Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Long train journey to Chang mai ! Arrived early and went for a bike tour around the old city and visited more temples!
Following day started our treck after a Songthaew ride to a beautiful waterfall in the National Park. 2 and half hour treck through tropical hilly forest. Quite difficult in the heat ! made a hat out of bannana leaf !!!! Eventually arrived the first village where all houses are made out of bamboo! Lots of animals everywhere little pigglets screaming and chickens attacking the tied up buffalo !!!! arrived our bamboo hut and had a very cold shower. temperature dropped dramatically in the hills about 6pm so sat round camp fire and had thai dinner.
early next day 4 hr treck to elephant sanctuary. watched the elephants wash in the stream and we fed them pineapple skins and bannanas.! we rode the elephants for about an hour to the next village. Was quite scary especiall when going down hill or on the edge of a cliff!!!!!!! our elephant had a lovely personality ! she was a bit naughty though and liked being scratched behind her ears.
At the next village we visited the school. A small boarding school for children 5 - 15 from 5 surrounding villages. Some have to stay during the week because they live 2 far to travel and it is the only school in the area. I was quite shocked to see the state of the school. there were hardly any books or stationary but the kids were very happy. in the whole time we were there we only saw kids playing in the field we didn't see a single lesson. Later on our guide explained to us that there are no qualified teachers in the school only police offices who are sent by the government!!!!
After washing in the river - shampoo and everything we went to watch the village football team practice ready for a big game on xmas day !!! in the night it was cold again and we ate buffulo cheek toung and heart !!!!!
The next morning we got onto a bamboo raft made especially for us. The water was quite cold and the sun didn't come out untill later on in the day. There were quite a few rapids and at one point MONKEY the porter lost controll and we were up to our hips in water !!! luckily we managed to save our bags.
A songthaew back to the city of Chang Mai to visit the night markets in the evening !!! nice markets lots to buy but not as busy as Bangkok.
BAck on train tomorow to Bangkok.
- comments