The Chiang Mai Trek

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We've just come back from an adventurous 3 day trek up in the mountains near Chiang Mai.

Day One: Our group arrived at an elephant camp and we had a long ride on an elephant named Dumbo (even though she was female!) She took us high into the mountainous areas overlooking rice-fields and beautiful scenery. The ride was bumpy and she kept stopping to eat everything and anything available! After the ride, we gave her some bananas to say thanks before having some lunch made by our tour guide JJ. We then went on a 3hour trek to get to our village, where we stayed with the Laho tribe in a small wooden hut.

Day Two: The day started nice and easy with a large breakfast and an easier walk down the mountain passing through a village belonging to a Hmong tribe. We came to a waterfall and had a chance to relax and chill out. After some soupy noodles we made it to our jungle camp, which was similar to the other accomodation but was not part of a village. Some locals stayed to sell us drinks and snacks while we had a game of poker and chats with our fellow trekkers. We lit a log fire and messed around with some sling shots that had been made by the local people.

Day Three: After another tasty breakfast, we had a wander towards the base to begin some white water rafting. Our group split up into 2 6 man rafts before experiencing the river that we had been following for the past 2 days! Amazingly, we didn't fall out the boat! The next journey was made by bamboo rafting which was a lot more relaxed and we followed the river down to get to our base for some food.

We were the only English people in our group. There were some Spanish, French, Danish, American and Aussie trekkers who all came together for a great laugh.

We're heading off to Pai after a cookery course here in Chiang Mai. We'll keep you updated!

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