Trekking..!
Day 4 saw us heading off into the northern hills on a 2 day/1 night trekking adventure..!

After being picked up from our guesthouse in only the best transport availlable (back of a ute..), our first stop was a local orchid farm. Luckily the excitement levels increased somewhat, with the next stop being a local snake farm. Nothing like being on holidays to increase the bravado factor, with both Dav and I not only touching, but also 'wearing' a snake on our head and around our necks! (It definately helped that the snake was so placid i believe it may have been zoncked out on some Thai 'herbs'...)

From there, it was back into the 'limosine' and off to the market to meet the rest of our mottley crew - a group of 10, made up of Isrealies, Danes, Koreans and Lithuanians - where we transfered into the back of yet another ute. Given that the ute should really only hold 10 people in the back, and we were the lucky last making the numbers up to 12, we were squeezed in, with not even the back tailgate being able to be closed.. so as we

Grasshopper...

cruised along the highways, Dav and I were hanging on for dear life! Makes me miss the boring safety standards of home, but, as we have seen many a time, 'tis the Thai way!

Our first stop was then the elephant treking, which involved a half hour ride down to the river and back up again. Was definately an experience, however it was not as good as i had hoped as the elephants seemed so sad... In hindsight, i think i would have prefered to just see them do their own thing, but was still an experience... And was fun to be that close to such magnificent beasts!

From there we began the 3 hour trek up to a local village where we were to stay the night. Now in Australia a '3 hour trek' can normally be brushed over by such spring chickens as ourselves in a good 2 to 2.5 hours at most, and normally not that strenuous... So we were in for a bit of a shock! Damn it was hard... seriously, heart-jumping-out-of-chest, can-heardly-breath hard! Plus the humidity meant that any cooling system the body could come up with was seriously swarted! But, as it

Davin with snake hat

always is, it was so so so worth it! The view was absolutely spectactular and that first cold drink after the shower was fan-bloody-tastic!

Dinner followed, and then a guitar was brought out, as Dav tried desperately to play songs that the international crowd could all sing along to - a feat in itself as you can imagine! Then the local villagers came and gave us hou- long massages which was fantastic - even if it only really went for 40 mins, you can hardly complain when you pay $5 each...

Morning saw the downhill slide begin as we manourved our way down the mountainside on slippery muddy slopes... all the way to a spectacular waterfall at the bottom which was just the ticket to wash away the layers of sweat!

From there, more trekking along the river for another couple of hours... We luckily made it to our lunch shelter before the heavens opened and it bucketed for a good half hour, definately testing the leaved roofs above us. Luckily that settled, which meant we were able to go white water rafting! So so so much fun! We were all quite nervous to start, given the

Anji with snake

threat of flash flooding and lightning, and the fact that we witnessed a boat overturn in front of us, but we had really professional guides who waited until there was definately no threats from nature to upset the ride... And it was so much fun! And next time (there will definately be a next time) we're hoping for a bit more exciting run, as it was quite a placid ride in the end, with only a couple of nervous moments!

From there we transfered from the rubber raft to a canoe raft for another 5 mins of gentle cruising down the river... Quite an international event with our boat serenading the other with a 'row-row-row-your-boat' overlaping version including english, Danish and Korean versions!

And then back into the ute (we made sure we werent the last this time..) and back to the guesthouse, exhasted, and in need of a shower and sleep!

Additional photos below

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