Kyle and Shannon arrived soon after, so Bean and I went to meet them. We quickly decided to grab something to eat and explore the town. We walked all day, looking at the different wats and taking pictures with Larry Bird. Larry is a Pirate Parrot that our group of friends has become very fond of. Since we got him, we have taken him anywhere we can. He recently went to Costa Rica and has made a number of trips to Las Vegas. So if you see any photos of a Pirate Parrot, or hear me mention Larry ... You know what I'm talking about. We concluded our day with setting up a 3 day 2 night jungle trek and going to the Night Bazaar.At 9AM on Wednesday we loaded into a songteau with 4 others and were off to the jungle. We had driven about 3 hours before we arrived at the first hilltribe where we had lunch. After letting 
lunch settle, we started out on our first hike of the trek. We hiked about an hour and a half before arriving at the second hilltribe where we were to stay the night. Needless to say, after hiking for that long in the heat and humidity, we were all tired and in need of a shower ... But at a hilltribe, showers are hard to find. So we were dirty and stinky together :) They made us dinner and some of the children from the hilltribe did a dance for us. It was really neat, considering we walked up and saw nothing but 3 huts and a little pig pen. We went to sleep fairly early on our bamboo beds and tried to get a good nights sleep before starting the hike again in the morning. Unfortunately, the good nights sleep thing didn't happen for many of us, but the whole experience was well worth the exhaustion.
lunch settle, we started out on our first hike of the trek. We hiked about an hour and a half before arriving at the second hilltribe where we were to stay the night. Needless to say, after hiking for that long in the heat and humidity, we were all tired and in need of a shower ... But at a hilltribe, showers are hard to find. So we were dirty and stinky together :) They made us dinner and some of the children from the hilltribe did a dance for us. It was really neat, considering we walked up and saw nothing but 3 huts and a little pig pen. We went to sleep fairly early on our bamboo beds and tried to get a good nights sleep before starting the hike again in the morning. Unfortunately, the good nights sleep thing didn't happen for many of us, but the whole experience was well worth the exhaustion.We ate breakfast around 9 and hit the trail again. We hiked in for about 2 hours before we arrived at the third h
illtribe, which was even smaller than the second. Before having lunch we hiked up to a waterfall. Sadly, the sun wasn't out and only Bean, Kyle and Valentina (another trekker) got all the way in, because the sun wasn't out and we didn't want to hike in wet clothes. Of course as soon as we left the waterfall and started eating lunch the clouds broke apart and it was hotter than hot ... Such is life. After lunch we started on the second half of the hike. We got about an hour into the hike and it started pouring down rain. So we did the last half hour in the rain. The end of this hike took us the the elephant camp, where we got to load our things and ourselves onto the backs of elephants. It stopped raining, just enough for this to be very pleasurable ... Not too hot, not too wet.
illtribe, which was even smaller than the second. Before having lunch we hiked up to a waterfall. Sadly, the sun wasn't out and only Bean, Kyle and Valentina (another trekker) got all the way in, because the sun wasn't out and we didn't want to hike in wet clothes. Of course as soon as we left the waterfall and started eating lunch the clouds broke apart and it was hotter than hot ... Such is life. After lunch we started on the second half of the hike. We got about an hour into the hike and it started pouring down rain. So we did the last half hour in the rain. The end of this hike took us the the elephant camp, where we got to load our things and ourselves onto the backs of elephants. It stopped raining, just enough for this to be very pleasurable ... Not too hot, not too wet.
I'm not completely sure how I felt about the elephant riding experience (morally speaking) ... although I did have a blast. There were two very young elephants with us, although we did not ride them, we were on their mama's! The younger of the two elephants would get stuck somewhere, or start sliding down the side of a hill in the mud and freak out, squealing and running towards his/her mom. It was great entertainment. The other young elephant was a trouble maker. He/she would run up the hillside and go exploring. The keepers would be yelling commands and get very little response. When it finally decided to re-join the group, it would nudge the keepers playfully, and the keepers would laugh and knock it on the head with a stick (not abusively, I mean we stepped on their heads ... so it couldn't have hurt it ... or so I'd like to believe). So after a lot of laughs, we got off and did another half hour hike the fourth and final hilltribe.
The fourth hilltribe was a bit bigger than all but the first (which was of considerable size in comparison to what we saw of the other three). It was the same sleeping arrangements, only this time w
e had mosquito nets ... with big holes ... hmmmm ... effective. So we wore a lot of bug spray and stayed covered. Kyle was the only one to get attacked too bad by mosquitoes ... They got his face, poor guy. Again, they made us dinner, and then we sat around playing games, where if you mess up, they rubbed the sut from the cooking pan on your face. We all had black faces by the end of the night. None of us slept well this night. I had a panic attack because I'm afraid of the dark and I couldn't find my head lamp or flash light, then someone else freaked out for some other reason (no one really knows), then Bean walked in his sleep and sat next to Emily 2 (there were two Emily's on the trek), who freaked out because Bean wasn't there before, then someone stepped on Kyle, then Kyle realized his face was getting eaten by mosquitoes and had to get under a mosquito net .... then .... I think we all just tried to sleep, but without a whole lot of success. So the exhaustion continues.
e had mosquito nets ... with big holes ... hmmmm ... effective. So we wore a lot of bug spray and stayed covered. Kyle was the only one to get attacked too bad by mosquitoes ... They got his face, poor guy. Again, they made us dinner, and then we sat around playing games, where if you mess up, they rubbed the sut from the cooking pan on your face. We all had black faces by the end of the night. None of us slept well this night. I had a panic attack because I'm afraid of the dark and I couldn't find my head lamp or flash light, then someone else freaked out for some other reason (no one really knows), then Bean walked in his sleep and sat next to Emily 2 (there were two Emily's on the trek), who freaked out because Bean wasn't there before, then someone stepped on Kyle, then Kyle realized his face was getting eaten by mosquitoes and had to get under a mosquito net .... then .... I think we all just tried to sleep, but without a whole lot of success. So the exhaustion continues.The next morning we had breakfast and did an easy hour and a half hike to the river where we hopped onto bamboo rafts, that none of though to check for durability. Bamboo rafting involved about 4 people standing on bamboos tied together with reeds. They all stand an equal distance apart to distribute the weight and the persons in front and back steer. The water is fairly calm, so it's not dangerous, unless you get stuck on a rock and the raft comes to a complete stop so you go flying forward onto your knees and hit about 4 rocks with the same knee as you slide down the river. Which is, of course, what happened to me about 5 minutes into the trip. I was fine, and thought it was hysterical ... But I definitely had some bumped up legs to prove it. Not long after we get the raft moving again, we realize that one of our bamboo sticks is loose ... AKA if you step on it, your leg will fall through and you have to get it out. That happened to all of us, even our driver (who we're convinced had never actually driven one before) at least twice. We got a good laugh to say the least. So after an hour and a half of "relaxing" rafting, we returned to shore and hopped back onto the songteau to Chiang Mai.
Later that night we went to see a Muay Thai match, which is Thai Boxing. It's a pretty brutal sport, and they start really young. I was not too keen on watching 7 year olds beat the cr&% out of each other, but the older boys were kinda fun (teenagers and such). We even saw a knock out (note the enthusiasm here). We were going to stay to watch the 1 or 2 adult matches, but really, we had had enough after 2 hours.
On Saturday (yesterday), Kyle and Shannon took a flight down to Koh Samui, and Bean and I stayed in Chiang Mai for the day to take a 7 hour Thai cooking class ... Which was awesome. We got to go to the market and make all sorts of yummy stuff, like shrimp in coconut milk, spring rolls, papaya salad, yellow curry paste, Chiang Mai noodles and deep fried banana. We needed to be rolled out of there.
At 6 we boarded another bus back to Bangkok, and arrived at 6AM. We've just been hanging out like zombies ... We're too tired to do anything crazy, and we catch yet another bus tonight at 6 to go down south to hit up the islands. We should be at Koh Pangan by 11AM tomorrow. I downloaded a ton of pictures, and I will have even more when I get Shannon and Bean's.
No comments:
Post a Comment