hippie and thai-tourist filled town in the hills. It has a whole load more atmosphere than Mae Hong Son did and it's nice to be able to have stuff to do beyond 8pm! We by chance ended up staying at the same guesthouse (bamboo huts looking at the river!) as Rosie and Jorge so me and Rosie spent the afternoon lounging and chatting by a swimming pool all afternoon yesterday and then we all had a good evening listening to some live music and drinking Thai whiskey :-) Today, we hired some bikes (not mountain bikes - town bikes complete with basket and no gears!) to visit a nearby waterfall - a local lady told us that it was an easy flat 8km cycle.... hmmmm.... turned out to be 11km uphill. And stupid us left at midday so cycled all the way there in the blistering midday heat and sun - oops. We all had a well-needed cool off in the waterfall when we finally got there and coming back home was great :-)
Rode elephants and bamboo rafts today - another exhausting but fab day. We had a 2 hour ride down river on a bamboo raft - very peaceful and relaxing and frazzling as it was cloudy when we set off and quite chilly but the sun quickly burnt the clouds away (as it does every day between 10-11am) and we'd forgotten suncream and sunglasses...oops...
After a tasty lunch of noodles, Rosie and I had to overcome our fear of being plonked on a giant animal, and spend 2 hours perched on an elephant with only a piece of scratchy carpet between us and Mr Chang (as we named our ellie). 
Was very good fun but very painful on the backside and legs and it's a heck of a long way down from up there! We rode for about an hour through the jungle and then headed down to the river - going downhill was petrifying! The elephants and us still kind of perched on top had a wee swim in the river and then the mahouts instructed the elephants to shake their heads to chuck us off into the river :-) I decided to become official photographer at that point and watched Rosie and Chris be thrown off over and over!
I had a bit of a run-in with a wall and the side of Mr Chang when we had to get off - bit of a squashed foot now but it's only a wee cut and a bit sore - could have been a lot worse! We all had a well needed soak in the hot tubs filled by natural hot springs afterwardsAfter a tasty lunch of noodles, Rosie and I had to overcome our fear of being plonked on a giant animal, and spend 2 hours perched on an elephant with only a piece of scratchy carpet between us and Mr Chang (as we named our ellie). Was very good fun but very painful on the backside and legs and it's a heck of a long way down from up there! We rode for about an hour through the jungle and then headed down to the river - going downhill was petrifying! The elephants and us still kind of perched on top had a wee swim in the river and then the mahouts instructed the elephants to shake their heads to chuck us off into the river :-) I decided to become official photographer at that point and watched Rosie and Chris be thrown off over and over!
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