Trekking

Good morning!!

I got back from my trek this afternoon and had a great
time!! There turned out to be 11 of us in total, two
English, four French, two Dutch, two Norwegians and me
(as you can see, everyone's travelling in pairs but
me).

We headed off on the first day to start at a
waterfall. It was once a hotspring and is now covered
in sediment. We climbed up the waterfall in barefeet,
it was surprisingly non-slippery and loads of fun!!.
We then drove to a hill tribe village where we had
lunch. Afterwards we hiked about 4 hours, almost
entirely uphill, through very dense jungle to an
elephant camp where we spent the night. (Communal
sleeping arrangements for 11, very simple conditions
but the food was fantastic!!).

The next morning we got up and went elephant riding
for 1.5 hours. It was a cool experience, they put a
chair on their backs for sitting but we were also give
then chance to sit on the elephants' necks. All I
have to say is it was wobbly, bumpy ride sitting on
their necks, especially on the ups and downs - I often
had the impression that I might fall off!! After our
elephant ride, we hiked in further dense jungle on the
edge of a cliff for much of the afternoon (about 4
hours). It was a challenging hike with lunch in the
jungle, using banana leaves as plates :) Our second
night included similar accomodations but this time in
a Palong village. We had a great dinner and then the
girls of the village (about 80 people, no electricity)
got up and danced and sang for us. There we learned
the Ping, Pang, Pon drinking game from our guide :)

This morning I woke earlier than everyone else and
wandered the village (I'd intended to take some photos
but the lighting wasn't good and I felt bad asking the
villagers). I played with some newborn puppies and
watched the locals interact with one another. The
tribe is a group of refugees who fled from Burma over
10 years ago and have been living in Thailand, growing
corn (and opium once upon a time) since then. We
hiked out, had a nice lunch and then rafted in bamboo
rafts down a river. Bamboo rafting is great fun as
they sink (and come back up again) very easily so we
had wars as we went down the river on our rafts!!

I've decided to stay in Chiang Mai one more day, most
specifically because I needed to do laundry again.
The clothes returning from the trek were so disgusting
that I couldn't even pack them up!! I will leave the
morning after next. The group of us are having dinner
together tonight and I'm guessing it'll be a late
night of drinking - luckily the English girls are
staying in the same guesthouse as I so we can come
home together a bit tipsy :)

Take care and thanks to everyone for their fall
stories!! I'll check back in when I'm in Laos

Sarah

P.S. For those hoping for pictures, you may be in
luck, one of the English girls thinks she has the
right USB plug so I might be able to download some to
the blog site...if I can it'll be tomorrow so give it
a check the day after ;)

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Chiang Mai

Good morning!!

I hope that everyone enjoyed their long weekends and
ate a bit of turkey for me :) There was no turkey for
me but I did have a nice bowl of Thai Green Curry to
celebrate!! (Dad, I hope that whoever's name I got
for Xmas is a good one!!)

Chiang Mai is a great city in the northern area of
Thailand. It's great for shopping, touring and there
are beautiful parks/sights nearby. That said, there
are also a lot of tour operators and more travelers
but it's a nice atmostphere compared to Bangkok. I
spent my first day here shopping (I had to buy a new
outfit so that I could do laundry :) and getting a
feel for the city. Yesterday, I headed out to Doi
Suthep which is a very special temple for the Thai.
According to legend, the King at the time, put
important relics on the back of an elephant. He
climbed to the top of this hill, circled three times,
trumpeted three times and then died. The temple is
now in this location. After the temple, I headed down
to the national park area for a 3.3km trek to the base
of the falls. There were 9 clustered together but I
only saw the first three as it was a very steep climb
upwards and after I'd finished my viewing, I still
have 3.3km to walk back to the main road.

I got back to Chiang Mai and they were having their
Sunday night bazaar down the main street near my guest
house (called Sarah Guesthouse :). I bought two
pillow covers for the couch (hopefully I can find
pillows to fit inside) and some CDs. There was so
much for sale but I don't want to overload my pack
with stuff, though Chiang Mai is supposed to be "the"
shopping city in Thailand!!

Today I cycled to the Tribal Museum to get a bit more
information on the hill tribes in the area as I'm off
tomorrow on a three day trek through the jungle.
(This time there are 8 of us in the group). When I
get back I'm off to Laos!!

Miss you all and wish I was there to see the fall
colours - it's my favourite part of the year!!

Sarah

P.S. Mom, can you send me the link to the Federal
Government travel site please? I believe there was an
advisory about a road in Laos that I'm interested in
reading about.

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