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Last Friday we set off on a hilltribe trek tour, this started by a going on an overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, this was an experience - there was chairs which folded into bunkbeds for the nights. It was not that comfy to sleep on but I would never imagine a train to be. We train left Bangkok an hour late and arrived in Chiang Mai 5 hours late - I don't really know what happened to the other 4 hours.
We arrived at the hotel in Chiang Mai and went to the elephant hospital by a large tuk tuk, this is where the elephants are kept and are taught how to play football and paint, you also get to feed and have photos taken with the elephants. From here we drove to the Doi Suthep Temple - which has an amazing view of the city and surrounding areas. Next we to the trek shop to get everything we needed for the next few days.
The next morning we left the hotel and went to the Tourist Plice which we had to inform that we were going to the middle of nowhere for a few days incase anything happened. We then went to a market to get the children we were going to visit a few toys. The next stop was to Mhok Fha Waterfall - this was a beautiful place, but the water was freezing, but was good to be cooled down as had been really warm here so far. We had lunch in what they call a restaurant but was just a hut with a kitchen and family cooking on the side of the road - was good food though so would can't complain. We needed to build up our energy as we had a 2.5 hour trek ahead of us to the hilltribe village (Karen Village Mae Jag) where we were going to spend the night. We had a meal cooked by the local families and a campfire. The only place for washing was in the freezing cold stream, which was an interesting experience. There was limited amenities in the village, there was no electricity, so when it got dark the campfire was the place to be, our tour leader was showing up magic tricks which kept us entertained learning them for hours.
The next morning we had another 4 hour trek to get to the elephant camp, this trek was amazing it felt like you were in the middle of nowhere walking through the jungle. After the trek we arrived at the elephant camp where we had lunch cooked by locals again and then it was time to get on the elephants. The elephant ride was amazing, at times it felt like you were going to fall off the elephants but balance was the key! After an hours elephant ride we arrived at Pa Khao Laam Karen Village, where again there was limited amenities. This was a bigger village than last night and had a small boarding school where we gave the toys that we had bought earlier to the children.
Next morning we went Bamboo Rafting, this was great how they made the Rafts all out of strips of Bamboo fastened together with strips of younger bamboo, the amount of weight they could hold was amazing.We arrived a Sob Kai for local cooked lunch again. This was the end of our Hilltribe Trek and it was time to go back to Chiang Mai.
The last day in Chiang Mai, I spent next to the pool we only had a few hours in the morning was wasn't much time to do a lot of things, so we had a relaxing time. Then back to the train station for the overnight train back to Bangkok, the train wasn't as nice as the first one, as the bed were smaller but did have a party carriage which had a bar.
I am currently back in Bangkok for a day before an overnight train down to Southern Thailand.
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