For our trek, we had a very nice group. There was one couple who were in the circus from France and Belgium, 2 French girls, 2 Dutch boys, 2 English boys, 1 girl from Poland, Cat and I.
We all piled into a truck that had 2 benches in the back and drove about an hour to an elephant farm. We went on an elephant ride for about 1/2 hour and then hopped back in the truck for about another 2 hours where we stopped in a little village to look around and have lunch. Just as we were getting ready for lunch, it started to downpour, and the rain wasn't giving up. It continued to rain the entire day drenching us from head to toe as we hiked through the jungle. The paths were muddy and steep, so we were all sliding around, grasping for anything stable to keep us from summersaulting down the hill.
We stopped after awhile to set rat traps made out of bamboo using rice and ginger as bait.
When we arrived at our camp for the first night, we realized that our bags were not water proof and everything inside including all of our clothes and sleeping bags were completely drenched, so we made a fire and everyone hung their clothes over it in attempt to get them dry.
We cooked a nice and big dinner together, which was the perfect reward for hiking all day in the jungle in the rain.
After dinner, the guide asked if anyone wanted to go on a night walk to look for snakes. I decided that I'd already paid for the whole trip, so I might as well get my money's worth, so I went. Only 1/2 of us went. We didn't end up seeing any snakes, unfortunately, but we did see a giant tarantula.
The next morning, we got up, had breakfast and started off again into the jungle. It didn't rain, but the trek was more strenuous this time.
Even though it wasn't raining anymore, the ground was still slippery and wet from the day before. We had to balance on logs over rivers, jump from rock to rock, duck underneath branches and squeeze between trees. One part was so steep that the only way to get down was to hold onto a vine and slide down hoping you don't slip and tumble to your death.
At the bottom of the hill was a waterfall where we stopped for lunch. Just as we got there, it started to rain again.
We had caught one rat in our traps from the night before, so we cooked that up along with some Thai noodles. Not everyone dared to taste the rat, but it actually wasn't too bad. It was a bit salty, but other than that, tasted pretty normal.
By the time we were ready to go again, the rain had stopped, which is a good thing. The next part of our journey, I'd like to be known as the Miley Cyrus part because it was all up hill and the song 'it's the climb' kept running repeatedly through my head with the occasional 'climb every mountain' from the Sound of Music.
Our guide was a machine. duracel duracel battery, he just kept going and going. Most of the people were falling behind, but he never looked back, so I don't think he even noticed.
We finally arrived at our camp; sweaty, starving and 1/2 dead. We were staying in a slightly larger village this time, so there was even a (cold water) shower, and they cooked dinner for us.
After dinner, we hung around the fire for a bit, playing music and traditional Thai games before we all passed out.
I woke up the next morning to a little boy with a giant bug on a string. It appeared as if he was taking his prt out for a fly.
That day was just as strenuous, up hill most of the way. W were all climbing, huffing and puffing, and as we were, the little kids from the village who had left after us, came skipping up behind us wearing flip-flops. We walked with them the rest of the way to the village where their school was (about a two hour walk from where they lived) passing a few other small villages along the way. At each of the villages that we would pass, there would be a kid or two, standing outside, yelling 'Bye! Bye! Bye!'
We had lunch in the school village. The whole time we were eating, this group of young girls was sitting there, watching us, giggling the entire time.
They continued to watch us as we piled into the truck, and as well pulled away, they came running after us, waving franticly and blowing kisses at us.
We drove to the river where we were going to do our bamboo rafting. This is Thailand. Anything goes. They just took us, gave us a bamboo stick, put us on the rafts; no life jackets, no helmets, nothing, just sent us down the river. We did have have a guide on the front, but if anyone fell off, there was no possible way to stop the raft. We kept crashing into the sides had to duck every few seconds to avoid getting brushed off by a branch. Thankfully, we had the circus guy on the back of our raft, so he was able to maneuver his way back onto the raft every time he fell off.
Once we were all back on dry land and safe, we got back into the truck to drive to the largest waterfall in the Chiang Mai area where we stopped for a quick swim before continuing the 2 hours back to Chiang Mai.
For our final day in Chiang Mai, we wanted to do some sight seeing, so we met up with Luke, Tom and Jo, but we were all feeling so dead from the trek that it pretty much just ended up being a restaurant and cafe tour, occasionally stopping to look at something important. Either way, it's nice to have a chill and hang out day every once in awhile.
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