For anyone who is a huge animal lover like myself, this post is for you. Sadly Thailand is infamous for its elephant rides but we happened to find the best sanctuary you can visit.

Walking around Chiang Mai you'll see hundreds of tourist information shops advertising places to ride the animals and  watch 'shows' - sadly most tourists don't realise the pain and suffering these creatures go through on a daily basis and end up paying a hefty price for a pretty short day. I won't go into detail on what actually happens behind the scenes but Google it - it's horrifying and not enough people realise.

After lots of research and searches on Trip Advisor we decided to go with Elephant Jungle Sanctuary. Right from the beginning the website and mahouts (keepers) emphasised how riding is strictly not allowed and that all the elephants at the sanctuary were rescued from previous neglect. We were picked up at around 8:15am and drove an hour North into the mountains just outside of Chiang Mai. 

The day was absolutely amazing. We were firstly given hand-made tops to wear and the mahouts told us all about the elephants and what our day would include. We then spent the next 3 hours playing, feeding, washing and following the elephants down a river and into rockpools. The best thing about the whole experience was that we were pretty much left to our own devices to do what we pleased with the animals and basically just followed them around the sanctuary like little tag alongs.

After the first hour or so we broke off for lunch which was kindly made by the people working there. It was delicious and what made it even better is that we sat in a bamboo hut overlooking the elephants grazing in the open land below. After that we all mucked in to make traditional medicine for the elephants which we fed to them before stripping down into our swimwear and helping them (and eachother..) to a mud bath. 

After being completely covered in mud and scrubbing the elephants clean, we followed them down to a waterfall and rockpool area to wash off the mud and basically have a huge waterfight. For me this was personally the best part of the day, the elephants were absolutely loving it rolling around and letting us splash them with buckets of water. It was so cute to see them sticking their trunks up out of the water to help them breathe. 

It was honestly one of the best days of my life and I can't express just how much I'd love to be able to do it all again. The elephants are so well cared for and fed, and the mahouts really do know how to handle and treat them. Before the trip I was nervous and sceptical about finding a place that didn't abuse the animals but I can hand on heart say that I didn't feel uncomfortable at any point during the day. The elephants were able to walk around freely and there were no chains or hooks in sight like many other places have. 

The day trip cost us 2500 baht, which works out at about £45 and included a pick up/drop off from where we were staying, the tops (which we were allowed to keep), all the sugar canes and bananas for feeding the elephants, our lunch and professional photos taken throughout the day. It really was worth every single bit of the money and the group size was about 15-20 people which looked a lot a first but was perfect and so much fun in the end. 

If you're looking at visiting Chiang Mai and wanting to do an elephant trip, I highly recommend this one but I also can't express enough just how careful to be with what company you go for and do your research! Lots of it. Any place that says 'rides' or 'tricks/shows' do not treat the elephants in a humane way and you'll see this advertised everywhere. It was so sad to travel through the villages before we got to ours and seeing the poor elephants just stood there in tiny areas with seats strapped on their backs and chains on most of their legs waiting for a tourist to drop by and make them wander around.

Tips:

-For 15 minutes of the journey you go down a very off road bumpy windy dirt track. So if you're not great with travel sickness, definitely take tablets.

-You'll get muddy, very muddy. They have showers and you wash off in the stream but take a change of clothing.

-Take a towel. You'll need it.

-Enjoy every part of it, it's amazing! 

♥

After 2 nights in Bangkok, it was time to head up North to Chiang Mai. We took the overnight sleeper train and it was one of the best things I've done so far on this trip.

Everyone knows that this is the main way to get from Bangkok up to Chiang Mai but I can't say I was looking forward to sitting in a cramped carriage with a dingy pull down bed for 14 hours. But it was honestly so much more than I'd expected.

We were in 2nd class (cost around the £18 mark, about 900 Baht but well worth it) and were in our own little cabin minus the door with a bunk bed on either side and a table in the middle. There was loads of storage space for our backpacks and the cabin even had plug sockets, a pillow, a bed sheet and a thin duvet which was surprisingly comfy. You also had a curtain you could pull around your bed when you wanted to sleep which came in handy. We stocked up on snacks at Bangkok train station before boarding but it turned out there was no need, you can order your evening meal/breakfast as soon as you get on the train and it has a restaurant carriage too. The meals worked out at about 200-250 Baht per person. 

I took the bottom bunk and don't regret it one bit. I fell asleep at around 11pm-ish and woke up at 7am to the most amazing view. We were travelling through the jungle just outside of Chaing Mai and for the next hour passed through tiny villages made up of clusters of wooden huts, rice fields, mountains, greenery and fields full of cattle. It was all pretty surreal to be honest. 

I can't say I was excited at first about the long haul travel up to Chiang Mai, but I can hands down say that it's one of the best things I've ever done. I felt 100% safe, the train/toilets were clean, it was so much more comfortable than expected and the staff were lovely. 

I wouldn't even consider flying from the middle of the county now if the sleeper train is an option, it's such a good experience and well worth the 14 hours. 

♥

So it's the second day into our Bangkok visit and we've been scammed... by £160. Here's what happened and how to avoid it.

Heading out of our hotel to spend the afternoon down at the Grand Palace, the guys on reception warned us that under no circumstance to listen to anyone who approaches us on the street telling us that the Palace is closed for whatever reason and that it only opens at 2pm. "The monks are praying" or "tourists are only allowed in at certain hours" are some of their favourite things to say. Praying on vulnerable tourists, their tactic and only tactic is to convince you that the palace is closed but hey, "not to worry, they'll take you on their own tour of the city themselves in the meantime!". What you don't know is that after the tour on their ever so handy Tuk Tuk parked just 10 metres away, they'll whisk you off to show you the sights before dropping you off at a T.i.T shop (tourist information travel). Just fyi, the official tourist travel shops in Bangkok are T.A.T (Tourism Authority Travel) or something along those lines. They're the official ones to look out for. They then sit you down, print out a grid calendar of the current month you're in and start planning your trip with you, informing you off all the excursions you need to do and trains/boats you need to book in quite a forceful way.

The first part of this didn't happen to us as we didn't get into a Tuk Tuk (this is the main way of the scam happening) but instead we saw a T.i.T shop on the way to the train station and jumped out - obviously thinking this was a real tourist shop. Before we knew it we'd been sat down, a calendar grid had been printed out and the guy was on the phone to the station booking the train tickets for us to Chiang Mai. He was polite, friendly, knew his stuff and promised us the trip was fine. So being excited at everything being sorted for us, we handed over our cash and that was that, we now had a train for the next day, a 3 day jungle trek sorted out for once we arrived in Chiang Mai and our slow boat to Laos booked. 

It was only when we arrived back at the hotel it hit us that maybe we should have done a little more research on this agency before booking. And what did we find? Many Google posts and sites from previous people explaining how T.i.T shops are not to be trusted and basically scam you out of more money than the trip is actually worth. We were gutted. So gutted that we sat in our room panicking instead of going to the Lebua (featured on The Hangover film) skybar like planned which would've been amazing. We'd handed over £160 and couldn't do anything about it. 

Fortunately for us, we checked that evening and the train tickets were legit so we headed off the next day to Chiang Mai where we instead booked our own hostel and planned to start the trip from scratch. If anything this has been a learning curve for the rest of the trip in terms of doing research properly before agreeing to anything, and to be very wary of who to trust. Just because the guys nice and knows all the right information (obviously), it doesn't mean they are to be trusted. Everything was ok in the end, but we just had to accept that we'd lost out on the money and had stupidly fallen into the T.i.T scam trap. 

Before we started this South East Asia trip we knew something would end up happening at some point, but just didn't realise how easily we would fall into the trap. We're 3 bright, sensible girls aware of being scammed/robbed yet still managed to be affected. So I just wanted to post this to help anyone else out who is thinking of ever going to Bangkok. I wish we had known about T.i.T beforehand, but things happen and lessons are learnt. 

It hasn't put me off Bangkok one bit though, it's such an amazing city and I'd absolutely love to come back as soon as possible. It's honestly incredible and most of the people really are lovely. I'm just more aware than ever now and wanted to make others aware too so that you don't fall into the trap we did. 

♥

Our first night in Bangkok was insane. After arriving in the airport at 10pm after a 4 hour flight, of course the first natural thing to do was to hit Khaosan Road.

I never thought I'd be one to eat the bugs Bangkok is renowned for offering, but after a few drinks on Khaosan Road it suddenly sounded like a great idea.. Not. The only way I can describe it is like eating smoked pork scratchings. It's not actually that bad - but definitely not something I'll be rushing to do again. 

Khaosan Road is that good we ended up out until 3am the first night without even realising it. There's so many bars, clubs, places to eat, sounds, food stalls, clothing/accessory stalls and people it's hard not to love. You'll also never be lonely as it's basically backpacker heaven and you'll find yourself chatting to people all night. It's stupidly cheap, and most bars offer 2-4-1 on all drinks and buckets. You'll also be approached countless times by people wanting to sell you bracelets and insects on a stick, but it's an experience to say the least. 

My experience of Bangkok went downhill from here after being scammed out of £160 the next day (gutted) but I really do wish I'd booked longer here as there's still so much to see I really haven't felt like I've scratched the surface of it! 

Tips:

- Pack as little in the way of clothing as possible, Khaosan Road has it all. And for stupidly cheap.

- Look around for food, we ate at a few dodgy places to begin with but the good ones are there.

- Be very, VERY wary of people who tell you that the tourist places are closed for that day and that they'll take you on a tour. It's a scam, the tourist places are mostly open all day every day and the (mainly) guys on tuk tuks just want to take you on a not very good tour on their tuk tuk and rip you off.

First things first, Happy New Year! I've only been in Hong Kong for 4 days but it's already on my top 10 list of favourite cities that I've visited. 

In just 4 days, we've managed to do all the typical touristy things: The Peak, the Big Bus Tour, the Harbour, the Hong Kong History Museum, the night markets as well as the day markets. Pretty much everything but the cable cars up to the giant Buddha which was stupidly busy! We were also here for New Year so partied in a few bars on Hollywood Avenue before the midnight fireworks. But overall I'd say 4-5 days is by far enough time to spend here, its surprising how much you can pack into a day. Price-wise it's not cheap the more central you are so expect to pay city prices e.g. London. But if you do want a cheaper tasty meal, head to the night markets. The food is fab, the atmosphere is great and the alcohol is cheap there too! It's also a good place to meet other travellers and have a little bit of extra company. 

Tips:

- As a typical girly backpacker I've packed all the toiletries. Well, don't. You can buy everything here, literally everything. My backpack would be so much lighter to carry if I'd known this.

- Share! All 3 of us have brought the same toiletries taking up more space and weight. So now we've decided to buy 1 shampoo/toothpaste etc between us to even the load and lower the cost.

- Dec/Jan isn't that warm. You'll be an outfit repeater everyday like I have but you'll thank yourself that you've packed a pair of jeans. 

- 100% pre-book the cable cars to see the big Buddha. We turned up to see a 90 minute queue for the tickets alone, followed by another 90 minute queue to actually get on the cable cars. The cable cars take half an hour to reach the top at which point we realised we just didn't have the time that day. 

- Take the Metro. It's the only and best way to get around! 

♥