Trek through the Thai jungle

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We took a taxi to the Bangkok north bus station. On the way someone's bonnet or boot flew off from the overpass and landed in front of our taxi, causing the driver to laugh nervously.

Took a 1st class bus to Chiang Rai, only Thai people on it. 10 hours of listening to Thai Karaoke and watching Deuce Bigalow European Gigolo dubbed in Thai. Actually that probably made the movie funny.

Went and saw the jade Buddha, because the emerald Buddha is in Bangkok now, and saw the Hill tribe Museum. The Hill tribes are made up of Burmese refugees and we booked an overnight trekking tour there.

Found a Western restaurant (Yay!) and had spaghetti for dinner. It was nice to have something without chilli.

Next morning took off with our guide, Homee. (We kept saying "What's up my homie" behind his back and giggling.) He took us to the market where he bought food for our dinner in case they didn't have enough in the village we were staying in that night. We went on a boat with some other tourists up the Mae Kok River and got out at the Karen Village. There, for 200 baht, they wrapped us with a massive python that I could hardly hold. I kept freaking out because he kept putting his head back to check out what I was doing. Very scary. Then we had a tour through the village and the local school. In the Karen Village there are heaps of different tribes living there, because there are more job opportunities. The main tribe is the Karen, and then there are Lahu, Akhu, Yao and more. We watched some of them weaving, but mostly they just wanted us to by heaps of things. James (the big softie) bought about 5 woven wrist bands.

We then headed to the Lahu Village we were to spend the night at, by way of elephant! The driver kept whipping the elephant and yelling at it, so it wasn't the most peaceful of rides. We thought maybe the elephant was being naughty because we gave it too much sugar cane and bananas to eat. Not the comfiest ride, but still pretty fun.

Once we arrived at the village, we walked around with Homee, exploring. There were pigs, dogs and chickens everywhere, and also a lot of poo. The kids were really cute and playing everywhere and posing for the camera. After a wonderful dinner (everything tasted like smoke and garlic - pretty yummy!) 4 of the village girls came and sang traditional songs for us and made us dance with them. Then 2 women came and gave us massages. James said his massaged his butt for ages, but I found mine didn't. Then we went to the hard, hard bed to sleep. It was just a blanket on the floor, so really hard to sleep on. Plus the dogs and the pigs had a fight under the house during the night that went on for ages, and Homee snored really, really loudly. So as soon as the roosters started crowing we were up and ready. Homee had said he would take us to watch the sunrise from the top of the hill but he slept in, so we missed it.

Went for a massive hike through some farms and up the mountain. We hiked to an Akhu village that had only 1 dog lying around. Homee says they eat them while the Lahu tribes just have them as pets. Saw a Yao village and then some others, but we'd lost interest by then. They all looked the same and just wanted us to buy stuff the whole time. James already had his arm covered with wrist bands, we had a drink bottle holder and more woven trinkets.

After lunch, went to a waterfall to have a swim, but it was so cold, I only got in up to my knees. James braved it though and had a swim around. Headed back to Chiang Rai to hang out and have dinner, then the 7:30pm overnight bus back to Bangkok.