We just got back from our 3-day northern Thailand trek. It was an excellent time! We left on the morning of the 25th and got back at around 4:30 on the 27th.

A jeep came to our guest house on the morning of the 25th and picked us up. We then swung by several other guest houses to get our entire group for the trek. All in all, we had 14 people:

• Randall - Ireland
• Connor - Ireland
• Lampoon - Thailand (Connor's girlfriend and it turns out also a Muay Thai ladies champion in Ko Samui. She has won 89 fights, 33 by knockout.
• Katharina - Austria
• Chase - North Carolina
• Alice and Sonja - Scotland
• Jim - UK
• "The Korean Girls" - Two young girls from South Korea…I'm not sure anyone knew their names, but they were very sweet and spoke very little.
• Shereen - Washington DC…Columbia Heights. Yep, small world. And she is interested in Presidential politics, so she and Bev had plenty to chat about.
• T - our Thai guide - able to whittle anything you name out of bamboo in 30 minutes or less or your pizza is free.

After we picked everyone up, we stopped off at a market to get snacks/water for the upcoming hike. We then all got acquainted on the 1.5 hour drive towards the hills.

When we got out of the jeep, we settled in at a hut near the river and had rice, fruit, and water for lunch. We ate pretty quickly, put on our packs, and began hiking.

We took off on a dirt road that paralleled the river. After a little bit, we turned off onto the trail and proceeded to ascend for the better part of the next 4 hours - straight up to the top of the hills where the Lihu hill tribe was waiting for us.

We arrived a few hours before sunset and got situated in a bamboo house, where there were beds laid out for each of us. By bed, I mean a bamboo mat, some cushions, a pillow, and 3 blankets each. They provided mosquito nets (mozzy nets, as the Aussies call them), but they really weren't necessary since it is winter here and the temperatures were low enough to keep the skeeters at bay.

We claimed our "beds" and grabbed water and/or beers and a hot shower. Well, by "hot" I mean freezing freaking cold. :) Close to the house, there were some shacks set up with a western toilet, a squat toilet, and two showers doling out ice cold water. It felt good to get clean, but Katharina could hear Bev trying to catch her breath during her icy shower as she tried to wash up as quickly as humanly possible.

We all cleaned up before sundown and sat down to a tasty meal made by our guide and one of the villagers who kept an eye on things around the hut. After dinner, we hung out around a fire, had some beers, and sang American rock tunes while our guide, T, played the guitar. It was really chilled out and an outstanding way to get the evening going after a day of rigorous hiking.

Turns out, we were at the village during the middle of the tribe's week-long new year's celebration, so T led us down to the village "square" where we observed dancing and singing to celebrate the new year. Basically, one villager was singing, three others were beating drums to make a basic but consistent rhythmic pattern, and folks from the village formed a circle to dance.

Wait…did I say observe? I meant, participate! Yep, they started telling us to join in the dancing, and pretty soon, Bev had the dance down better than some of the villagers. As the festivities continued, we were invited to hoist a cup of hill tribe moonshine, and then the fun really started. If you mix everclear with sake, you have village moonshine. Potent stuff. I lost the vision in one eye for a few hours, but I think I am okay now. Just kidding!

After what felt like hours of celebrating, we thought it had to be at least 1 or 2 AM when we looked at our watches to find out it was barely 10PM. We walked back to the bamboo house, our way lit by the stars, the moon, and the occasional flashlight flipped on to help out. We proceeded to sack out until the rooster decided to wake us up. It was 4:30 AM. Between the rooster and the all night new year's celebration (literally sundown to sun up, and they kept the music going the entire night), we didn't get much sleep! Still a great time, though.

The next morning, we had breakfast, played with some of the little kids in the village, enjoyed a stunning view of the clouds nestled in the mountains below us, got our gear together, and took off to descend the rest of the morning/afternoon. Several of our fellow trekkers were only on the 2-night version of the trek, so they left before us, leaving us with around 8 people.

The descent was beautiful. We passed a few villages and saw groves of banana trees and other lush vegetation. We walked along the river and stopped at a few waterfalls. While they were cold, they felt amazing after getting pretty sweaty on the hike. We had lunch at the first waterfall, and then we continued descending until we hit another waterfall and finally ended at our second village for the night.

We had dinner, got to know each other even better, and hung out around the fire for the remainder of the evening. Our guide got a little hammered with us, and with his inhibitions gone, he proceeded to crack us up for hours as he opened up and tried more and more of his English with us.

The next day, we descended the remaining hour until we were back at the river. We walked to an elephant camp and went for a quick elephant ride. I wasn't sure how I felt about an elephant ride, as I thought I might feel like I was exploiting the elephant for my own pleasure. However, since coming to Thailand I have learned that when the government banned logging in several areas, the elephants that used to work clearing and hauling the logs suddenly found themselves unemployed. Some of the tourist activity centered on elephants now provides them gainful employment. With an eco-tourism spin to our elephant trip, I felt more comfortable participating.

It was pretty amazing. These creatures are just so exceptionally strong. Ours was a bit feisty, so he required a Thai rider, who sat on the elephant's head. During the uphills and downhills, he held on to the tendons in the elephants ears. The elephant didn't even notice.

We were able to bring fruit and feed the elephants, and if we ran out of food, a man was at a stand ten feet off the ground handing out fruit for a price (see the picture in the "trekking" photo album). To feed the elephant, we would hold the fruit up and he would reach back with his trunk, resting it on his head. We would then place the fruit on his trunk, and he would curl it around the fruit, bring it down, and eat it.

At one point, we had tied the remaining fruit in a bag and couldn't get it out in time after giving him a few pieces of fruit (he was still hungry). He blew a few warning blasts, and then, when he was really annoyed, he blew a wad of snot right back at us. Somehow, Bev and the Thai rider escaped unscathed. I, however, spent the remainder of the ride picking elephant boogers off of me. Bev found it quite funny. @#($#&#ing elephant.

After the ride, we donned our helmets and life jackets and spent a few hours white water rafting. While it was pretty tame with class 2's and 3's, it was still a fun time.

After rafting, we made our way to some bamboo rafts for a river float. While getting on, I screwed up and stepped with my foot straight ahead rather than sideways. It slipped between the bamboo poles, and I could not get it out. A few people helped, and when I finally yanked it out, I had a decent cut and some bruising. Combine that with a float down a river filled with, among other things, elephant dung, and I've had a cut that didn't feel like healing for a while (I am happy to report that I have turned the corner and it is healing nicely now, however).

Aside from that, our river float was pretty uneventful with the exception of passing some elephants getting a bath. At one point, we came pretty close to a mom and her cub (is an elephant baby called a cub?), and that was really amazing. She put her trunk on her baby as we floated by…just keeping an eye on him while the strangers floated by. It was really a tender moment, and Chase did a nice job of capturing it on film (see the "trekking" photo album).

We wrapped up the floating experience and jumped into the jeep. T drove us about 15 minutes to a little area where some locals had pad thai and fruit waiting for us. We then loaded up the jeep and drove back to Chiang Mai. We decided to all meet up later that night at a Western bar called the Chiang Mai saloon, where we indulged in some drinks, pub food, and pool. Katharina was moving on that night to the islands in the south, so our group was down to 7.

Our new Irish mates from the trek, Randall and Connor, had decided to take motorbikes up north to go to the Thai-Myanmar (Burma) border, and they invited the group from the trek to go along. We decided to join up with them and will meet them at 10AM tomorrow at our guest house.

Next up - the motor bike adventure....