Hill Trekking across the universe

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The plan 2 days walking up steep hills, riding some Elephants, staying with an indeginous Hill tribe overnight, Bamboo rafting down a river then back home, sounded easy on paper..............................My God we nearly died. They told us the trekking would be easy, 15 minutes in and practically a rockface climbed we had our illusions shattered, it wasn't helped by having some uber fit Europeans in our group who just stormed off at about 400mph, while me and Becks and some other English fella languished at the back, red faced and struggling to breathe. Was all good though the scenery when you were on a flat bit was amazing, it so lush and green, with Paddy fields everywhere. We visited a couple of nice waterfalls too which were good to coll off in. After a bit we stopped to ride on some Elephants which was quality, you give them some Bananas sit in a chair on their back and off they go, very graceful creatures. After that back to the uphill struggle. After 3 hours we arrived at the village we were to stop overnight, I would like to say it is in the middle of nowhere and we were their 1st visitors but it is set up for tourists really. It is an authentic village but they have cars and motorbikes and mobiles etc, so not as remote as you would like to think, none the less they made us some lovely food and then the kids of the tribes sang songs to us in their native tongue around the campfire, which was beautiful. So we interacted with the local tribespeople that night and stayed, but it was not of Bruce Parry proprtions and there was no jumping over cows...............The next day off again with the ultra fast Dutch contingent to go 3 hours down the mountain, our guide deciding to take us across as many stretches of the river as possible via fallen trees, nice, I only fell in once so not bad, that was once more then anyone else though!!!! Eventually the walking ended, again me and Becks last by some distance, then we sailed on a bamboo raft 1 hour down river which was great, soaking up the sun, getting splashed by all the local Thai people along the riverbank. Got back the Chiang Mai and everything aches, a thai massage may be on the cards for later....................

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Photos

Stupid hat
Stupid hat

Trekiside
Trekiside

Becks feeding the fish
Becks feeding the fish

Comments

[cazzer]

Ha Ha. I had a feeling those fit Europeans would be Dutch! We have a knack of barging up hills, dont we Becks ;-). (But take no notice, it's just a passing fascination as we don't have any mountains back in she fadjerland). xx

[TIM SHORT]

MASSAGE EXTRAS?
I had a Thai massage once....erm...sounds like a great laugh, rafting, elephants, locals, did they sing 'Out There Somewhere' by Orbital? I imagine not. It's raining today, and everyone looks miserable here, but have been watching the Aussies losing the home one day series to South Africa. Also, you have signed Heskey, which I'm sure you know, and you beat Portsmouth one nil courtesy of a Bruno goal, against the run of the match, but a great result none the less. I am deeply envious of ya!