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Kim's Travels
Oh my God. I've had the most amazing past few days. I truly feel like a hard core traveller now! On Sunday night we left Bangkok on the night bus heading for Chang Mai. It was a little worrying as we were told to wait in the lobby at 6 o'clock and we ended up hanging around for ages until the woman finally rocked up at 1850! Anyway, we were slightly aprehensive thinking we were going to be shoved on some over sized tuk tuk with chickens or something but were pleasantly surprised to find out it was a rather luch coach! We settled in for the 12 hours ahead; watching some rather strange films, attempting to get some sleep, stopping for very dodgy toilets stops and just plain staring out the window (which was actually really cool; saw lots of little shacks etc...) before arriving in Chang Mai. We were taken to the Chang Mai Inn for brekkie and checking in etc... and then headed off for the trek. Our first stop was to pick up supplies (toilet roll, mozzie stuff...) and then we went ELEPHANT RIDING! It was so cool. You don't realise how big elephants actually are untill you are sitting on top of one. We rode for about an hour through the jungle. We were sitting on its back on a little bench type thing while the 'driver' sat on its head, smoking a banana leaf and whacking it with a mini pick axe. It was a interesting experience! Although I have to admit I did feel somewhat cruel but I guess they are used to it, and we don't weight much compared to their size etc... I hope not anyway. So, after that we drove a little further up into the mountains - it was really remote by now - and started out trekking. We saw lots of cool creepy crawlies and stopped off at a beautiful waterfall for a swim. When we werent in the dense jungle we were in the rice fields and we saw lots of hill tribe people working in them with their funky little hats and traditional clothes! After a 3 hour trek we finally reached the hill tribe village where we were staying. I couldnt believe it actually; they were proper shacks and we were going to be staying in one! B (our guide) cooked a fabulous thai meal and we all sat outside our shed thing on bamboo mats eating the traditional food in the moonlight... AW! After a few games to pass the evening, it was off to bed for a well deserved rest!
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