Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We spent our first day in Chang Mai exploring the surrounding area and visiting the flower markets and food markets...another interesting experience with fried frogs on sale! We also visited the night market where we had our first taste of street food and it was delicious...phad thai at a real Thai Mama's stall - for less than 50p. We stocked up on necessities for our 5 day trek and got an early night in anticipation for an action packed 5 days.
We were collected from our guesthouse at 9am by our guide, Jatoo and our driver, Rambo. We made a stop at the local market to buy dinner for that night and Matt and Johnny tried the local delicacy of fried grasshopper! We started walking at about lunchtime and visited a few villages along the way - the weather was quite humid and we were soaked by the time we reached our first night's accommodation. We had expected it to be very basic but the grass hut was beautiful and the views were even more so. Jatoo cooked up a storm and we at penang curry, fried potatoes, veggies and stir fry under the starry sky. Then the local woman gave us a traditional massage and we floated to bed feeling very satisfied!!
We were woken up by a number of very hoarse cockerels! There's no sleeping in here! The sun was shining and we started our trek to the waterfall, where we swam in ice cold water - very refreshing after our walk! Then it was elephant trekking time! It's quite daunting in the beginning as you feel so high up and the ellie is huge! But we soon got used to it and it was such fun! It was very cute to see how some of the riders have a real relationship with their elephants. We were able to feed them bananas at one of the stops - they know exactly what is coming up and run to the stall! Then they lift up their trunk to you for the bananas...please sir can I have some more!
Our next adventure was river rafting - we geared up and were given instructions and braced ourselves for what was to come - we got very wet but loved every minute of it. We ended by floating down the river to our lunch stop! After lunch and another village visit (and more thai tea which Anel and I have to drink by surreptitiously blocking our noses!) we made it to Lisu Lodge - a luxury camp in the jungle. We relaxed for the rest of the day and were treated to some traditional dancing by the local villagers after another amazing dinner.
Our 3rd day was the toughest in terms of walking, but we were treated to an hour long massage before we did 3 hours of uphill climbing! We made it a lot easier by singing most of the way! We spent the night in remote jungle hut, where Jatoo cooked us another wonderful meal and we spent the evening by the campfire.
Day 4 dawned and it was beautiful - we decided to take a longer walk down to the next lodge so that we could go to another waterfall. We opted out of swimming this time but enjoyed the coolness of the shade. We got to Kuhm Lanna resort by lunchtime - where we ate and then enjoyed, yet another, massage. Life does not get much better than this! After some R&R and fishing for Matt, we went to our thai cooking class! We LOVED it and had such fun. We cooked Thai Coconut & chicken soup, spring rolls, Pork & Ginger stirfry and yellow curry - all to be eaten for dinner that night. It was delicious (if we may say so ourselves) and we hope to be able to recreate it back in London! There was definitely something satisfying about eating our own creation!
We were woken at 6am and told to wear our 'uniforms' - a one size fits all denim shirt....We then got on our bikes and cycled to the local market - before sunrise - as the market shuts at 7am!! It was incredible to see how the ladies sell their food to workers before their day begins! We tasted coconut pancakes, which were delicious. Then it was off to one of the local families' home to see how sticky rice was made. Rice is mixed with coconut and soya beans and then packed into a bamboo stick and grilled over a fire. The bamboo is then peeled away and the sticky rice eated out of the stick!
As the sun was rising we went to another market to sample the local Thai coffee...made with condensed milk! Then we cycled back to the Lodge, along a beautiful route and saw the locals at work in the rice fields.
We arrived back in Chang Mai at 4pm - tired and dirty but having had an amazing experience - trekking in some of the most beautiful jungle, riding on majestic elephants, racing down cool rapids and sampling thai life! Next stop - Krabi!
- comments