Trekking in Chiang Mai

Trekking is really the main must do activity in Chaing Mai. I booked it at the Souvenir Guest House. I just asked the lady to put me on the best one. I left the following day. This was a 3 day trek for about 20 quid. Picked up early we drove for a couple of hours into the mountains, picked up other trekkers on the way, 4 French; Stefan, Daphne, Caroline and another one whos name I forgot as soon as she said it. A Swiss couple, Simon and the lovely Claudia. Six Dutch, Pieter and family, two hippies namely Johan and his girlfriend (they were hoping for some opium smoking activity). Englishman Doctor Raj from Leeds (Hyde Park where I used to live). So there was a good mix of people. After swimming and cooling off in a large waterfall we trekked into the mountains to a remote village. Pigs, chickens, buffalos, rice planting etc. When I say 'village' this is comprised of about 4 or 5 small bamboo huts. We trekked further to the next village for a delicious dinner and camp fire stories about Thai history and the life of the hill tribes from our guide Mr. Ko (above). Mr. Ko spoke good English but was difficult to understand at times for those who didnt use it as their 1st language as I do. I translated a bit for the others. Mr Ko grew very emotional at one point and started to thump his chest as he declared he would die for his country. At this point I admitted that although I considered myself to be patriotic I could not declare that I would die for my country. Maybe if we were invaded I would fight for my country but as an Englishman these days its just for someone elses politics. Little did I know that as we sat in this remote place discussing and comparing all our views on everything from cheese to languages to terrorism, London was suffering a terrorist attack from suicide bombers on the underground.