It's Jungle Time!

Me and Jason on the elephant! (This still seems a bit surreal to me!)
see all photos »

My second day in Chang Mai I signed up for a three day jungle trek. It sounded really interesting, with all kinds of neat activities to do (I use the term neat, as in very very cool and not as in just ok but not spectacular). I left on Wednesday morning bright and early. Jason, the Australian who I've been hanging out with in Chang Mai, also signed up for the trek. The day before we headed out, I realized I hadn't brought any sneakers with me so I went out and bought brand new ones. As my story will tell, they started out a beautiful bright white and pink and ended up a distugsting greyish ick color (that is another story in and of itself!)

Me with a child from the long neck tribe
see all photos »

The first day of the trek we stopped off to see the long neck tribes. I'm sure we have all heard stories and seen pictures of the women with metal rings and necks 4 times longer than usual, but I can now officially say that I have seen them in person (and had my photo taken with them!) We even got to hear the story of why they wear the rings. I would love to tell it now, but it is quite long and much better to hear in person, trust me! I bought a couple handmade scarfs from them, one of which I'm going to give to my grandma when I get home (I think she'll love it!)

all Canadians have now been generalized as being terrible when it comes to water sports. Whatever, I kick ass at hiking...

Me at the waterfall where we stopped to swim on the second day of...you guessed it! HIKING!
see all photos »

Next we were off to the elephant camp! This has got to be one of my favourite parts of the trip thus far! I had been told by quite a few people that it is much better if you ride on the neck of the elephant, so I made sure to ask the guide to let us do this. Let me tell you, when you sit on the neck of an elephant, it's ears wrap completely around your legs and it feels so strange! WE even got to feed the elephant some sugar cane for all it's hard work (and even though we knew that the past 5 tour groups before us had also fed our elephant, it was more fun to pretend we were the only ones!) After the elephants we began the first of what would be many hours of hiking. I actually did quite well over the course of the three days, to the point that a couple of the guys even told me I was like a bill goat! What they don't know is that I have a special secret to help me get through the tough patches. CURTIS I HOPE YOU ARE PAYING ATTENTION HERE! When ever my legs felt like they were going to give out, I would just pretend that I was on the TV show LOST and that I had no choice except to keep on hiking, unless I wanted to be enveloped by the mysterious black smoke that the shows producers still have yet to explain to the shows captive audience after 2.5 seasons (No bitterness at all here...).

I fell completely in love with this kid! I gave him my Canada necklace which you can see if you look closely
see all photos »

After some decent hiking and a stop at a rather pitiful waterfall (maybe it was only pitiful because I had been at Niagra Falls a week earlier) we made it to our camp. We had a camp fire, some traditional Thai dancing, some GREAT food and some even better sleep! The next day was pretty simple really...lots of hiking and then, for an added twist....more hiking! It's pretty fair to say that I did a decent amount of hiking over the three days. We then made camp at a village inthe middle of the jungle, though some how, I managed to find satellite dishes behind some of the houses! I'm sure it was a simple misunderstanding and it will be cleared up shortly.

Me freaking out in the rapids (though somehow I still managed to look straight at the camera in my time of peril!)
see all photos »

The third day was my favourite. We hiked some more (suprise I know) and then it was rafting time! We got into the raft to hit some white water rapids, and everything was going quite well considering we were all amateurs and that they had only given us a 30 second instructional speech, until the point that I managed to somehow be thrown clear of the raft. It was at this point that I realized the instructional speech that we had been given not 10 minutes earlier, did not mention anything about what to do if you find yourself taking on the rapids with your own body as your vessel! All kidding aside, it was actually pretty scary, as there were tons of sharp rocks everywhere that I kept slamming into and I had about zero control over my own body. However, I made it through with only 7 or 8 huge cuts and bruises ;) and everyone thought I was pretty tough...that is until we discovered that the rapids were only rated a 1.5 on a scale of difficulty...a scale that is out of 5. But never you mind, I am tough none the less!

The children at the village we camped at (I pretty much wanted to take them all home!)
see all photos »

Then it came to the Bamboo rafting where we were supposed to be able to relax and float along the river. Unfortuantly, I seemed unable to maintain a proper balance and, as a result, all Canadians have now been generalized as being terrible when it comes to water sports. Whatever, I kick ass at hiking...

And that brings us to now! I'm sitting in a random internet cafe for the locals (which I realize only charges 10 Baht per hour and opposed to the 20-30 Baht per half hour that the hostels charge). I leave for Phuket tomorrow where Lana (a contact of my mothers) has kindly booked a hostel for me to stay at. Despite rocking the jungle, I'm definatly ready for the beach and relaxing! Lana and I are also going to try to get together for dinner, which should also be a great time. What I'm trying to say is, it is late and I've downed a couple concoctions with dinner, and you'll hear from me from Phuket!