The Jungle Trek - be prepared it's a long one!

We were picked up from our guesthouse around 9am in basically a pick up truck with benches in the back and a little roof on top- they're everywhere in the north!
Lots of pick ups along the way and the bonding began. This was our first real chance to meet people and speak to someone else rather than just each other.
We stopped at a little market on our way to elephant village to grab any last bits, Jazz and I were told we had to change trucks for the duration of the trip as we were in the 2 day one when we we're supposed to be in the 3 day.
So bonding started again! There was a kiwi in this truck, Pete (gc) very convenient as we would be spending the last year of our travels in nz!

We arrived at elephant village to ride the elephants, although we decided not to actually ride them. The elephants themselves didn't really look that happy. While we waited for the others to return, Ken, our guide took us to see a baby and explained everything about working elephants, we felt a lot better after this and just had to accept this is how they make their money at the end of the day and barely enough at that!

Our first trek was soon under way, we definitely under estimated how hard it would be!
Along the way we stopped at a waterfall and had a dip..so refreshing!
After another couple of hours we reached camp for the night, we were staying in one of the Karen tribe villages.
That night the local children sang to us and we donated money for equipment for their school, I reckon the guides pocketed it for their moonshine! Oh ye the hill tribe people love a drink!
The rest of the evening was spent round the fire drinking and laughing!

Awaking pretty early, the trekking begins again!
After around two hours we stopped under a little shelter in a rice field where Louie our other guide carved us chopsticks out of bamboo, ready for our lunch. Hill tribe people are so talented and can literally make anything out of bamboo!

After lunch we trekked for a little longer and wound up at our camp for the night! Welcome to 'I'm a back packer get me out of here'. We would be camping at a little waterfall for the evening. Even the shower was constructed out off bamboo and the water ran through canes to create a natural shower, literally just like the itv program! There was no way anyone wanted to get out of here though, it was so peaceful!
This was a great night..everyone had really bonded over the past couple of days! We played a jungle game and I failed miserably and was bullied into losing by the tiniest little English guy, James who weighs the same as Jazz..tiny!

After a cold nights sleep, we rose for our final day in the jungle. Everyone was feeling a little tired now so fortunately we didn't have to do much walking. To our delight, after an hour or so, Ken picked us up in the truck and took us for our final activity.. Bamboo rafting.
Myself and Jazz shared a raft with Anna, a cool German girl who was with the kiwi. We cruised down the river peacefully until getting ambushed by millions of Thai kids!
Our ride ended in a little village for lunch that would end our amazing 3 days!
We met some great people, that have now turned into friends and learnt so much from them already! x

Ps having trouble with pics, please bare with us! Hope everyone is well at home, would love to say we're missing you but I would be lying ;) x