[ZenGum]

I'm baaaaa-aaaack!
And what a great time I had.
The hill-trekking was very interesting, I love seeing a thatched house with a solar panel and satellite dish. And you know dinner will be fresh when you walk into the village and hear a gunshot, then see a guy carrying a still bleeding piglet across the track in front of you.
The elephants were of course very cool, they let us ride and "steer" them, although I think my elephant just went were it wanted and if that was where I also wanted this was mostly coincidence. Mind you, riding on an elephant's head isn't very comfortable - very bristly hairs, and a pretty unsteady bobbing motion. It is definitely worth it.
The rafting was pretty good, except that the river had large numbers of brown floaties that I didn't want to touch, but which constantly got trapped in the gaps between the bamboo, so that by the end there wa a goodly sized sludge pile aboard.
Shopping? Silk! Bamboo musical instruments, jewelery, all sorts of touristy souvenirs, more T-shirts than you could poke a stick at ...
The beach resort was not actually on the beach but there was one close by, the water was clean and lovely and warm, the sun was intense, the food was delicious and generally cheap.
I had no upset stomach, but a little sunburn. There were only two things that went amiss, firstly, my camera broke on the third day, meaning that for much of the trip (including the best cave, the elephant riding and the rafting) I had no camera at all, and later in the trip I was getting by on a disposable camera. :p
And secondly, on my last day I had a single day for sightseeing in bangkok and planned to visit the Grand Palace with the Temple of the Jade Buddha. Alas, the evening before, the King's elder sister died and the whole complex was closed for the funeral. So instead I saw the Reclining Buddha and a few other sights which were still cool.
Pictures will follow when I get around to transferring them from my camera, and getting the disposable camera developed.