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It was around 6 - 6:30 am that I woke up and checked the time and also saw some messages from Ian regarding my flights. In the texts it said that he booked me a flight from Cheap-o-air for $91 from Chiang Mai to Bangkok at 2:40 pm on June 5th. Almost everything was correct, as I provided him with the information on the cost of the flight, the time, and my information. However, I realized that I forgot to inform him where to purchase the ticket from. As when I was looking at Bangkok Air, the ticket price was 1469 THB which is around $45 USD, so I had a slight panic attack when I saw that it was going to cost me double that amount on Cheap-o-air. So I quickly got ready in order to be able to go down to the lobby to check if there was any possibility of me cancelling the Cheap-o-air flight. Unfortunately, I was unable to. But it was my fault, as I thought I provided the correct amount of information yet, forgot to include where to purchase from. And at least I have a flight confirmed!
After breakfast, we met in the hotel lobby around 9 am to start the tour. We hopped into a songthaew and our first stop was at a local police station. At the station, they confirmed our identities and inform us to stick closely to the guide; as well as, call 1155 if anything happens by telling us two stories: one was about how a guy decided to raft down the river by himself without permission from the guide and ended up falling out of the raft and hitting his head on a rock and dying. The other story was about three girls who ended up losing the group and getting lost in the jungle. The girls ended up calling the police and 6 hours later they were rescued.
We then hopped back into the songthaew and headed to a local market where we picked up any odds and ends that we might require for the trip, as well as, some food. I bought some lyches. Then after another hour long drive, we ended up at a trail that lead to a waterfall, we were unsure whether or not we would go into the water because the water in the stream was brown and did not look clean. But after walking for about 10 minutes we could finally see the waterfall, and the water around it looked a wee bit cleaner than in the stream and decided to go in it.
We got back into the truck and were on our way to our final drop off location and the starting point for our hike; which was around Mae Malai. The hike itself was decent. I thought that I would be in the back the whole time and dying from the heat. But I seemed to always be in the front and after hydrating myself regularly, the heat didn't seem to be a huge issue; especially, when we started walking further into the jungle where the trees provided shade. The trek was difficult though, there was a fair amount of incline in some areas; which was then followed by a steep decline. During a part of our trek, we came across a tiny little snake that had a blue head and green body - it slithered away quite quickly when we walked past it. In the end, the guide told us that we hiked roughly 5 km.
The tribe was cute and was similar to the one I visited in Lao, with all of the animals around. The house that we were staying at was situated on top of a lilttle hill, so we had to go over a bridge in order to reach the house. The building that held our rooms was fairly large and the beds were raised above the floor and separated by an aisle. The building could hold around 20 people; 2 people sharing one mosquitto net. There were two washrooms and a shower at the end of the building. Both washrooms were squat toliets and the shower was a valve that had a plastic hose attached to the end of it. Also, when checking out the washroom facilities I saw a spider in the showering room, so figured that I wouldn't be showering at all.
Megan and Adele coming from England were unaware of mosquittos and Megan got attacked a lot; she also slathered herself in tiger balm and bug spray. Furthermore, it seemed like all of the girls were freaked out by insects or geckos or snakes. So a lot of the time was spent freaking out, screaming, and flaying around; it honestly seemed like none of them had gone camping before in their lives. When we were preparing our beds for the night and placing our mosquitto nets down, Jade spotted a gecko and I had to assist in getting it out of the mosquitto net.
After getting our beds ready, we sat down at a large picnic table and just talked and decided to play pictionary. However, it took us about 20 minutes just to discuss and agree on the rules and how to play pictionary. But it was entertaining and a way to pass time. After the game, an elderly lady from the tribe came up to where we were with a basket full of jewelry, key chains, and stuffed elephants. We all felt oblidged to purchase something from her and help to support the tribe. I bought two bracelets. Then it was time for dinner.
For dinner we had green curry with chicken and spring rolls, it was tasty! Then we decided to take a tour of the tribe; however, at that point in time it was dark and we only had the fireflys and some flash lights to guide our way. As we were walking some of the group saw either a milipede or centipede which they thought was a snake since it was about a foot long and around an inch thick. The guide informed us that it was dangerous and for us to stay away. I wish I could have seen it though!
We stopped off at two locals homes and our guide provided us with some information about their lives. In one of the homes, we saw a lady sitting on the ground sewing a silk scarf; which she spent 1 week working on. We returned to our picnic table and sat around candles until we all got annoyed by the amount of bugs that were attracted to our lights and decided it was time for bed.
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