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9th October 2009
We arrived in Chang Mai at 6am thinking we were going to have a day to relax next to the pool and catch up on some much needed sleep... but no! We upgraded our trek to one that goes further north and away from the tourism so had only 2 hours to get our daysack packed for our 3 day trek into the jungle. Shoving whatever we could into our tiny bags we boarded a small van that took us to a market for supplies then dropped us 3 hours north in a small hill tribe village where we had lunch. Our trek consisted of 10 people, us being the only brits, two canadians, two americans, 2 spanish, one danish and one swedish.
The first day was a fairly short trek, just one and a half hours, to the next village where we spent the night amongst the local villagers. We had all our food cooked for us over a fire (which was a yummy green thai curry) and stayed up drinking and chatting with the other 8 people on our trek. The beds were simple, simple being bamboo and a rug, but after a day of walking it didnt matter.
The second day we hiked up the worlds biggest hill, in the soaring heat and a tour guide that walked like he was getting chased by a tiger. It was well worth it for the amazing views though, breath taking. After a few hours we made it to a waterfall where we swam and had a much needed shower. so refreshing! Lunch was noodle soup in a bamboo hut next to the river, then off on another 2 hour trek to get to the elephants.
Steph and I were joined on our elephant by an american we had met who, due to the lack of room, had to ride on the elephants head. soo funny and dangerous! After hair-raising 1 hour elephant ride we hiked more to our resting place for the second night. Even more remote than the first, it was just one hut in the middle of nowhere. 10 miles from the border of Burma.
The final day was another short hike to a river where we did bamboo rafting, it was soooo funny, three of us on a raft that we barely knew how to steer, down rapids, past trees and random bits of tree trunk sticking out of the river. People were falling in all the time! There were no life jackets, oh no, thats not how it works in Thailand. But we survived and it was incredible. Our last lunch was Pad Thai noodles then back on the van to the hostel. That night the whole group went out for dinner and we partied til the early hours, was so much fun and have made friends with some reallty cool people. We are going to be travelling into Laos with some of them tomorrow evening after our day long cooking course, learning how to make 7 different thai dishes. Should be fun!
See you in Laos!!!!
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