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Cat & Anna's Adventures
Hey all,
Well the first week has been action packed, starting with out eventful journey- almost mised my connection to Bangkok and then once we had arrived my bag had sadly not been as quick as I had been across Heathrow. Luckily it turned up on Saturday-in the nick of time before i started my trek!
Well first stop was Bangkok - what can i say - crazy place. Spent a couple of days in Bangkok being overwhelmed by the food, smells and hot weather! Can't say I loved it but it was definately an experience- especially the fish head stew they tried to make me eat for breakfast! Spent lots of time in Khaosan Road, seen lots of buddhas, the Grand Palace and travelled by tuk tuks and water taxis to see the city.
Started our tour on the Sunday - with Anna and 11 other wicked people. Took an overnight train to Chang Mai in Northern Thailand. Cant say we slept but it was fun - there was even a disco carraige on the train - like a mini cheesy nightclub! Chang Mai is a much nicer city than Bangkok, spent the first morning viewing the Doi Suthep Temple - amazing views of the city. Spent the rest of the time at the night market and eating the cheap food. Set out on Tuesday morning for what promised to be an interesting 3 days on a hilltribe trek of the villages in Northern Thailand.
Dont think words can describe the horror of the trek! The 12 of us now refer to it as death trek! The first morning was amazing, elephant riding round the jungle - such a cool experience despite the fact that our elephant was mental and had no security bar! Then set out on a 4 hour trek - climbing mountains rather than hills in 35 degree weather. Arrived at our river camp only to find out that the bridge to cross the river had broken! The result was 5 Thai cowboys felling a tree to stretch half way across the river and filling in the gaps with bamboo. Dont think ive seen 12 people quite so shell shocked in my life. We all managed to cross the waterfall, river and rocks without any disasters. The highlight was at the end when the whole thing gave way whilst the men we're carring our bags accross! We spent about 2 hours in silence at the horror of the whole event, and then spent the night in bamboo hut on the river edge. It didnt stop raining all night - so much so our local guide Dong spent all night watching our hut in case we washed away - luckily he didn't tell us this until the morning - not that any of us slept anyway!
The next morning we set off for the hardest trek of the 3 days - up incredibly steep mountains in jungle terrain - surrounded by spiders as big as my head. Also because it had rained so much the ground was incredibly slippy and muddy, leading to lots of falls and bruises. Nevertheless we kept our spirits up and arrived in the village of the Kuran Tribe. The village people lead such a basic way of life - the kids we're so cute and well beahved. They sang songs for us and we gave them presents - including a football - much to the boys delight! We cooked them omlettes for tea - they we're the most patient and best behaved kids ive ever seen.
We stayed in a bamboo hut again (our backs have still not recovered) surrounded by the "evocative sounds of the jungle" - as quoted from the travel brochure. All i can say is that by 4am i was ready to kill the multiple roosters and pigs with my very own penkife. The roosters congregated under our hut and cock-a-doodled all night and the pigs squealed louder than i scream, leading to some very grumpy people the next morning!
By thursday morning we we're incredibly dirty, sweaty and ready to get out of the jungle! Luckily we had a nice 5 hour downhill trek through the jungle and rice paddies. Unfortuantely I fell really badly on my ankle 30 minutes before the end - resulting in a giantly painfull foot! Luckily its only twisted and the swelling will die down in a couple of days - i hope!
Spent last night in a bar drinking gin and eating pizza - think we all had post-traumatic stress after the trek! Was soo nice to have pizza as ive not eaten anything all week - not a fan of the food! Did some one legged dancing and then headed home to sleep! We we're suposed to be heading back to Bangkok by overnight train but due to the flooded track it has been cancelled. So instead of opting for the 12 hour bus ride we have all paid 30 quid to fly back tonight. Leaving on Sunday evening and then heading down south to Khao Sok (national park) and then Krabi - cant wait to hit the beach!!!!
Anyways this is the worlds longest entry. Dont worry about the coup in Bangkok, we are on an organised trek so we are being well looked after. And after 3 days in the jungle we didn't even no it had happened!
Love cat x
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