We got back from a 3 day/2 night trek in the jungle. We went to see a few hill tribes and stayed in their homes both nights. Our first day we went to see some impressive waterfalls and a geyser. Then we went for a somewhat strenous trek up the mountain. Our guide, Lukey was wonderful. Since most of us weren’t used to hiking in such hot conditions, we were all pretty hot and sweaty after the first 20 minutes. But it was worth it. At one point we could see across to Burma. Of course it was really far but we could see atop the mountain. The trees were lovely and the air fresh. Sadly we didn’t see any wild animals except for the leech that attached itself to one of the girl’s legs. Lukey and others from the Karon tribe cooked us a lovely Thai dinner that night. Once it got dark we all sat around a camp fire and joked around. Someone played a guitar and Thai moonshine was being passed around.
Our second day, we trekked for about 40 minutes to an Elephant camp. There we jumped on elephants and rode them through the jungle for nearly two hours. We went along and in the Mae tang river. Sophie and I named our elephant Ellie. Along the way we saw water buffalo and hundreds of butterflies. The elephants took us to where we would go bamboo rafting.
Five people were on each raft. The water wasn’t very high but we had a great time. The boys on our raft along with Lukey did all the work while Sheryl, Sophie and I sat on our butts. We got so wet but it was wicked fun. We were on the raft for nearly three hours. By the time we finished I was starving. We ate lunch at one of the villages then our group left, except Sophie and myself.
Then the fun really began! Sophie and I had a whole bungalow to ourselves complete with a mosquito net. After the others left we took a little walk around the village. It was small but there was a small temple and we could see the river easily. After our dinner we hung out with a couple other guides and Lukey. We drank a little and I taught them a Dutch card game. They showed us some games with sticks but they were quite difficult and tricky to get. It was a fun night.
The next morning the three of us (Sophie, Lukey and myself) walked for about four hours to a couple other Hill tribe villages. The walk was pretty easy as we just walked along the road. We had fun along the way even though there was only three of us. Lukey made us laugh, and I of course, tried to make them laugh. Concerning the hill tribes it was difficult to figure out where we were. We didn’t see many people and the ones we did see looked just like regular thai people. Nonetheless it was great fun.
By the time we got back to our starting point it was time for more pad thai and the two-hour trip back to Chiang Mai.