trekking tastes like chicken same same but different

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our last 2 days in Chiangmai we decided to spend trekking through the jungle so we booked - got picked up at 9:30am put in a truck with 7 other people and off we went. first stop was a Market for fresh supplies for our lunch/tea.......then drove for about 45 minutes up through the countryside the views were amazing. then we came to an elephant farm where we all got taken on elephant ride through the forest and across a river.....we bought some bananas for our elephant Mamun, and she was one hungry elephant- her trunk kept reaching up for more......so we gave her the whole lot......there was one baby elephant walking with us that was scared to go in the river but once it was in was loving it- it kept flinging itself around in the water was absolutely hilarious!!!! 
after the elephant ride we were back in the van for 10mins then walked through the forest to an amazing waterfall, everyone jumped straight in the pool......I however sat in the calmness of another smaller pool that only went waist high with Ally - another girl that wasn't really in the mood to get her hair wet!!!!!! such girls!!!!! then we ate lunch fried rice with vegetable had an hour rest before the strenuous 3 hour trek ahead of us.......and strenuous it was- the uphill part actually made me nearly cry- real tears- I wanted to turn back and find the van but I forced my way through it...Lee seemed to finding it a breeze- as did everyone else, however everyone was feeling exactly the same as me.....I think we were all concentrating so hard on getting the uphill bit over with no one spoke til we reached the top!! my heart felt like it was pounding through my chest...I'm so unfit!!!!! as we were walking we were seeing some huge vile spiders didn't like that....our guide ate some ants "tastes like chicken"......he tells us dog also "tastes like chicken. our guide was a nutter to say the least- he had definitely been smoking something before he met us....
after a couple of hours we came up to a small football pitch where the boys played football and the girls rested our legs....then was a short 10 minute walk to the village where we would be sleeping for the night....we were greeted by 2 local kids doing a dance for us!!!! our hut for the night wa so nice and looked over a big valley and were completely surrounded by trees and mountains it was just beautiful!! we all freshened up cos we were stinking a bit from the trek from hell in the scorching heat then had our tea cooked from fresh ingredients it was possibly THE best green curry we've ever eaten we all sat at our wooden bench eating tea and drinking Chang as the sun went down we had candlelight it was so nice..afterwards all the kids from the village came down to our hut and sang songs for us around a fire- then asked us to sing something...well none of us could even come up with anything so we opted for jingle bells and the very educational head shoulders knees and toes with actions!!!! we actually made an oath never to let anyone know that.......
after the kids left we sat round the fire under the moonlight drinking, having mint craic and basically loving it!!! bamboo helicopters talk....fat Albert talk.....teaching Philly girls Geordie phrases......
next morning we woke up and it was chucking it down and never stopped so we had breakfast and prepared ourselves for a 3 hour trek in the rain....I was not looking forward to it one little bit....but we got going and it actually was better than the day before- it made the jungle feel more jungly and the group was a bit smaller and we were all actually in good spirits considering we were soaked to the bone!!!! we were actually loving it that much we finished it in 2 hours team Trekkers were amazing!!!!! we were picked up in a truck and drove to a river where we went bamboo rafting- already soaked by the rain we were going to get slightly more wet in the river......half way down the river a snake swam past us- I decided then to keep my hands out of the water!!! 
soaking wet we sat in the van shivering- the drive home was the longest ever.....but back we went to our cosy little guest house......by this point I was aching slightly- next morning we woke up we were both paying for it....our legs were killing us....I was limping around like a cripple!!!! it was time to leave Chiangmai.....the girls from 'banilah' guesthouse were so lovely they stood at the roadside waving us off....awww.....we left a tin of tuna for the cats as a present!!! merry xmas cats!!!! 
bye bye Chiangmai

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