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Published: August 12th 2006
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Chiang Mai is the number one spot in Thailand (and possible SE Asia) for trekking into the mountains and so I joined the masses. Some of my intended group cancelled at the last minute so it ended up being just me and a group of 4 German girls who set out on the 3 day hike. We were supposed to be heading North of Chiang Mai but some heavy rain in the mountains has caused flooding and so the plan changed at the last moment and we headed South.
This turned out to be really luck because as we stopped at a market on the way to pick up supplies I randomly bumped into Neil and Sarah (friends from Uni for those of you who don't know them) who are in Thailand for a month during the summer holidays (the place is crawling with teachers at this time of year).
We were given a gentle start to the three days with a visit to a mountain temple and then lunch before we actually walked anywhere. The walking started after lunch and went on, and on, and on. It was pretty cool walking through the jungle but it was so
humid that I was a sweaty mess before too long. This wasn't helped by the speed at which Mr Goo (our insane duracel bunny/superman of a guide with a laugh like woody woodpecker) expected us to walk/climb which was almost a running pace at times. We did stop for a breather periodically as Mr Goo pointed out things of interest. He knows absolutely everything about the area and in particular the plants including which ones you can eat, or make dyes from, or blow bubbles with, or make a popping sound with, or make cnadles with etc etc.
Just as we were all reaching burnout point we arrived at a beautiful waterfall which we could swim under to cool down. It felt soooo good. This is also where I bumped into Neil and Sarah for a second time, and realised that there was a good chance we would be doing a pretty similar route. This was confirmed when I heard a distinctly scouse accent which sounded slightly out of place in the village where we were spending our first night. After some really good food cooked by Mr Goo I walked up the village and spent the remainder of
the evening playing games with Neil and Sarah's group which involved 'painting' the face of the person who messes up with the carbon from the bottom of the wok. Needless to say we all ended up looking like the Black and White Minstrels.
The next day was a full on day of trekking with stops at another village for lunch, and another waterfall for a swim before ending up at another village for the evening. We were joined by a French family of four for another excellent evening meal followed by entertainment by the guides using a guitar and some improvised percussion instruments. This moved into the villagers' hut as it got later, where I put my English language skills to good use by helping a young guide to write a love letter to his girlfriend in America in return for regular shots of rice whiskey (aka moonshine).
The last day was somewhat easier with our trekking interspersed with a bamboo raft ride and an elephant ride. I had mixed feelings about the elephant ride I had been really looking forward to it but I wasn't convinced that the elephants were being looked after particularly well - they
didn't seem happy and then needed a lot of encouragement from their handlers (by way of hitting them with sticks) to trudge round the very muddy route which they clearly take every day. It was, however, a pretty cool experience because the odd number of people in our group meant that I sat on the elephant's neck instead of on the seat on his back. I tried to make Herbert's (pronounced the French way) walk round as pleasant as possible for him by regularly feeding him bananas as well as giving him a head and ear massage.
The bamboo rafting wasn't quite "white-water" but it was made quite fun by the drivers' rivalry to get down the river fastest, as well as their attempts to make us fall in the water and failing that to splash us by smashing their sticks into the water.
I was thoroughly exhausted by the time we arrived back in Chiang Mai but I'd had a really good time. It wasn't quite the experience I was hoping for - I had hoped to be the only group on that route and in each village - but I still had a great time, due
largely to the brilliant Mr Goo. That said, I must admit that getting under a proper shower and being able to sit on a toilet were much appreciated after I checked into a guesthouse upon my return.
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Kelly
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Elephants!
I hope you are bringing back photos of your ride on Herbert. It could well be the thing I am most jealous of from your whole trip!