Jungle Trek

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Chiang Mai is a quieter city than Bangkok and a welcome respite from the chaos we left behind us. Its surrounded by Moats and a wall that was built to defend against Burmese invaders 700 years ago. This part of Thailand is much greener and has many mountains as a backdrop which are covered in an eery mist early in the morning.

Thursday morning we got a mini bus from the hotel to our first stop, to head to a tribal village. We had to trek through a jungle on a route which was extremely steep. Most tribes that live in the mountains are of semi nomadic origin, having migrated from places such as China, Laos or Tibet during the past 200 years or so. We didnt realise the walk would be quite as tough, but we made it encountering nasty bugs along the way. A couple of people on our group dropped out half way up the mountain, as it was so hot and tough. Once we had made it to the top, we met our first hill tribe- The Karen. They live in bamboo huts and and practice animism, buddhism or christianity depending on the group. They were very welcoming considering we were walking around their village, but I guess they are used to it and appreciate any money which we may bring. They also keep chickens, pigs and there are dogs running around the place. The scenery was amazing, as you could see right across the landscape to the mountains beyond. After wandering around for a bit we ventured back down the mountain, which was almost as tough as going up and I managed to carve my ankles up- wasnt wearing the best footwear so my fault really!

We then headed to another part of the jungle to go and ride elephants. This lasted about an hour and we ventured deep into the jungle, stopping for a large part of the time for the elephants to feed. We were on the youngest of the herd - an 18 year old with the hugest bite on its head, which it wacked with branches for most of the way, as it was obviously itching him. Most of them seemed to be making ther own way, ignoring the commands of the Thai drivers. We really enjoyed this, and fed them bananas at the end of the trek.

From here we headed to lunch, which was rice and sweet and sour vegetables- not bad but no where near enough for us as we stupidly missed breakfast. We then drove a bit further to visit a waterfall, but were not allowed to swim as it had been raining a lot and the currents were too strong. The scenery was stunning.

After driving for a bit we moved on to the final activity of the day- bamboo rafting on the Mae Nam Pai. This was hilarious! We all started off very well, with Martin helping to steer the raft and doing a very good job too. However, certain parts of the river were very choppy and took us by suprise on a number occasions resulting in us falling into the river. We were on the raft with a couple from Amsterdam, and when he was steering he fell off, but the Thai guy who was steering didnt realise for a while and we kept on speeding down the river. He did manage to swim and get back on, but this was very funny. This was by far the best day of our trip so far.

By the time we got back to the hotel we were exhausted and glad that we had only trekked in the jungle for one day.

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Photos

Elephant Trekking
Taken from top of our elephant..

Bamboo Rafting
Taken before we all managed to fall in...

Comments

[Mayur]

Match of the year
Hi Laura and Martin, I have a couple of spare executive tickets for the WHU and Arsenal match if you can make it back!!! Good health and happy travels.... Mayur