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Published: February 25th 2009
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Market
Stopped at the market to fill up on torches, toilet paper and water. This is where the guides bought our food for dinner etc. We did a 3 day trek through the mountains. This was our main highlight, so far anyways! The first day we left early to go elephant riding. There was three of us on one elephant, it was so hilarious!! Our elephant kept spraying us with.. who knows what.. because it was trying to cool itself off. At one point, the elephant actually screeched because there was a little snake in it's way. After having lunch we started our trek. The first day was mostly uphill, tough.. it was about a 3 hour hike up into the jungle! Such beautiful views, and we actually went up into a hill tribe to see where they lived. This was so amazing to see a different way of life. This community was called 'Karen' tribe, the people were originally from Burma and moved here 200 years ago. They have endless farm land where they grow vegetables, rice and bananas. They also fish in the near by streams quite often. Here, they were selling hand-made scarfs and jewelery. Continuing on our hike, our next stop was another tribal home where we spent the night. Our huts were made of bamboo and leaves, which they had made
themselves. We had a home-cooked meal by candle light. Dinner that night was yellow curry and thai soup.. it was so delicious. The food we had on this trek was even better than getting in the city, it was amazing. We finished the long day by singing songs with our insane thai tour guides by the fire. Amazing.
The second day was more spread out, and so much fun. We woke up to brekky and followed the river towards our first waterfall. These waterfalls were soooo gorgeous and they were everywhere. After discovering our second waterfall, we all went for a swim and did some cliff jumping. Most of the day consisted of following the same river down and finding different waterfalls. We had a lunch prepared for us at breakfast, which was kind of a suprise! It was wrapped in large leaves and tied with bark. None of us knew what it was, but we guessed rice. After stopping at another waterfall for our lunch break, we opened our mystery bag to find noodles with veggies, it was so good! Em had a power nap while Jennie read by the waterfall to then continue on hiking. We arrived
at our next destination before dinner time. Here, we stayed with another tribal family, directly beside the river. We had some time before dinner, so we 'nested' into our little bunk and explored the area. We wandered down to the river for a 'shower' where we shampooed in a little sheltered part of the river. Local kids were playing and splashing about in the river while the parents were preparing dinner and selling hand made goods. That night we had green curry, a pumpkin stir fry and a tomato with cucumber dish. Delicious! Once again, it was brought to us around candel light and we all sat to talk about our different backgrounds. Everyone else on our trip was European, so it was very interesting to hear about their homes and travels. We wandered down to the river to have another fire to laugh and sing!
The third day we woke to endless fruit and amazing eggs served to us! We had about a 1.5 hour hike that day that brought us to a couple different waterfalls. There was cliff jumping again at the second waterfall! After stopping for lunch, we wandered down the road to go bamboo-rafting. The
raft was made of about 6 long bamboo sticks, lashed together with used tire and another 2 bamboo sticks were available to steer. On our bamboo raft, there was 4 of us as we drifted down the river. As we calmly floated down the river, there were elephants surrounding us. At one point, there was a baby elephant with it's momma, so cute! There was drama approaching, and we could all feel it. This was too calm! Ahead.. little did we know, a fish was about to be eaten by this large, monsterous fish. Instead, as it was about to give up hope, the raft drifted by. Soon enough, with it's last strength, it leapt to safety.. only to land on the one person who was scared of fish.. Emily. As Jennie laughed hysterically, Emily strove to save herself by flailing about.. dramatically.. and almost tipping the raft and splashing the girl behind her. Jennie attemped to save Emily's life by getting the fish away from her, however, we were soon saved by our guide. We were both given a chance to stear the raft down the river.. and one of us (you can guess) steared us straight into a
rock. Okay, it was Emily. haha! After rafting we drove back into Chiang Mai. It was great getting to know everyone and we all exchanged emails! However, we were excited to get back and have a real shower!
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