Jungle Book

---

Blimey today was action packed. Got up at the crack of dawn and headed out for some jungle trekking. Not only did we trek around a jungle for an hour or so, the best part was an elephant riding session, followed by white water rafting and bamboo rafting.

We arrived (with a couple of other people) at a tribal village in a jungle just north of Chiang Mai where lychee trees were left, right and centre. We stopped here for some juicy lychees before heading into the deep jungle. The weather was cool as the canopy covered us from direct sunlight and a cool breeze kept us in good condition. Still, the weather was warm and the sweat us dripping. Successfully passing through the jungle we arrived at the elephant camp where we were to board the friendly creatures. We set off on a humongous elephant which had a reputation of ‘enjoying her food’ and how true this was. Apart from stopping to open her bladder which resembled a waterfall, she took numerous detours with little consideration to her passengers. Holding on for dear life, we helped out swatting the flies that kept landing on her head and sucking her blood! We were amazed with the strength of the trunk, taking whole bushes/trees out of the ground!

After an hour or so we docked and gifted our elephant with some bananas. Teasing the elephants with bananas, the elephant decided to take bananas out of tsz wai hands! Elephant was also thirsty so we hosed her down and fed water into the trunk in which it then sucked up and drank.

Next up was a quick village lunch followed by a walk to the waterfall which was severely lacking water! Finally, our walking was concluded and we head upstream to commence white water rafting. With no experience apart from dragon boat racing, we were thrown in the raft with am ore, life jacket and helmet and started in paddle down stream. We had 6 people in our raft together rowing like pros we were twisting and turning downstream. Some moments were adrenaline packed but also calmer moments where the locals jumped in and swam alongside us.

Our next activity was a calming session on a bamboo raft which soaked us through and through. The aussie guy stepped onto the bamboo raft and pretty much fell straight through. Luckily, there was no serious injury and we continued to sail downstream. We got back to our van and dried off before buying some photos and heading back to Chiang Mai for dinner.

Defo the best day yet!

Cooking tomorrow! See you then.

Chris & Tszwai

---