No More Roosters!!!

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OK, can't take the roosters anymore. There are thousands of them, I swear, all over the hills. They don't even wait until the sun comes up to crow! And once they start, they never stop! Thousands of them, crowing, for hours! Needless to say, between the hard, bamboo floor and obnoxious roosters, I am going to be SO happy tonight when I have a real bed to sleep in, and oh yeah -- a REAL HOT SHOWER!!!!!!! Don't take this the wrong way, I have thoroughly enjoyed the trek and would do it again anytime I had the chance, but NO MORE ROOSTERS!!!!! :-)

OK, now that I got that out of my system, how about a real journal entry...

Our morning began with breakfast and a visit to the local Chinese language school where we gave our last notebooks and pencils as gifts. We than trekked on. Our last day of hiking was quite easy, all downhill (sometimes very steep though). We saw some illegal opium fields, rested an a mandarin orange grove where we able to pick a few and taste them frest off the tree - YUM! We also stopped in a small village for lunch then trekked our last 4 kilometers down some dirt roads until we found the highway where a van was already there to pick us up -- WE SURVIVED!!!!! :-)

I have never been so happy to see a real bed and feel a hot shower ever in my life! I took such a long shower and scrubbed so hard on every crevace of my body that I am sure I took off a couple layers of skin. Clean clothes never felt so good either.

Once Christine and I felt whole again, we decided to wander on our own in Chiang Rai. We wanted dinner, then just to go to bed. So, we wandered, and wandered, and then realized we forgot the name of our hotel AND didn't really know where we were. We were trying to find the night market. We felt like we were getting close, but gave up when we found a bunch of westerners sitting outside of what appeared to be a Dutch restaurant. We decided we were going to gobble up hamburgers and beer. Although I absolutely love Thai food, a good cheeseburger is definitely one of my comfort foods of choice. I also felt a huge craving for protein - although there is meat mixed in with a lot of the Thai noodle and rice dishes, it is not the amount that we Americans are used to.

Luckily, while we were eating on the patio of the restaurant, a few of the people from our group passed us. They were much smarter than us - they took business cards from the hotel before they left. By getting one of the cards from them, they saved us from wandering the streets of Chiang Rai wondering where our hotel was.

Once back in the hotel, we were so happy to see a real pillow to put our heads on, AND a real bed to sleep in. We are going to sleep so well tonight!!!!!!!

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Photos

We Did It!!!!
Smelly, sweaty, and tired, but we finished the trek and still feel great!

This was REALLY on the Menu!
From the menu of the Dutch restaurant in Chiang Rai. Not sure if this is a direct translation from Dutch or Thai, either way, it doesn't translate well.

Comments

[Monica]

Glad to see you are well
It sounds like a memorable trip, stay safe and see you girls soon!

[SANTANU BURAGOHAIN]

Crook cooo koooo...
The rooster part really made me laugh.....they must have disturbed ur sleep very much to make u mad on them so much.....even the rooster pic was funny somehow......But once back home, i guess you will miss the croo coo kooo at times........