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San Pa Tong & Doi Inthanor Area.
We got picked up in a jungle truck and headed towards the mountains. The drivers name was Ping Pong, and he was possibly the coolest man I've ever met. He told us that the Thai say "kaaaaa" after every word because it makes them happyJ. He was telling us about his village in the mountains and that it makes him very happy to go there, and then he was telling us about his children and their lives. It's refreshing to meet people who appreciate what they have and who enjoy the simplest things in life.
Our first stop was the elephant camp, the elephants were very cute and babies too but they all had chains around their legs and necks and the "drivers" had pokey sticks that they jabbed into the elephants ears. It was upsetting to watch as they obviously weren't treated well so we all decided to give the ride a miss and just feed them well deserved bananas and sugar canes instead! Got to stroke one of the elephant's trunks, which was pretty weirdly soft. After the others in the group had a ride on the elephants, Ping Pong drove on and stopped at a dam and we set off for our jungle trek. We trekked for about 3 hours to the mountain village. The jungle on this side of the mountain was pretty average looking and not too unlike our woods at home. Once we got to the mountain village, we were all knackered and hungry. Walking past the local villagers it was nice to see so many roaming animals, piglets, cows, dogs, cats, cows, chickens and lots of basic huts with open underground floors. I saw lots of cute kids and babies too. We walked through to get to where we were spending the night. The view from where we stayed was incredible! The balcony looked a little rocky but managed to fit all twelve of us on it.
The Thai guys started making us dinner as we relaxed and got to know the others we trekked with, 2 Spanish couples and 1 Dutch couple. As dusk passed they put candles up and the place looked magical. Then dinner was ready, we had a delicious Thai green curry! Not spicy at all though, luckily for me.
After eating, Ping Pong and some of the other locals were sat around on the candlelit floor singing songs and playing guitar and smoking some kind of banana plant. The evening was so cute, we all sat and watched and sang Hotel California and No Woman No Cry, or "No whisky I die" as Ping Pong liked to sing. Then Sam had a whizz at the guitar and was bluesin about, after that I had a go and I was playing some tunes. Ping pong started singing along in Thai to the chords I was playing; it was a very happy moment.
After jamming and a chill, the village kids sang a song for us outside next to the fire. There were some kids as young as two! My favourite kid was a very cute young one at the side not knowing what was going on and eating some grass. The songs they sang were very cute. One of the guys tapped the drum along to it. We all donated some money for the kids so that they could build a school. All of the kids thanked us and shook our hands. Then we had to sing children songs to them in English, so that they could learn, we ended up singing the classics like the wheels on the bus.
The village was very basic but all the people were so happy and content, kids playing football and just loving life. It really makes you appreciate what's important in life. Our bedroom was a room with blankets and mozzy nets, on a concrete floor. But surprising it was one of the best night's sleep I'd had on the trip so far!
For breakfast we had omelettes with mixed veg and toast, it was so tasty! We used Ping Pong's machete knife to spread the butter onto our toast. I felt like a bad man. After breakfast, we continued our trek for 1-2 hours and stopped at a lush waterfall. Stripped into my bikini and jumped straight in for a really refreshing swim! After chilling around in the water, we continued our trek for another hour or so. Trekking on this side of the mountain was so much more awesome. The rocks we were really cool and interesting. Lots of red (from the oxidising iron), Nicola, the geologist that she is, also informed me that there was lots of shiny mica minerals (which I managed to grab some samples of). There were lots of bamboo trees and big jungle leaves. I didn't spot more jungle life than spiders and massive termite mounds though.
After a yummy lunch, we drove to the bamboo rafting place. The raft steer man we had was called Moo, he was a cool guy, as everybody seems to be in Thailand. He kept joking around and pretending to capsize us and splashing and throwing "snakes" at us, which Nicola wasn't too happy as she is petrified of snakes. It was a very chilled afternoon. Until our raft almost fully collided with the one of the other rafts and almost chopped my feet off (obviously exaggerating a little bit here) but Moo checked if I was ok and got the other raft off ours. We had some splashing wars against each other and then races too. After asking Moo how to say faster in Thai, we cheered him on "REO! REO!" It was super fun. Then we got a lift back to the hotel and chilled.
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