The Trek

Hooray - we went on a trek in the area surrounding Chiang Mai and it was lovely. We set off early in the morning and got bundled into a saewngthaew which is basically a little truck that someone stuck two benches on and put a little roof over. This is your standard form of transport here and eight of us went for about 2 hours on a dirt road in that. By the time we had arrived, we were quite stiff, but ready for some action!

First, we went on a little elephant ride which was really cool. They are working elephants and after clambering on them via a bamboo platform, clutching big bunches of bananas for bribery (or fuel), we set off at a very comfortable pace. Very comfortable. Occasionally, our elephant would stick its trunk in the air, demand a banana and then continue to walk along the jungle path. If it didn't get one, it would blow a bit of air about and then keep walking anyway. Our elephant loves bananas, we kept getting the trunk and one time, the snout was so wet, when she raised it, a big blob of elephant spit hit me right between the mouth and the nose. I wasn't too impressed. The elephant didn't really care...

We also got to sit on its neck and ride like that, so we both did that for a while too, but the skin is so rough and they have lots of hair on their heads, it got a bit itchy after a while. Phil was on it for a while but I gave up after about 10 minutes, it was too tiring and scratching, but still really cool! After we were done, we fed her lots of bananas again to say thanks, so all the other elephants got jealous and wanted some too, so we got a bit mobbed. Slightly scary, but really amazing still!

We then went on a bit of a walk through the forest, which was really good. It wasn't too hard, but the ground was very rough and we were clambering over lots of stones and sticks and balancing over rivers on thin bamboo sticks and stuff. At the end though, we were rewarded with arriving at this really pretty waterfall, where we had a nice swim! It was so cold!!!!!

After some more walking, it was time for lunch and then we went white water rafting. WOW! It was really cool - our guide scared us all sh*tless with his tales of overturning and getting your feet caught in the river and drowning in rapids... the river was really fast and it looked scary! But once we got going, it was so cool!!! I was in the boat with Phil and Jens and his wife Daisy. Daisy and me let the guys go in the very front, then it was us and then at the back our Captain, Vong. He was pretty cool himself, but we did have trouble to hear what commands he was shouting at us, coz it was so noisy with the rapids. The boys got hit several times in the face by some big big waves, while Daisy and me were cowering behind them... heheheh ... but we both paddled big time! The boys did their bit too and we got thrown about quite a few times - one rapid knocked me off completely and luckily I fell into the boat not out of it but it took me ages to get back up on my seat - it's really full on.

We also managed to get ourselves completely stranded onto a rock in the middle of the river and we were throwing ourselves about to dislodge which we eventually managed, but then we ended up going down backwards! I was so scared!!

When we got ready for our bamboo rafting session, we were all a bit exhausted... the bamboo rafts are quite cool, it's basically a really simple raft and it usually floats. Well, for some reason, everyone managed to stand on the same raft and we sank - how dumb was that? Anyway, after we managed to sort ourselves out, we had a really nice float down the river until I noticed the biggest spider sitting on my leg. I tried not to scream! Managed to wash it off and told Phil, who saw it floating by and then got convinced it had gotten down his pants. heheheh... all fine though and we went on when all of a sudden we heard the biggest scream and saw Jens jumping up and down flailing his arms - the spider had gone to him and was trying to climb up his leg! So funny!

Then, this random fisherman joined us on the raft and floated down with us, it was funny and he was quite entertaining telling us random things, when I noticed that there was a cockroach trying to climb up his leg - he warned the boys that the cockroach would bite their 'eggs and bananas' if it got up their legs and then we all spent time trying to kill it which is surprisingly difficult in water. Then the same spider tried to make another appearance - honestly, I didn't know what else would try and join us on the raft! The guy who was kind of punting us along was a bit of a comedian and would now and again tilt the raft a bit for a joke, which was fine until he managed to completely turn us over! We all fell into the river and the raft was above my head and seriously - I don't know what else was in that water so I made sure I hopped back on that raft asap! We were so drenched...

All in all a really good day! We had tons of fun and got back so tired but I would do it again in a flash -

Tomorrow, we're off to the Golden Triangle!