Halloooo!

We left Bangkok 5th september and made our way up to Chaing mai in north Thailand on the night train. Tom loved the train...like a big kid. I however couldnt sleep that well so didnt! First impressions of Chiang Mai were that it was way more chilled out than Bangkok...i think we were both ready to leave the hustle and bustle for a bit!

The main reason we came up here was to go on a trek into the mountains and visit hill tribes. We booked it on our first day here and for a mere 35 quid each we set off on a 3 day 2 night trek into the jungle. We were in a group of 8 with Chai and his nephew guiding us. The other guys in our group were really nice and we all gopt on really well which made all the difference.

Day 1:
We set off at about 9am and drove up to an elephant sanctuary where we rode elephants through the wilderness and through waterfalls for about an hour. it was so much fun...if a little scary at times! My bum was so sore afterwards! Next stop was a Buddist cave which had stalegmites in it and lots of bats! it was pitch black in there and we had tiny torches! Tom was scared of the spiders crawling around on the floor around us but they were tiny! Chai prepared us lunch and then we set off towards the jungle. once there we had to walk for 3 hours with our backpacks through rainforest, rice paddy fields, rivers...yes walk THROUGH rivers! Up hills, down hills! It was so tiring. i had the crappiest trainers on that had NO grip and so nearly fell to my death a few times! Chai had carved me a walking stick in true Ray mears style and so that acted as my third leg for the whole trip! Tom was finding it a breeze as far as i could see! After the 3 hours of walking we got to our first stop off point - a Karen hilltribe. it was amazing to see the way they lived. Houses made of bamboo, no running water, no electricity. After a potato curry dinner we went to a local villager house and she made us green tea. we sat around a campfire as we asked her questions about her life in a tribe. She was about 80 years old and had only been to a city once in her life! Eric, one of the guys in our group, showed her photos on her camera of how we live in the west. she looked so bemused! She didnt even know what snow was! It was an amazing experience.

Day 2:
After a pretty bad nights sleep on a bamboo floor we set off again for a total of about 6 hours walking on the second day! Now this is when i thought i was going to die! I ahve never seen hills so steep! I was gasping for breath but everyone else seemed fine! Stafan and Roman (2 german lads on the trek) were steaming ahead...it was like they didnt even need to breathe! half way through the day we stopped of at a stream had some lunch and then slept for an hour. We set off again, walking through the most amazing scenery. Chai was pointing out various plants and animals - things i had never seen before. there were the most amazing beautiful butterflies some the size of my hand. After walking 12km we finally reached the river where we were going to stay the night in a bamboo hut. It was so good to finally sit down! We bathed in the rivcer and then all had dinner together. After dinner Chai's nephew started a bonfire and we all sat around it. he pulled out some bongos and started singing! He passed them around the group and everyone sang a song from there country- we couldnt think of one so we sang row row row your boat- stupid i know! the best was when the germans started rapping- chai loved it! we then ended up singing songs around the fire- all a bit cheesy but it was really good fun! The german lads even went hunting with chais nephew- up a steep hill, in the middle of the night- not something we fancied doing really!! Time for bed!

Day 3:
We were woken early again and had breakfast- luckily we knew there wasnt lots of walking to do today. We went on a bamboo raft ride down the river for about an hour- the germans fell in a few times but it was really good fun despite the fact that our boat seemed to contain an ants nest and they seemed to be able to swim- they were everywhere! We then had a short one hour walk to the truck which took us to an amazing waterfall in the national park. The dutch couple got really car sick and eric ended up being sick out the window- nice! It was worth the journey though as we got to swim in the waterfall which was brilliant! Then it was time to go home.

All in all we had a great time and saw some superb things even though there was a lot of walking and we were so tired at times! We'd recommend it to anyone!