We are leaving the city for 3 days trekking around the foothills of North Chaing Mai, we got picked up in a big army truck type vehicle with 10 people already inside, they ranged in age from 21 to 29 and were a variety of nationalities, it was like the united nations, but with less arguing I hoped. Our tour guide was a great bloke called 'Awf' he sounded distinctly like Kim Jong il a la Team America. He played on this by occasionally belting out a 'very niiice' or 'same same' there also seemed to be a on going joke with all the guides here where they'd just shout down each other as lady boys. Driving round the base of the foothills was our first glimpse of elephant. Out of the cars we were directed to a platform to mount the elephants. Whereas the rest of the group had a traditional seat strapped to the elephant I was the only one who had the honour to ride bareback on the elephants towards the neck. It was pretty dodgy though because I was sat on the shoulder blades so every time it took a step I had to shift my weight. Everyone else had a guide on the front of their elephant in the position I was. As the elephant moved away from the platform of its own accord I yelled to Awf 'shouldn't we have a guide or something' he just called back 'you'll be fine James!' the ride was very fun but i felt conflicted as it did seem a cruel how some of the guides hit the elephants with sticks, we paid perhaps naively for a ecotour and apparently the elephants have to do 2 hour walking a day and then they can rest, the guide explained that the sticks are sometimes the only way to control them.
Either way it took getting up close and personal with these animals to truly appreciate then and you need only look in their eyes to see their intelligence. I said bye to my elephant with a trunk to handshake and set off on a 3 hour trek straight up the hills in serious heat. This was my idea of fun, you can keep your big cities this was immersion in nature, scrambling up narrow trails barely wide enough for a person with the occasional sheer drop to keep you on your toes. That night we stayed with a hill tribe, the people here had picked up most of their English from westerner passing by. This meant they had peculiar phrases like "oh my Buddha" and "no money no honey" the kids where great too and really liked messing around with my camera. We settled round a fire and one of the tribesmen played a guitar and we all sang along to Beatles and Oasis! I even attempted a bit of wild thing. The night ended with us all writing our names on a lantern and releasing it to the clear night sky. the timber hut built was suspended on stilts and consisted of food prep room, a communal area and big sleeping quarter. The outhouses had water flowing directly from the river and there were pretty big spiders that were quite distracting when your trying to take a leak, their eyes gleaming in the torchlight. we slept on mats altogether but with 13 bodies keeping the room warm it proved surprisingly comfortable.
A few of us woke at 5 in the Morning to see the sun rise over the hills but this didn't happen until about 6:30, up in the hilltops it was pretty chilly too but we did spot a couple of shooting stars and a upside down big dipper, After bidding our fair wells to the tribe we hiked further into the jungle; under the canopies the dense vegetation everything is beautiful and clearings offered incredible views, these are things that no photo can do justice. There were some points where I just had to stop still take in the moments and remember where I was. We followed the roar of the first waterfall and jumped straight in, the water was so cool and refreshing although at one point I grabbed something scaly and alive but didn't get a chance to see what it was. We clambered down to another more powerful waterfall standing underneath it was the best Power shower iv ever had, as but as soon as you lost your balance it pushed you several meters out. Our base tonight was in a hut next to the water it is similar in construction to the previous huts and had water flowing straight from the waterfall i washed in the river though, none of this shower hose rubbish. The toilets are squatters which I think my quads are quickly adapting for. As the night closed in we sat round the a fire and played lots of games werewolf and villagers, a card game that where you must rely on your ability to read people, bluff and pursuade, I like this game.
Our last day trekking and we emerged from the jungle to a point where the river widened, after a brief safety talk we got on our blow up dingy and went white water rafting, I went overboard on a pretty quiet bit just because I forgot to lock my feet in the boat, won't be making that mistake again. Our boat guy was a bit of a character called everyone jack sparrow and said in order who would fall out of the boat, he was so certain because contolled how we fell into the rapids knocking out anyone he liked, at one point both me and Wayne were launched onto the other side of the boat hitting into Dan I have no idea how he managed to stay on board, it was all very funny for the boat guy. Next we went on traditional bamboo rafts which are affectionately known as bamboo titanic/submarine because when you had 5 guys on one of these things they were barely buoyant, at one point we tried to surf it and the bamboo started grinding on the river bed. We got to shore had some Phad Thai and piled back into the back of the truck and played werewolf and villages all the way back to Chaing Mai. the truck dropped us off at our new hostel the Green Tulip. Best days of the trip so far!
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