Just arrived in an internet cafe following a well deserved foot massage at the sunday market in Chiangmai! It really was well deserved! We've just returned from a 3 day trek through the jungle of Chiangmai organised by our hostel, "Eagle House".
I was not prepared for the type of trek that we were about to endure. I thought I was fit before I did this, but any exercise I've done before does not compare!
Day 1
We started off nicely, a truck arrived to pick us up - 8 of us - and we sat on 2 benches in an open air truck with only a tiny rucksack and a sleeping bag each! Tri (as in "tree") our guide, talked us through what we would be doing for the next 3 days. He then got into the comfy passenger seat in the front of the truck! We travelled for around 2 hours, Beth and I got chatting to the girls opposite us, Kat and Merle. We all had a similar trip planned so we had lots to talk about!
Our first stop on the trip was a trek on an elephant! Beth and I sat on the back of Mamoo, who was the slowest and greediest elephant in the group! We were gradually taken over by everyone else in our group! It was amazing to be riding an elephant! 2 baby elephants also followed us on our journey through the woods. We stopped at various places to pick up bananas for the elephants. They consumed a large bunch of bananas within a matter of seconds, snuffling them out of our hands and taking them in their trunks putting them in their mouth and then asking for more! The baby elephant took a particular shine to Beth! Beth had a go at sitting on the elephants nexk as we rode through a lake. We had a round about an hour on the elephants but we sihed we had longer, they are such amazing creatures!
We returned to our bumpy truck journey and went to a local market to pick up some food supplies for our trip. We were all a bit dubious as to what some of the food actually was but we trusted Tri to pick only the best! We stopped to sample some of the delights on a hillside in a small hut. Tri had cooked us up some rice and veg and brought some amazing pineapple and watermelon.
We continued in the truck to a drop off point in the jungle where we began our trek on foot. The scenery was amazing! We trekked through paddy fields (dry because of the time ofyear), streams, jungle and sometimes on right on the edge of mountainsides! We soon learned that Tri was multitalented and had many skills! He picked fresh papaya, passionfruit (which was amazing!), ginger and tamarind for us to try. On one of our breaks (of which there weren't many) he began digging in the mud and pulled out a frog, closely followed by a crab and her baby!!! I wasn't even aware that crabs lived in the mud but he knew just where to find them!
We walked for around 3 hours on the first day. When we got to the end of the first days walking, Tri informed us that "no shower, no dinner" which we thought was fair enough after trekking in 30 degree heat. He then took us to a muddy stream with a trickle of water and told us to shower! At first we thought he was joking but soon realised he wasn't and that we had better het in the water as this would be the last we would see for the night! We all ended up seeing the funny side of it.
We walked up a hill to a village where the "Karen" hill tribe live. They are a self sufficient Thai tribe who live in bamboo huts. They do not go to work but make rice for themselves and the village. There are around 170 people living in the village in 70 huts. We were shown our bamboo hut that the 8 of us would be sleeping in together and we thought it was amazing! We had straw mates on the floow, with blankets and mosquito nets, a roaring fire outside and it all seemed very idyllic! Tri began cooking for us and we realised that's where his real skills lay! He was an amzing chef! He cooked us up a variety of Thai food, including chicken and veg with rice and a red curry with potatoes. We watched him cook the food on a massive wok on a fire in the middle of a bamboo hut! It was quite an amazing sight! The family who lived in the hut were also there surrounding the fire watching him cook! It was amazing to see how these people live. They don't need the creature comforts that we have, no running water (which makes for a great toilet trip - stand and squat!!), no electricity. All they need is each other and it made me realise how spoilt we really are! It was lovely to be in their company, even though we could not communicate with each other with words.
Once we'd finished eating we went to see another family. There were 2 children and their gran and Mother in a bed huddled by the fire to keep warm. I felt like we were intruding when we went in but they welcomed us and made us tea on a large pot on the fire! Tri told us about the village and how they live.
We were quite tired from our walk and we had an early start so we went to bed quite early. We were told that it might be quite cold but we didn't realise just how cold it was going to be! Our idyllic bed soon turned itnto something to be hated! The floor was hard, it was freeeeezing cold, and soooooooo noisy! There were dogs barking, cats crying, cockerals crowing! It was awful! None of us slept a wink! It was doubly hard to sleep needing the loo but knowing that the "toilet" is in a hut out in the dark in the middle of the freezing cold jungle! We survived though! And what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!