Trekking, cooking and chilling in Chaing Mai


Advertisement
Thailand's flag
Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai
June 13th 2010
Published: July 2nd 2010
Edit Blog Post

Trekking, cooking and chilling in Chaing Mai

After 36 hours, we finally arrived in Chaing Mai. Chaing Mai is great and we really loved it. Sorry for the lack of detail in this blog, but it was around a month ago that we were there and the details are fading!!!!

We decided to do a Hill Tribe Trek and booked through our lovely travel agent! I felt really sorry for everyone in Chaing Mai - there were hardly any tourists around because of all the riots and political unrest in Thailand. No tourists = no money, so actually ended up getting really good deals on the trip, and on our accommodation.

So we booked our trip and eventually decided on the 2 day/1 night adventure! I was keen to do two nights, but then again, I had no idea what was in store for the trip! I'm glad we only did one night in the end, it was plenty especially as we really were not equiped in the 'hiking accessories' department!

We had a day to chill out in Chaing Mai before heading out the following morning and met our fellow travellers. It was a small group, just 4 of us in total - me, Shaun and a guy from London (Lewie) and another from Netherlands (Bob). They were really cool, which made us happy because so much of the experience of the two days depended on the people you were doing it with.

Anyway the first day consisted of a visit to an Orchid Farm (hmm...ok), a Snake Farm (strangley intriguing) and then the interesting stop at a Police Station where we had a lecture from some British Expat who was a Volunteer Tourist Police!!!! From there we heading to the Long Neck Tribe and visited them for a while which was really cool to see. Just as we were leaving to drive to the start of our trek, it started to rain...pour...maybe even hail! Awesome....trekking in mud with old, tractionless runners on and a pair of denim shorts and tank top - really great trekking material!

When we finally arrived, the rain seemed to ease and we ate lunch before heading off. We asked our guide Wat (no, Wat was his name!) how far to the camp and he said around 4 hours. No problems. ''Uphill?'' ''Hahahahah, yes'' was his reply!

And yes, uphill it was - I mean uphill. For 4 straight hours we walked uphill - up...not sloping but UP! The rain had stopped thank god, because the pathways we any more water would have made it interesting to say the least. But, with the rain came humidity and after all the water we had drank we didn't need stop not even once to take a pee - we sweated it all out!

Eventually we saw our Hill Tribe where we would stay the night - ahh, it still looked so far away! But we made it and it was a great feeling looking over the mountains at the beautiful view below us. It was definatley worth it and something I don't think either of us will ever forget...the pictures just don't do it justice. After we ate, and sat by the fire getting to know Wat and the other guys a little more we retired to our mosiquito net (which had numerous holes in it!) and mat on the floor. It was a great sleep!

The next day we hiked downhill til we reached the waterfall and stopped there for a while to take it all in and cool down. It was beautiful. Another few hours and we reached out elephant sanctury where we rode our elephants all round and even through the river. They were soooo cute 😊 After the elephants we took a paddle each and jumped into a white water raft to get back down the river. Sounded great in theory even with no experience, until we realised our new guide couldn't really speak English well enough to explain to us novie rafters what to do on the rapids! It was an interesting start as he would yell something and we would just look at each other! Luckily the rapids weren't very big as the rainy season had only just kicked in a few days earlier. We made it down and fun was had by all...except when we exchanged our rubber raft to that of one made from bamboo. It must have taken us 30 minutes just to move off!

Back in Chaing Mai and we relaxed and chilled for the next two days, visiting the Sunday market in town and finding some AMAZING places to eat. We also participated in a Thai Cooking Class (yes, both of us!) which was awesome and now we can both cook dilious meals such as Green Thai Curry, Massaman Curry, Paad Thai, TomYum Soup and more. Dinner anyone!?

We eventually decided it was time to leave Chaing Mai and booked our Slow Boat adventure crossing through the Mekong River to Laos....


Additional photos below
Photos: 51, Displayed: 25


Advertisement

Our dog ...Our dog ...
Our dog ...

followed us the whole trek
delicasiesdelicasies
delicasies

beetles bugs and more


2nd July 2010

Yummy - not !!!!
...ha ha. Have they tied the legs on those "little" cockroaches up ? Not even going to begin to ask why ! WE are missing you still. Kelly says the elephant ride looks awesome and she loves you both. Thanks for all your news. So good to know the both of you are safe and see all your photos. Love you madly.

Tot: 0.259s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 14; qc: 60; dbt: 0.0872s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb