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Hi,
Just a quick update about our trip to the Golden Triangle region in Thailand, north of Chiang Rai. We arrived in Chiang Rai on Monday, and booked into our hotel. Little did we know that we had chosen a rather seedy area of town, and this affected how much we enjoyed the city. There didn't seem much to do here anyway, and we felt that it had very little character to it. Chiang Mai was in a different league! The night market was quite good though, and we gorged ourselves there. They were evening selling little worms/grubs and deep-fried crickets and cockroaches, but I couldn't bring myself to try one, and Jo flat out refused!
We only spent the one night here, before being picked up early on Tuesday morning ready for our hilltribe trek in the Golden Triangle. Our guide was a little man called Homey, a funny enough name in itself, but he was hilarious! He seemed to adore Cliff Richard, and the film with the song 'Summer Holiday' seemed to be a defining moment in his life! His laugh was so funny, and you couldn't help but join in yourself when he got going! He must have been in his 60s, but was obviously amazingly fit, climbing mountain after mountain in searing heat. He'd just done two days trekking the day before he took us! However, he had very little steps, being so small and old, and we literally had to stop ourselves falling over him. It was like a little caterpillar, snaking its way up the slopes when he was leading the way! We were joined on the trek by two other English people, who were really friendly and good company. We started off by getting a longtail boat along the river for around an hour and a half. We then arrived at a village, where we rode elephants for about the same time into the jungle. The rest of the day was taken up with visiting hilltribe villages, most of the houses built from bamboo and on stilts, with dogs, pigs and chickens running around everywhere. The scenery was amazing, with lofty green peaks, often shrouded in smoke because of the slash and burn agriculture employed by the local people. One of the villages had an interesting custom: at the sacred entrance gate, a black dog (apparently it had to be black) had been sacrificed to stave off evil spirits. This proved particularly grizzly to walk past.
We walked for about 8 kilometres today, in the hottest temperatures. I don't think I've sweated so much in my life! I really enjoyed it though! Surprisingly, Jo really liked it too, even though she's not known for being a walker! It was really stunning scenery. We spent the night eating amazing food, watching the sunset with a beautiful view over the village we were staying in and the mountains beyond. A pretty surreal experience when combined with a collective singalong to 'We're all going on a Summer Holiday!'.
The next day followed in pretty much the same vein, with a mammoth uphill walk to a great panorama on top of a mountain, followed by a trek back down. We then visited some waterfalls, which by then we were all looking forward to! We swam in the plunge pool underneath one, and cooled off. After having some lunch it was time to go back to Chiang Rai. As soon as we got back to Chiang Rai, not wanting to stay another night there, we caught a 2 and a half hour bus to Chiang Khong, right on the border with Laos and by the Mekong River. This decision was justified. Chiang Khong had the feeling of a frontier town, but was really relaxing, and just what we needed after the trek. We're hoping to get an early night before crossing the border into Laos tomorrow.
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