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Hi all,
Given that Chiang Mai is a popular area to trek we decided this was a must do. After some debating we went for 3 days and 2 nights as it was only £5 for the extra day and it was definitley a good move as the whole trip was amazing and exhausting :-P
On the first day we got picked up and joined the 6 other people in our group (4 polish,1 japanese and 1 czech) so it was quite a mixed group but we all had a laugh...luckily for us they could all speqk very good english!! First stop was a butterfly and orchid farm just outside of chiang mai. We both dont know alot about plants but even we were pretty impressed by the orchids :-) Next we headed to the local market so our guide Wan who was really funny could buy our supplies as he cooked all our food for the whole trip. On that note we did not stop eating the entire 3 days. The food was amazing, some of highlights include a Thai green curry, cocunut milk soup, Pad Thai and a masaman potato curry. The potato curry did stump me...Wan said he chose it as all english love potatoes (i think im the exception) hehe but all was ok as i loved the sauce and vicki took one for the team and ate both mine and her potato...it was a carb overload!!! So back to the trek, after the market we headed into the Mae Tang Jungle and our first stop was the elephants! Before we got there we had a briefing about the history of the elephants...they are very sacrid to the thai people and we also learnt how to talk to the elephant to get it to walk, turn and stop. So off we went...the elephants were amazing...it sounds really cliche but you dont realise how big they are until you are right.next to them. Me and Vicki were first to moint our elephant and we decided to take a risk and ride on his neck so we could try to direct him... Vicki was first on his neck and she loved it...up until the point where we ran out of bananas and sugar canes which took all of 5 minutes (they eat a ridiculous ampunt) it was funny tho as everytime the elephant wanted food it would bend its trunk right up to our face to the point where you could smell its breath....anyhoo so we ran out of food and we reached a puddle, the elephant took a drink and decided to spray the entire puddle over us...Vicki again caught the worst of it as she was on.his neck...very funny!!! We then swapped places and rode back to the elephant villaGe...all in all it was amazing :-) we both officialy love elephants!!
So after the elephants we stopped for lunch and then the trek up the mountain began. We walked for about 2 - 2 1/2 hours but literally when i say uphill it was ridiculous, we didnt thinik about just how hard it would be...and we decided to venture into the jungle instead of sticking to the dirt track as this was a quiker route, but it was crazy, we were all nearly slipping and i was definetly comfroting my fear of heights...but somehow we all made it to the top of the mountain in one piece and we spent the night with a Lahu Hill Tribe. There are around 7 different tribes that live in the mountains and all have different ways of life, Wan was telling us about the Longneck tribe and how a girl is given her first ring at just 6 years old and every year they recieve another ring until they are 50 years old and they can then retire, so to speak. The only way they can have the rings removed from their neck is if they cheat on their husband or get ill, if either of these happen they are forced to leave the tribe...so to sum uip, the women don;t have an easy life there.
Our hill tribe was lovely, we spent the evening drinking around the campfire and met up with another group. I would say the funniest part of the evening was when a huge spider fell off the bamboo hut onto Vickis leg...she screamed and we all jumped up...was hilarious!! Also you will probably see from our pictures but its amazing how much they can do with bamboo from huts, to tools etc...its far more impressive than our brick houses :P
So day two we trekked for nearly 3 hours, this time all downhill which was just as bad because it was soo steep, but we enjoyed it and it was an achievement when you made it to the waterfall or top of the mountain without slipping! We visited 2 waterfalls , the last one we were able to swim in which was cool, highlight of this waterfall was a japanese lady falling into the waterfall because she stepped off the bamboo ramp, she quickly jumped up and was still determined to take her 100th photo of the waterfall!! We finished the second day in a jungle camp by the Mae Tang river which again was all bamboo huts.
On the final day we only had a 1 hour trek to the river for rafting which was good as we could barely walk by this time, are legs had had enough!! We then did white water rafting which was so much fun!! and bamboo rafting which was fun, but not half as exciting and then our trek was over and we headed back to Chiang Mai exhausted but having loved every minute of it.
We spent our last few days in Chiang Mai chilling as the weather is now so hot here and we were still recovering from the trek. One day we went biking around Ching Mai and on our last day Vicki found a luxury salt water swimming pool at a swanky hotel (it really was luxury we loved it) so we spent the day there sunbathing! There were lots of other travellers doing the same thing as us :)
Next stop is Hanoi, Vietnam, there is only an 11 hour train journey and 2 hour flight in between so wish us luck and we will be in touch soon!!
xxxxxxxxxxx
- comments
Rose Wilmer Hi girls - the elephants sound amazing and well done Vicky for eating Sarah's food - make her eat the curries it will be part of the experience for her!!!!! Stay safe & Enjoy Lots love Rose & Geoff xxxxxxx