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Published: November 11th 2006
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Well i'm back!
What an absolute blast. Got picked up from the hotel around 10 on Wednesday morning in a truck with a cab on the back. As soon as i got in i started chatting to people and they were all great, just as well seeing as there were 12 of us crammed into the thing, it got very cosy to say the least. Peeling my thigh from the Irish lad next to me before i even knew his name, shocking Mummy i know!
Turned out there were 3 Irish people, 3 English, 5 Dutch and 1 Swiss. I got on with everyone but especially the Irish couple and Alan the lad travelling alone. We laughed nearly the entire time and were all sorry to say goodbye, so much so half of the party decided to check into the hotel i'm staying in after the trip so we've spent last night and tonight together, yes pretty much laughing all the time again.
Anyway back to the story. We arrived at our destination after a couple of hours in the back of the truck and had lunch by the river. As we were eating the elephants came down
The view
Waking up to this, priceless to the water and took a bath, makes great dinner entertainment i can tell you. After lunch we were due to ride the elephants into the jungle for the first hour or so but there were too many of us to all fit in the seats on their backs so the guide asked for 2 volunteers to ride on their necks. Well i bet you can guess who's hand went straight up in the air! It was not as easy as you may think, for a start there's nowhere to hold on to and their shoulder blades obviously move as they walk so your seat is constantly moving and to add to all that they have very coarse prickly hair that found its way through my lightweight trousers and my behind felt like a pin cushoin by the end. All that said it was an amazing experience, one which i will remember for a long time, i mean i rode on an elephants neck and could feel its ears flapping against my legs!! Every now and then a trunk would come up and search for the bananas i had in my bag, it was amazing how expressive it could be.
One group seemed to have a less great time as their elephant had a bit of a cold and kept putting his trunk up and snorting mucus over them, mmm nice!
After the ride and paying my fair with several bananas we set off into the jungle. It was as you'd imagine, hot, sweaty and hard going. We trekked for a few hours, all up hill i hasten to add to our first camp. It was spectacular. We were staying with the Laoh tribe in their mountain village. The accomodation was modest but had the most fantastic views. We all slept in the same bamboo hut on mattresses on the floor, so it was just as well we all got on. The toilet again in a bamboo hut had the most fantastic view down into the valley, beats reading the paper any day. After cold showers and a quick change we sat on the veranda of our hut and chatted and laughed the night away. The local children came in their national dress and sang and danced for us so we returned the favour and sang to them but the only song we all knew was Wonderwall-bet they wondered what the hell we were doing! After a strenuous day we were all in bed by 11. Its weird waking up next to somone you only met that day and chatting like old friends at 5 in the morning about the cockerals calling and the pigs fighting underneath your hut! Still all seemed perfectly normal at the time.
That day was spent walking in the jungle and swimming in waterfalls, tough but well worth it. We crossed the river many times and often it was slippery and pretty difficult. I was convinced that i would fall in at some point and didn't disappoint. Jumping from rock to rock on about our 5th crossing, by which point i was feeling a little over confident i slipped and lunged backwards into the river, where i got wedged in by my rucksack and had to suffer the humiliation of lying there legs and arms in the air like an upturned tortoise till someone could stop laughing long enough to come and help me. Why is it always me? If nothing else i will have learnt humility from this whole experience! We then got to our second camp down by the river and spent the evening similarly. Our third day we went white water rafting, a hair raising experince but fantastic. We were all petrified when we saw how tough it looked and the news that an Australian girl had died last week when her life jacket came off did little to qwell our nerves but all was well and we all lived to tell the tale. After that we had a far more sedate trip down the river on bamboo rafts, fell off twice and got soaked but loved it, would do it all again in a heartbeat.
Getting back to my hotel bed and hot shower was bliss and i've put my clothes in to be washed so clean clothes tonight, heaven. Certainly learning to appreciate the small things in life.
So that's it folks, off to night market tonight with Sue, Alan and Josh (from trip) i can feel a bit of retail therapy coming on!
Hope you enjoy and i'll be back soon. Leaving for Laos border tomorrow looking forward to exploring a new country.
Be safe.
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Yathi
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Great!
So we finally get to see some pictures too.