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Chiang Mai - Jungle Trek
So after the scooter and the Flight of the Gibbons we decided that we hadn't had enough adventure so we booked a 2-day jungle trek! We were picked up early and collected several other travellers on the way to the foot of the hills outside of Chiang Mai. We were all squashed in to the back of a van and driven to the Thai Tourist Police station where we were logged with them as going up in to the mountains for a couple of days - I was very impressed and rather surprised. The next stop was a market to pick up some supplies and have a quick wee. About an hour and a half later we arrived at the starting point for our trek, which was apparently where one of the hill tribes lived although all we saw of it was some stalls set up to sell tourists stuff! We walked in rain and thick sticky mud for about an hour until we arrived at a bamboo hut for lunch - Pad Thai. We then walked for another 4.5 hours, tramping through sticky, slippery mud and trying to stay on our feet. The scenery was beautiful; walking right between the rice paddies being careful not to step on any crop, and there were more dragonflies here than I have ever seen before, just flying all around us. Then we walked through fields to the bottom of a mountain and the start of the jungle. The walk through the jungle was actually a hike up a steep gradient - and with the rain was very slippy and hard work - we were very grateful for our North Face walking shoes and smug that we weren't wearing sandals or fashion trainers like 1 or 2 in our party!. Both of our guides also got leeches but that serves them right for cutting the backs off their shoes and trapsing through all the water! With humidity, mud, nature and back packs all conspiring against us we eventually reached our place of rest for the night - about a stone lighter in bodyweight.
Here our guides started to cook us a green curry soup with fish balls and rice for dinner, whilst we negotiated an outside toilet cubicle which contained a western style toilet with manual flush (a bucket of dirty water) and some hosing with cold water running out of it (shower). We were right up in the Thai hills and the view we had over the valley from our bamboo dwelling was beautiful, with elephant below and a waterfall to the right. We tucked in to the green curry soup and rice...Jo strategically avoiding ALL fishballs and myself trying just a few being mindful of how far away we were from fresh fish and the lack of refridgerating facilities available. Needless to say as night fell and all we could see were the amazing fireflies and glow from the elephants eyes whilst listening to the thundering of the waterfall, it was very beautiful. But we were being eaten to death by mosquitoes so bedtime at 9pm. Bed was a damp sleeping matress on the floor of a bamboo hut...shared with the other 12 adults and 1 child in the group! sharing with this many adults, shoulder to shoulder, who you have only known for a few hours does not make for a good nights sleep. The sound of the rain, the waterfall, gibbons and various other animals, and the sound of other people getting up and down to the outside (pitch black) toilet prevented much sleep. The fish balls also had their revenge on one poor girl in the night which didn't help. Tired and aching in the morning we were hoisted atop an elephant for a ride - due to the amount the elephant was now slipping in the mud and the steep hills he was carrying us up and down this was a little less relaxing than it probably should have been! Especially when the elephant stepped in a big hole with his front foot!
After the elephant ride we walked some more and then had lunch. Immediately post lunch a life jacket and paddle were thrown at us as we boarded our rafts for white water rafting. Except the water wasn't so white so that was quite relaxing.
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