Trekking

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In Chang Mai we stayed in Libra guest house which was run by a really friendly Thai family. We organized a 2 day trek which started the following day at 7.30am.

After a short drive, via a market to pick up supplies, we arrived at a waterfall in the national park. This was very beautiful and the water was very cold, a refreshing change after swimming in the warm sea for many weeks. From here we went back on the road for about 30 mins to reach some hot natural springs which were far too hot to swim in. A cooler man made pool was available to swim in next to the springs.

From here we began the 4 hour trek up hill and down dale, passing 2 local villages where mountain tribes live in a basic lifestyle with cattle, pigs and chickens, making money from selling at local markets and supplying drinks to the trekkers. Didn’t seem a very difficult life as all the villages had satellite TV powered by solar panels.

Our fellow trekkers were a good crowd from a mixture of European countries including team Denmark, team Check-republic, Team Scotland and of course Ket from Norway, who was the life on soul of the party. The trek was fairly difficult in places esp. down hill parts which weren’t that easy in crap shoes.

We arrived in the village where we spent the night and after a evening meal the party really began. This was mainly because the mountain whiskey (aka happy water) was cracked open and that got everyone singing and dancing. Our guide was great on the guitar at playing mainly American music and Boyzone. He could also hold a tune to some local Thai sounds. Some of the gang (Ket) needed a little help finding the hut that we all slept in, but the guys all received a big kiss for lending this helping hand (too much happy water!).

The next day involved elephant trekking along the river, typically our elephant (Soi Thai) was a bit of a renegade who kept walking off and doing his our thing, he had quite a taste for bananas and on many occasions refused to move unless we honored his request, expressing his anger by blowing though his trunk in our faces.

The next activity was bamboo rafting down the river this was pretty easy for me as I just soaked up the rays while the guys had to negotiate the rapids with bamboo sticks. At one point we abandoned ship due to strong rapids, Greg and Scott (team Scotland) stayed on board as the raft hurtled into a few rocks and crashed, was a little scary and could have been much worse, it’s took a team of 6 to free the raft and get back on with the journey, all bags remained dry - result!

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Comments

[JOHN]

TREKKING - LANZAROTE TEAM
HELLO INTREPID TWOSOME - YOUR ADVENTURES CONTINUE TO DELIGHT - YOU WILL BE IN LAOS NOW I IMAGINE - WE ARE BACK IN LANZAROTE - NO ELEPHANTS( ONLY THOSE WEARING SHORTS AND LYING ON SUN LOUNGERS) HAVING A GOOD REST. WILL SEND YOU PRIVATE MESSAGE TOO - TAKE CARE ENJOY...JOHN N MAGGS

[ket]

sending more pics soon
so all can see how greate rafter greg realy is