Chiang Mai is known as a launching pad for hiking treks through the nearby mountains. These excursions often include visiting hilltribes, riding elephants, traveling down rivers on bamboo rafts, and of course, hiking. Some are several days long and include camping. On Thursday, February 1, we went on a one day trek. The adventure started around 8:45 a.m. Saai met me at my Bed & Breakfast, and we were soon off in a van packed with 8 other tourists, a tour guide, and driver. If you do the math, you’ve already figured out - that’s 12 people in 1 van. An odd mix of people too. The group was dominated by 6 middle-aged Italian men, two of whom I would dub, “trouble”. In spite of this, we did enjoy our trek, and spoke a fair amount
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