Jungle Trek Day 2

---

Day 2 would prove to be much nicer than day 1. We started the day much later than origioanally anticipated (our guide drank too much the night before). But we headed off with high hopes for the elephant riding portion of our trek. Unfortunately they only had 3 elephant for 8 of us who were going to ride them. Matt, James and another girl all jumped on the first one. A French couple got on the second one so I was left for the third one with two of the unfit smoker girls. Fortunately for me patience pays off. I jumped on the third elephant and hen we found out the other two girls were not comeing so I got my elephant to myself. As went went along the trail we came to some realizations. The elephants looked to be heavily over worked and the one Matt was riding was too old. It was really slowand seemed to stumble a bit. It was a fun ride but in hindsight I would rather have just spent more time playing with them and watching them than riding them.

After the elephant the two girls ended up leaving for Chiang Mai because of stomach illness. The rest of us headed out for our day of treking and by day I mean a couple of hours. We got to a waterfall for swimming but it was rather small and dirty. We all went swimming anyways because it was so hot and the. Ha a really late lunch. Finally we headed up to the last village for the night. This turned out to be the highlight of the trip. It was a remote village with only 5 houses and a long bamboo building for us. When we arrived all of the adults and older kids were still out working the field so the young girls were looking after the younger children. Our guide had to leave for a bit so he payed two of the younger girls to take the group to a second waterfall. I opted to stay and explor the village but the rest of the group and some of the kids left.

It was really interested to watch the kids at play and them looking at me. After a while some of the bold ones ventured up to me to investigate. We communicated with a lot of fAces and hand gestures and a lot of giggling on there part. I wish I had brought some neat things for them. It is unlike our protective society as many of the kids no older than 8 were wielding butcher knives to build bamboo forts or whack logs. At one point I saw a little naked boy who looked to be very young pick up a massive axe and tryand carry it away. Fortunately for him (and his toes) it was too heavy.

The rest of the night we ate dinner and spent times with the kids. We all packed it in forbes rather early.

---