Chiang Mai and end of the journey part 1

The cooking class was so much fun!! It was with a group of 9 in total that started with a tour of a market (going through all different sorts of fruits, veggies, rice, etc) and then back to his house where the backyard had been converted into several mini kitchens. There we paired up and learnt how to cook jasmine and sticky rice; spring roles, sticky rice with mangos and then a selection of soups, curries and stir-fries. By the end of it, there was plenty of food and didn't need much dinner that night!! Kat and I headed to the night bazaar and we managed to escape with some money left in our wallets.
The next day started a 3 day trek. On the hour and a half drive north, the van had five other people in it but after lunch, realised that they had all only signed up for 2 days, so it was just Ivy (the guide) and myself that started the long journey up hill (and in the hottest part of the day) to the first village, stopping off at a bat cave first. I ate so many lychees and small mangos that first arvo. We stayed the first night in a small village with a French lass (Julie) and her guide and after dinner, some of the local boys came over to practice their English and play a couple of games. The bathroom facilities were like nothing I had ever seen and i was relieved that there was a shower (well, sort of, nothing flash but it did have running water). The second day we headed to the elephant place where I had a ride on the back of one. The most disturbing part was about 10 min in, when the elephant guide jumped off and ran as fast as he could back to the hut, just leaving me with the elephant. Apparently the elephant had seen snake, so he returned with a sling shot and big stick. He and Ivy managed to find (and kill) th e snake before we headed on. That night wasn't as luxorious as the first as there was no showers (bathed in a stream) running water, or electricity (found myself cutting up veggies by the light of a very small candle until the kitchen fire took). By this stage my legs were beginning to ache a little. Ivy thought it was very amusing to find that I'd not brought a raincoat but had an umbrella, which i used more for shade than anything else. Will hopefully add some photos in the next couple of weeks. The last day we joined a couple from Amsterdam for lunch and then went white water rafting with 5 French day trippers and finished off the activities with a ride down the river on a bamboo raft. Was very relieved to be back at the hostel to put my feet up and have a decent shower - albeit cold. That night 10 others from the hostel and I heading out for a night on the town which meant my last day in Chiang Mai was a slow one.
I took the overnight train to Ayutthaya and after a brief nap (having not slept much on the train) had a wander amoungst the ruins and river around the city. The next day paid 15 baht - around A$0.70 for the two hour train trip to Bangkok (cattle class) before heading out to the airport to fly to Sydney.
Will be heading up the NSW coast early tomorrow morning for a fortnight to take it easy (and fix my sleeping patterns, or lack there of) and finalise the details of the job in Cambodia. Will be back in Melb around the 22nd, so if anyone need a house, cat or dog sitter for a couple of weeks, let me know :D
Hope to catch up with you then!
M