Worry more about monkeys than snakes if you go into the jungle!!

That's what she said. She knows who I'm talking about! I made that update, read that comment, walked out of the net cafe and into a temple, to find a snake 10cms away from my shoulder. I don't think they've seen anyone creep sooooooo slooooowly so damn fast! Granted it was tiny, smaller than a whipsnake and it was green, and in retrospect kinda cute (WHAT?! Did I just say a snake was cute? There's something wrong with me!). But still!

My first snake encounter was fairly painless (and heart attackless), and so was my next one. But I have heaps to tell you about before I get onto the second snake encounter!

My first day in Chiang Mai was spent wandering around the streets, looking through shops, having a look at tours available, and sitting in a gorgeous restaurant eating the best pad thai in the world! Was a great first day. I left the restaurant about 4 to check my email and Si was online so we chatted for a bit and then I ran off at to try and organise a day trip for the following day. Which I did - jungle trek, village visit, bamboo rafting and elephant riding all in one day. So I had that sorted.

Then I asked another travel agent about cooking courses. I'd decided to only do an evening one and asked if they had any for that night (5.10ish by this stage). And they did, it started at 5, so they came and picked me off and took me on a joyride around Chiang Mai with 2 Israeli chaps. By 5.45 we still weren't there and wondering where the hell we were (had decided that we were catching the food, then cooking). Was in fact about 15 minutes out of Chiang Mai, but the roads here are kinda illogical. Got there and started cooking by 6. Started with Pad Thai and I must say I was very impressed with my efforts! Have always said that I can't cook, but I think pad thai will be on the menu for a loooooooooong time now!! We cooked another couple of dishes, including flaming (or whatever it's called, can't really remember, where the flames go everywhere and looks impressive) morning glory. Was fun, bit scary but was over in 2 seconds! We finished there about 9pm, and a much quicker trip back into the city for our respective hotels. I think I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, hadn't realised how tired I was!!

Was up this morning at 7 to get ready for my day trip. They picked me up at 8 and we went round collecting the others for the tour (2 Japanese girls, and 4 French girls). First stop was a jungle trek which was awesome and hard work. Today was the first time I realised how much I had conned myself into believing that I hadn't put back on that much weight and that I was still fairly fit (yeah bloody right!!). So that is the first thing to be sorted out when I get home. Hassle me people and Bec and Trish, write it in your diary :) But the trek was still great fun, and included a bamboo bridge which I was convinced was going to break under the weight of 9 of us, but it didn't.

Back to the mini bus to head of to find elephants to ride, and we found some :) Because I was the only person there by themselves, I got an elephant to myself. Travelling by elephant is not something I could do full time! They are more uncomfortable than camels, and very headstrong. Mine kept squirting snot everywhere (and all over me!), so as soon as I was back at my guesthouse, the shirt went in to soak! It was a very weird experience, specially going downhill! Was convinced I would fall of screaming! But I didn't or this update would have started with "Guess who fell off a flipping elephant!". For the last bit, we crossed the river, much to the elephants delight as they all started squirting water everywhere!

Onto the minibus again for lunch and then onto the village visit. The village wasn't what I was expecting (and since I've thought about it since I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting - make sense of that!). It was a white karen village, with about 150 people living in it. Their weavings that they do are to stop them getting bored (first reason the guide gave us) and to give them some money (second reason, would have thought it would be the otehr awy around) during the off-rice season. Didn't have the exquisite colours, or the millions of little kids running around (there were 2, followed us for the whole hour saying "10 baht, 10 baht" over and over).

Then we went to a waterfall, not sure why though. It was decent sized, but not something I would have taken the trip to see.

Last but not least was the bamboo rafting, which I hadn't really been looking forward to. Was sleepy and didn't fancy getting wet thank you! But it was a hoot! I shared a raft with the 2 japanese girls, and our driver (can't think of the right word right now!) was crazy! He would have been 18 or so, and loved trying to get us wet, and drag the raft over rocks. It was also very long (an hour) and I thought it would have been about 10 mins or so.

So it has been one busy day! I'm off to get some dinner and to update my journal and am off to the night market after that. Tomorrow I want to go to Doi Suthep in the morning and I plan to be on a bus to Laos tomorrow night (not sure which way I'm going though which is handy!)

I know I still haven't put photo's up, but I haven't forgotten! I promise I will do it by the end of this week.

Take care all of you and speak with you soon
M