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CHIANG MAI 9th Oct - 14th Oct 2006
Attended evening Thai cooking course - see photos at www.cookinthai.com for 10th Oct 2006.
The next day we set off on our 3 day trek into the jungle with our guide Jay. Met Chloe and Laura which made it an all-girl trek. Lucky Jay!
Stopped at a waterfall which we climbed down - but mad woman Irene climbed up an even bigger one. It was all a walk in the park for Jay. We then had lunch at small village where Jay provided us with take-away egg fried rice.
The local 10-baht chanting kids then hassled us enough for us to buy jewellery we didn't want. Once we escaped them our hike began.
Cathryn seemed to then develop a "tummy bug". She ventured forth as much as possible hoping it was just dodgy egg-fried rice. How wrong she was!
Arrived at our jungle village to wait for the hunters to return - which they never did, thereby raising suspicion that we weren't staying in an'authentic" tribal village. Had to wash our dirty sweaty bodies in nice cold stream with buckets. Oh how we now miss the luxury hotel of Bangkok. Six screaming girls had to face the toilet with the biggest spiders in the world. What we didn't realise was that the biggest spider of all was outside the toilet and by our feet all along.
Next day, the hunters had left early from our "village", but we were greeted by nice friendly elephant men with mobile phones. How tribal!
Cathryn went on an alternative route by herself on her own elephant as she was still not well. But she hoped to see the rest of the group again at the next village.... En route she managed to come across an authentic tribal village and had a couple of hours there to entertain the local children with games and camera technology. The village was very friendly but Cathryn coudn't quite convey that the chilli noodles she was given was not the best remedy for her "tummy bug".
After elephant riding in the monsoon Rebecca and Jen waded through a river. Getting more and more muddy trekking through the jungle slipping and sliding everywhere they went. Had noodles in the middle of the jungle with chopsticks before arriving at the village to find Cathryn asleep with the mangy dog.
The "tribal village" had local tuck shop, solar power, motorbikes, cars and tv. Had we been conned? Showered under a tap and then had donuts and jelly snakes from the tuck shop.
Some of the local tribal girls (which Jay then explained were all Burmese refugees) then sang to us that night - looking like they didn't want to be there was an understatement. In return for their entertainment we then had to sing to them. All we could think of was Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. When that didn't impress we tried to up the entertainment by adding in dance moves and doing the macarena. And still they didn't smile.
Chloe, Laura, Jen and Rebecca's arachnaphobia and fear of using the toilet lead to a spot of communal gardening outside one of the refugee's homes.
After carefully checking our beds for insects we forgot to take account of larger creatures - i.e. the mangy dog. We were clearly sleeping in his bed so he started knawing the door down. We screamed for help and Jay and the rest of the village came to save us. The dog was nowhere to be found the following morning - we only hope he went to heaven and not hell. After hearing a loud squeal from it the night before we knew it had been killed. R.I.P.
The next day was a nice easy stroll through another village towards the river for some bamboo rafting. Rebecca, Jenny and Irene were on one raft. Cathryn, Chloe and Laura on the other. Whilst Rebecca, Jenny and Irene sat back and enjoyed the ride, Cathryn, Chloe and Laura each had a go at steering and powering the raft themselves. Chloe had a lucky escape through the rapids. Back on the truck we headed back to Chiang Mai seeing some baby elephants on the way.
That night, we all put our grubby clothes and boots into the laundry before heading out for a much deserved slap up meal (Irene almost knocked herself out on a metal pole, but where food is at stake nothing will stop her) - nachos, pizza and chocolate brownies all round. Discovered a new meaning to the word spooning - using cold spoons to ease the pain of mozzie bites. Went to the crazy night market and each bought trousers for a pound. We'll see how long they last.
Next day was spent bartering with tuk-tuk men and screaming women at the bus station trying to buy our ticket to Bangkok. Visited Wat U Mong with Irene in a tuk-tuk made for three, so Jen and Rebecca took turns to sit on the motor's battery.
It was then our final tuk-tuk journey/race, backpacks included, to the bus station for our overnight journey to Bangkok.
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