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We have returned from the Jungle and we have sooooooooooo much to fill you all in on.
First things first...our last day in Bangkok was spent at the historic floating markets North West of the city. When we arrived we took a long tailed river boat though the winding canals all the way though to the river market. Now this wasn't quite Romford Market that's for sure- haha! with dozens of wooden canoes laden with fresh fruit, hats, woodworks, spices and ever serving hot food and each canoe was paddled by men & woman wearing wide brimmed straw hats. This was once a traitional way for Thai people to trade goods, but sadly thoughout the years this tradition has been lost and canals have been replaced by roads and motorways. After taking in this traditional Thai way of life we headed back to Bangkok where we jumped on the undeground to the main train staion. This was a sereal experience, with air conditioned carriages and Thai's using their mobile phones underground- a far cry from the central line- haha! We then boarded our coach to Chaing Mai where the adventures really began!!! After a long 9 hour journey we reached our first of many hostel early hours of the morning, where we were greeted by the friendly staff. After catching up on some much needed zzzzzzzzzzzzz we fancied a bit of lively entertainment so we brought a few tickets for the local boxing arena. This was a great night out and a real eye opener. Some of the boxers were as young as 13 years old! The even had Lady Boxing as well and the women nath went for it- go on the girls!!!
Once we boarded our jeep and headed deep into the jungle of Chaing Mai we began our 3 hour trek to the village we would be staying in. The walk was amazing although if we are honest very exhausting in the heat and at such great hights. We have never seen amazing sights like it before, treking across bambling brooks, though hanging vines and up and down the montains edge. We had a freindly tour guide called Chia aka: the jungle man or Tarzan. along the route he explained to us what certain plants and fruits were and even made us both a stick to help us with the walk. When we reached the village, a little camp set deep in the jungle with huts made of wooden beams and bamboo, we filled our bellies with some much needed dinner. Chai had made us Green Curry with coconut milk (not to hot this time), rice and chicken with bamboo- which was all very tasty. We then sat round the camp fire the village people had made for us. It was then Lorna had her first encounter with 'the deadly leach'!!! After feeling it riggling in between her toes- eeewwww! The bleeding didn't stop for a good few hours after we had prized it from her. Apartently they release a chemical into the blood that encourages the bleeding- not nice!!! The sky was amazing that night, filled with a blanket of glisining stars. We must have counted at least 5 shooting stars.
Day 2 and our second part of the trek began, again we found this a bit of a struggle. We had to walk a good 3 hours to the next village we were staying in that night. Again the walk was amazing, we still couldn't beleive we were in the heart of the Thai jungle seeing such wonderful sights. This time round we were worried about the leeches crawling up our legs and into our trainers. This wasn't the only creature we encounted along the way, Chai insisted on catching two snakes. Feeling quite brave we both took one each and brought them back to camp to show the rest of the group. later we took a 1 and half hour walk to the waterfall, at this point we were really begining to feel the heat. By the time we returned to camp we both began to feel rather sick- not good news!!! Unfortunalty this meant an early night for us, although we weren't asleep for long before we were running to the toilet again. This was a horrible experience, especailly when we realised we had run out of both toilet roll and baby wipes, in the middle of the damn jungle- aaaaaahhh!
The final day of the Trek and we weren't feeling much better. We convinced a few of the locals to take us via motorbike to the second leg of our trek that day, instead of walking before we began our elephant riding. But still not feeling any better Lorna wasn't able to stomach the Elephant treking so chilled out in the shade why i took on the hairy mammals alone. This was a fun experience, couldn't quite believe I was riding an Elephant! (Steph & Chris- he was just like Dumbo with big floppy ears and long trunk that he used to suck water through like a straw before pouring it into his mouth, although thankfuly this elephant couldn't fly so Auntie Vicky was safely on the ground). It was a great shame Miss. Peters couldn't join me on this :-( Even though we had a great time in the jungle, it was a good feeling to get back to civilisation last night when we returned to the hostel.
Keep them messages coming everyone,
Lots of Love- The Essex Girls x x x x x x
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