In Chaing Mai, it seems that just about every hotel books trips to the various points of interest in the surrounding area.  We booked a day-trip that included an elephant ride up to visit one of the hill-tribes, a stop to swim at a waterfall, lunch of traditional Thai food, and a trip down river on a bamboo raft.

When we got in the van, there were two Australian girls, Vanessa and Gabby, already waiting inside.  We had to wait a few more minutes for the fifth member of our group, Regis - who along with his friend, had stayed out partying quite late the night before (his friend was supposed to join us but decided to sleep in).
 

Here's Regis leading the way - with some unknown tourist along to balance the load.

After (gladly) bidding a fond farewell to our elephants, we had about a half-hour walk on up to the village of the hill-tribe - crossing some rather rustic-looking bridges in the process.  But our guide assured us they were safe - I just wonder why he made us go first.

In another part of the village, one enterprising local had set up a shooting range with somewhat primitive crossbows.  None of our group would venture to try it, even though it was only five bhat (about 12 cents) for two shots.  Our guide broke the ice by going first - then we all had to have a go.  There were three targets suspended in front of a piece of cardboard - one plastic bottle partially filled with water, and two melons of some variety.  The guide missed with his first shot - but dead-centered one of the melons with his second.
 

Then dead-eye Doug steps up;
 taking a more serious approach to sighting.
With my first shot, I nearly split the arrow from our guide's successful attempt still protruding from the melon on the right.
For my second, I tried for the water
bottle and nailed it just below center.

Then it was back to the van for a short drive to the lunch stop - which was quite good - and on to the waterfall.  Here Vanessa and Gabby pose in front of the falls, with Gabby making an interesting fashion statement
after having slipped on the way down.

We piled back in the van and went on to our rendezvous with the bamboo rafts.  They were long - about 10 meters - and narrow - barely wide enough for two people to sit side-by-side.  And when I saw how low they sat in the water, I decided not to bring my camera - so no photos of the raft trip.  The river was not very wide - ranging from a few meters to about twenty - or deep - most of the time it was no more than knee deep.

The trip lasted about an hour and a quarter and we moved along at a pretty good pace, covering quite a lot of ground.  About halfway through the trip, I realized I had made the right decision about the camera.  We came to a narrow place where a fair number of Thais were swimming in the river.  As we floated past, they played a popular local game called "splash the tourists".  After we had run the gauntlet, we were completely soaked.

Back at the hotel, we all enjoyed some very welcome showers.  After our day-long ordeal together, the five of us felt like we had bonded and decided to go to dinner together.  We chose a place called The Riverside, with great food and a nice view of the river (albeit a different one than we had rafted on).