Rats aren't just for breakfast anymore

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Wow....Chiang Mai thus far has been everything I hoped it would. I took the 2 day trek (up hill) through the jungle of Northern Thailand. The weather couldn't be better....sunny, no rain, not too hot. Our first stop was an elephant farm to take a one hour ride on elephants. These were the most tame creatures I could ever have imagined. We then stopped at a waterfall to take a swim and unfortunately I slipped on a rock and gashed my leg open, other than that, the water was refreshing. There are 7 of us including two guides. Everyone is from some place else, i.e., UK, Norway, Japan and the U.S.. Luckily we all speak English. We ended up in a Hillside Tribe with a population of about 30. When we got there, we were able to walk around, talk to the village people and see their homes. They were very friendly. Instead of the typical rice and veggies, we opted for slaughtering a small pig and roasting it over open fire. Our guides were a lot of fun and pulled out all the stops to give us an intimate village experience. We also roasted a few rats which was actually pretty good it you can get past the thought of them being rodents. There were dogs, chickens, water buffalo, and pig everywhere. We stayed up late drinking whiskey with the natives and picking at the pig. We all stayed in a hut together and had a surprise visitor at 4 in the morning. One lone rooster started calling and didn't stop until 8. I wish we slaughtered him instead of the pig. This morning we hiked out and all was up hill. At the top of this huge hill was a clearing and a championship soccer game was just starting their second half so we found some shade and squated for game. One village against another playing in the dirt. We rooted for the red team but they lost. That was fun and a good way to take a break. After hiking for another 3 hours, we were beat. We arrived at the place along the river to hope on a bamboo raft for a leasurely trip down river. No such luck of being leasurely as many other rafters were also on the river and it turned into a one constant water fight.
Finally back at the hotel, I showered and went back out to meet up with a couple of friends I made to walk through the night market. I'm about done for the day so I'll end it here.....I'm exhausted.

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Comments

[deleted_4464]

hello!
Hi there! I was just thumbing through the site's new journal entries and came across yours. I am planning to go to Thailand next year and was wondering how you got hooked up with this 2 day trek? It looks exactly like something I would do while I'm there. Thanks in advance!

[Rosalind]

Car seats?
I love that picture of the kids on the motorcycle! They now say in the U.S. that you have to take kid's coats off before you strap them into their car seat or else the car seat is not effective in restraining them. I wonder what they would say about putting 3 kids on the back of bike with NO HELMETS???? (let alone on a motorcycle in the first place!) :)