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“Elephant ride, rafting along the rapids and big spiders!” |
The train to Chiang Mai ended up taking an extra 2 hours, we were meant to arrive at 6 ish but ended up getting there around 8ish which was a bit rubbish, mainly because I woke up at 6 expecting it to be there! I slept in an upper bunk and the train ride was quite jerky so felt like I was going to fall off! A Songethaw met us at the train station and took us back to the guest house. For dinner we ate in an italian cafe but had to stick to Thai food because the italian food was too expensive. Had a green curry which was very spicy but very nice. When crossing the road we have to be extra careful here because the drivers do not seem to notice when the light is red, either that or they don't give a damn!
The following day we started our trek. We woke up just in time for a small breakfast and we were squeezed into a full songethaw so it was a bit of a squeeze! We were taken to the elephant camp for our elephant ride. The man walking with the elephants kept hitting my elephant which I was not too pleased about! I rode on the front which was quite scary especially when we were going downhill! We had lunch and then trekked to the waterfall and had a swim. We then trekked to the hill village and played drinking games. In our group there are some aussies who love a drink of course, a canadian girl, an english guy and some koreans who brought their own food (kimchi- spicy cabbage!) they even brought their own korean whisky which was a bit lethal and one of them got really pissed, was well funny because we were playing this card game called 'pig'- (see photo of Jamie!He lost!).
The following day our group was split up, the aussie guys and the koreans were only doing a 2 day trek and we were four, me and Jamie, Renee from Canada and Ian from Liverpool. We had a long trek after breakfast, for about 4 hours, we saw another waterfall and had a swim and then trekked to another hill tribe. Gets really chilly in the evening so need a long sleeved tshirt and trousers. We slept in a bamboo hut and tucked our mossie net under our mattress because we could hear all the insects crawling around under our hut and in the roof. Went to the toilet just before bed and think I saw a TARANTULA, was really scared but think it must have been more scared of me! Then had a dream that I woke up with cockroaches all over me- ahh!
The last day of our trek involved trekking downhill for most of it, which was quite tricky and several river crossings- over a log which was quite a challenge! We went to a stunning waterfall (see photos) and we had a rest there before heading to our bamboo camp for lunch and then onto the bamboo rafting, which was quite rough in places. We had a guy at the front 'driving' it and Jamie got the job of being at the back controlling it, which we seemed to like. Our 'driver' was a bit mad and he kept splashing the people on the raft in front of us, but they didn't seem to see the funny side (think they were german!). When we got back we had a good shower and scrub down and then put our clothes in for washing. The following day was a rest day because we were shattered from all the trekking. We booked a cooking course and a bus to pai, which is meant to be really nice and it is about a 3hr drive from Chiang Mai.
The day of our cooking course, Jamie didn't feel like eating any breakfast which was very unlike him (thought he might have been excited about the cooking course or too nervous to eat!!) and when we arrived he was sick (outside so well away from my spring rolls and green curry) and ended up going back. I carried on the cooking course on my own, as Jamie didn't really want to carry on and I stayed so I could finish it. I had a really good time, I'm sure that Jamie would have enjoyed it too. After the spring rolls we made Tom Yam Soup (with prawns), tofu with cashew nuts, green curry and banana in coconut milk for desert. Was really tasty and I even was able to take some back, shame Jamie wasn't feeling like eating it though. We postponed the bus to Pai so that Jamie could make a full recovery. Bought a photo album for a couple of quid and posted it back but it ended up costing us 18 pounds! Whoops!
previous travel blog entry
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