Professional Log Walkers

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Were now in Chaing Mai up north from Bangkok. We took an over night train to get here. It was really interesting trying to sleep on the train it had two bunk beds and was quite a jerky ride. We would be awoken by it stopping suddenly. Once we got off the train our hotel had sent someone to pick us up. It turned out to be a crazy tuk tuk driver we didn't think we would make it to the hotel he was such a bad driver. But we did make it safe and sound. The next morning we woke up bright and early to head off on our three day trekking adventure in the rain forest. We started off with a two hour ride in the back of a truck to an elephant camp. From there we rode elephants for an hour, they sure do like their food. Scott's elephant managed to rip a whole tree out of the ground and drag it along with them. After this we had prepared ourselves for a nice casual walk or so we thought. It turned out to be literally climbing up a mountain for a good 3 hours with crossing rivers all the time as well. The first few logs we had to walk on were a bit iffy but by the end we had the hang of it. At one point all I wanted was a helicopter to pick me up. Once we arrived at our destination for the night, all the hiking seemed worth it. It was an amazing view from the top. The place we stayed in was an actual hill tribes village house. We had a really good time ate some real thai food and sat around the fire drinking beer while one of our guides played guitar. The next day woke up and had to go almost all the way back down the hill this time stopping at a waterfall that we got to swim in. We spent the night in a jungle lodge as they called it. It was right by the river so we had a nice peaceful sleep with the river in the background. The following morning we were off again on a relatively short hike to a river rafting point. We then set out to do some white water rafting down the river. It was a lot of fun and very wet. After the white water rafting we switched to bamboo rafting for a while and ended our river odysee with lunch on the banks of the river. After lunch we headed back to the city to do some laundry for our clothes were realy dirty. After a short nap we were off again to do some drinking and bartering at the Chaing Mai night market. It's really quite fun to shop over here. All the prices are subject to how well you can barter, Lauerlyn is improving at an alarming rate, and I have become about as shrude as an Arab trader. Needless to say all of the items that we purchased were at a fair price. Both of us managed to buy whole outfits, including shoes for under $30 cdn. We also got to see a parade for the Kings birthday. It was extravagent, huge floats, thousands of people, and the sky was full of lanterns that people set off into the night for good luck and to say a few prayers. The whole night was a lot of fun. Thats all for now, next entry we will make sure that we have our cameras so that we can add some photo's for all to see. Bye for now.

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Comments

[Sandy]

Good Morning
Glad you are having a good time. Should have realize you would be a traveller when you always packed your bag around when you were little. I finally got a passport, so now you have me dreaming. Loving reading your journals. Have a great time. Love you. Aunty Sandy