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Published: March 1st 2006
The Local Swimming Pool
The water was freezing!Sometimes in life an accident or unplanned event can lead to an unexpected gain or adventure, we found this after heading north to Chang Mai fill a week whilst waiting for a replacement passport.
Chang Mai is a lovely city in the north of Thailand. From here you can trek, learn thai cooking or thai massage, or learn more about budhism through staying at one of the many teaching centres in the area. There are 300 beautiful temples to explore and some good shopping in the markets, in particular the sunday night market in the old city which was full of bohemian arts and crafts, not your usual tourist junk.
The highlight of our trip was our Trek to the hills in the north. Our guide Tom was super friendly and the trekkers were all good fun. It was hard work in the hot sun as ventured up and down through the forests, through small streams and over fallen tree trunks. Our other guide Bus or Bos was pissed and kept on falling over every two seconds. However he was a merry happy drunk who won a place in our hearts by meeting every missfortune with the phrase "
Elephant Riding
The ONLY Way to Travel!! Oh my Buddha!"
By nightfall we arrived in village that i think ( please correct me if wrong!) belonged to a Karen hill tribe. Here we settled into our bamboo hut that was on stilts over the edge of the valley. Fellow trekker Brian had already got started on the local hooch and used his skills to set up a friendly(ish!) football match with the local villagers. This went well until i sprained my ankle whilst taking a turn in goals! Owch! I lamely limped on and tried to help my team the best i could. Some olf the Thai players where really good footballers, and a lot of villagers came out to watch the spectacle. Great fun.
Tom and the crew prepared us a lovely meal and then we were entertained by some of the local children singing some songs. One of the girls was a real diva and kept telling the others off. It was a magical experience and the kids looked briliiant in their traditional dress. We then had a sing a long with Tom displaying his unique guitar and singing style. Hilarious..
In the morning we lost two off our group due to
Messy Game!
It got us all in the end illness, however they might have felt better if the had visited the doctor the night before! The rest of us set off under the guidance of a now sober Bos. At midday we reached a lovely waterfall next to a remote house. Here we took a dip in some ice cool water. A few brave souls put their heads under the waterfall recieving an icy shower. By midnoon we arrived at an elephant station our home for the evening. We looked around admiring the piglets and their overanxious mother, avoiding the chickens that roomed freely for fear of bird flu. After an hour the elephants arrived back, they were amazing, especially the cute baby that held its mums tail.
In the evening we enjoyed a drinking game and got covered in black pot grease when we made a mistake. This was hilarious and the game descended into chaos. Bos discovered a little mole and took great delight in showing us the poor little creature. Everyone chilled out and enjoyed themselves in cool mountain air.
That night we slept by the fire as it was cold in hills..
The elephant trek was fantastic. We sat two a piece
on the elephants and weaved our way through the forest. The elephants had an anxious moment when they spotted some Water Buffalo, they all turned and faced them until dragged away by the keepers.
The afternoon finished off with some bamboo rafting. This was basically an afternoon of crazy water fights. Ross, Tiff and Leanne finished first, whilst i ended up on about three different rafts. Brian demonstrated good pirate skills jumping from one raft to the other, and everyone ended up soaked. The rafts were rather rickety and a couple split apart, but we all had a great time and it was a great end to our adventure.
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