Montra Hut Chiang Saen

... sideways. We had to have a tight grip on their ears. But often, you would only see the rider and the mahout above water. Sometimes the elephant would get a trunkfull of water and spray the rider--so funny! Obviously, the elephants enjoyed their bath time.

The observers on the riverbank had quite a show. And a big thanks goes out to them for taking pictures for us with our cameras!

We had another 40 minutes of trekking after that to get back to the ...

... the sound without making too much noise. Clearly we have angel toes. The rest of the group of 12 were very jealous of our sighting...not that they admitted it. HAHAHA!

Ian's email to Jon Hobbs

Found something for you to DEFO do in Laos - the Gibbon Experience. Google it for details, it's a couple of hours away from Huay Xai on the Laos/Thai border in the Bokeo nature reserve, and ...

... simply long boats with car engines on the back. It had to be those lovely Laos roads again so we enquired with several travel agencies in LP about overnight buses to Houayxai and only one was able to offer us a 7pm bus with the rest insisting on the latest one was at 5pm. Not wanting to arrived in Huoayxai at 4am we decided to take our chances on the 7pm bus. Thankfully the bus did exist but we were not surprised to find that there were only ...

... had signs, roadside markers and even signs to warn of children and animals crossing. We sped our way to Luang Namtha only stopping for 20 mins when the driver and his mates had to change a tyre - not really surprising, we'd been hitting the bumps at some speed.

At Luang Namtha the driver spent a worrying amount of time fiddling with the battery and I bought us some sticky rice for tea, to go with our usual pringles and oreo cookies. It ...

... into a long, rickety wooden long boat that appeared to be on the verge of capsizing every time someone moved even the slightest bit. I just thought that this might just be the icing on the 'experience' cake - we were going to end up in the bloody river, the back pack floating off into the distance with my laptop and so much other stuff, never to be seen again. I might as well have chucked it away the moment it started to give me grief on the first ...

... but for me I decided to wait until I saw it with my own eyes! We knew we were in for another early start and a very ***********e way another, so we packed ourselves off to bed at around 9pm. It was, as I have said, a bit of an itchy scratchy night but nothing 'toilet' to deal with at all (I am sure you'll be pleased to hear). The sounds of the forest are truly amazing. It’s so loud and yet it doesn't disturb - it kind of relaxes. It's wonderful! No rain!...

... care and schooling.

In the Akha Tribe, we saw "Black Teeth" women who chew beetle nut mixed with other herbal plants to blacken their teeth to make them more attractive and appealing to tribe's men. At first glance, I thought they were toothless. A closer look revealed their teeth were jet black.

The women of the Karen Tribe wear the traditional brass continuous coiled rings around their neck and calf to stretch ...

... impossible to put trousers on sitting down. Laters Books: In my opinion * Not great ** OK *** Worth reading **** A favourite ***** Exceptional Reading: Brother Number One, A Political Biography of Pol Pot - David P Chandler and Bleachers -(another) John Grisham (to offset the academic Chandler) To date: The Last Grain Race - Eric Newby ** Cancer Ward - Alexander Solzenhitsyn **** Utterly Monkey - Nick Laird ** Atonement - Ian ...

... are heading up towards Chiang Rai with the intention of doing a week-long loop up around some of the tribal areas before we get the train to Bangkok on the 4th. There are LOADS of book shops in Chiang Mai, but it's the usual story, most of them are asking silly prices. I saw a book yesterday that had a price of 50c (30 pence) on the cover, obviously purchased in some US charity shop or other, but was being sold for 295 baht (£6). I have seen a ...

... elephant for this part (Phusi - a really sweet - and pretty huge - female). We learned how to get on and off Phusi a few different ways (over the top of her head and then from her side while she was standing, sitting, and then lying down) and drive her with some basic commands. It was a really fun experience and a big highlight of the trip so far ... After getting cleaned up from riding elephants throughout the morning, we headed to the Opium Museum, conveniently located across the ...