Jungle Adventures

Posted by Emily

Back from our trek! It was so much fun but I'm glad to be back in a city where we can take showers and do laundry. Trekking in Thailand involves lots of rain, sweat and mud, none of which combine to make a very good smell. As much as I would have liked to continue hiking for more than 3 days, I think it might have gotten pretty disgusting!

We started out from Chiang Mai at about 9:30 am on Thursday morning. We were picked up in a truck and taken to the company's main office to meet up with the rest of our group. They originally told us that there were going to be a total of 6 people in the group but there turned out to be 13. I guess some people changed groups at the last minute. We drove for about an hour to a market, which I think might exist mainly to cater to foreigners going on treks. Then drove about 40 minutes to a little hut in the woods where we had lunch while listening to people sing karaoke. Yes, there was a karaoke machine in the middle of nowhere. So strange.

We set off for the trek after having lunch. It started to rain soon after we started, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing because at least it kept us cool. The day was very grueling because it involved A LOT of uphill walking, and we're talking steep uphill. Plus it was muddy and therefore slippery. We also had some steep downhills, one of which I slipped on, ripping my pants and allowing me to add to my collections of scratches and bruises on my legs. The hiking was a mixture of paths through the woods and gravel roads.

All the time we were surrounded by beautiful greenery - all types of trees, lots of bamboo. When we came to a clearing we could see far off into the distance across the valleys to the other mountains. I think the forests (or jungle?) we were hiking in could have been considered cloud forests because clouds descended onto the tops of most of the mountains. It kind of makes the entire place look mystical. After about 3.5 hours of huffing and puffing, we came to the village where we would spend the night. The village visit wasn't as intrusive as I thought it might be, which made me very glad. We pretty much just stayed in a large bamboo hut on the edge of the village and didn't disturb the everyday life.

The second day made up for the difficulty of first day. We started out with the large group, but since most of them had signed up for only 2 days of trekking, we slit off after about an hour into a group of four. Two others who had signed up for a 4 day trek joined us - Katie from Australia and Camilus from Ireland. The hiking was a lot easier so we could actually enjoy the scenery, and the group was a lot smaller and more enjoyable to be around. We saw more beautiful forests and swam in 2 waterfalls (at the bottom so no chance of falling off!), one before lunch and one just before arriving at our second camp. It was quite hot and sunny so this was perfect. Also helped to wash our clothes out a little bit!!

We stayed at another small village last night and had a lot of time to relax. We were really enjoying the laid back nature of the day and the beautiful beautiful weather. The night was also lovely as the clouds cleared and we could see the stars for once. There were also hundreds of lightening bugs in the forest around us giving us a light show that looked like many camera flashes.

This morning we slept in and only had a short hike to where we went elephant riding. I was a little unsure about this at first because I know many animals used for these things are abused. I felt better when I saw that they were treated nicely. Nicki and I sat together on the back of one elephant but unfortunately Katie has those photos on her camera. I really hope she sends them like she said she would! Being the marketing geniuses as they are, there was a place where you could buy bananas to feed to the elephants. They knew it was coming and kept putting their trunks back to be fed. We of course bought some bananas and had a very good time feeding our elephant. Nicki has those pictures.

Next was whitewater rafter, which was actually quite tame since the water isn't very strong at the moment. There were a few good rapids though and we had fun going down those. Otherwise it was just fun to float along and see the pretty scenery go by. Last, we went on a bamboo raft, which is a bunch of bamboo tied together. We all sat down and were pushed along by our leader using a long bamboo pole (looks like the same way gondolas are rowed). Sadly, the river seemed pretty dirty so I wasn't too sad to get out.

It was a lovely time! I'm a little sad to be back in the city but as I said, we are happy to be clean again!