Thursday 10 May 2012

Chiang Mai and Trekking

Hello everyone.  It's been a couple very exciting/exhausting days but we are back from our trekking adventure, and I finally have internet access!  We just got back an hour ago and the first thing we did was shower!! Finally, a real bathroom.

So these pictures begin with a city tour of Chiang Mai, where we saw more lovely temples.  That night we went to the famous night market where there were hundreds of stalls selling absolutely everything.  We also saw a Lady Boy show, which is apparently very famous here in Chiang Mai.  So basically men dressed as women were dancing and singing for us.  All I will say is that is was very interesting.
trek1

The next day we started our lovely trek into the wilderness.  We started by driving to a beautiful and famous waterfall, we went for a swim :)  Then we continued to drive up the mountains towards our drop off spot.  By the way, when I say drive we are sitting on the back of a covered pick-up truck.  It's hard to explain but I did take a picture.  The trekking the first day was quite nice, I believe we walked approximately 4 km and most of it was downhill :)  We arrived at our first village a few hours before dinner time.  We had time to shower in the river, tour the village and just relax for a bit.  Dinner was delicious and plentiful.  Most of our meals during the trek involved rice, mixed vegetables and some kind of curry.  We also made spring rolls.  Our accommodation for both days was a one-roomed hut with small mattresses and mosquito nets.  It wasn't the comfiest bed but the fact that we were shielded from the bugs was probably a luxury.  And the cabins were very open so the animals woke us up pretty early each morning.

The next morning we woke up at six (because of the animals mostly) and had breakfast at 7:30.  Breakfast included eggs, toast, jam and fruit.  It was also delicious and plentiful.  We then started our 9km walk to the elephant camp.  Most of that walk was manageable, but there was this one enormous hill that was absolutely brutal.  We were all exhausted, it was the never ending climb.  But the views from the top make it all worth it.  We had lunch at the elephant camp, which was instant noodles.  The elephants were so friendly, they came right up to us after lunch looking for food.  We then rode the elephants to our next village.  The ride was actually quite bumpy and if you didn't hold on to your chair you would fall off.

At the village we had a similar dinner to the one before, then played games with our guides.  They started as drinking games but because we were drinking locally made moonshine, we were disgusted by it pretty quickly.  So instead of drinking when you lost, they put charcoal on our faces... It was pretty funny.

The next morning we took a bamboo raft for several hours to a village where our trucks were waiting for us to drive us back to the city.  The bamboo rafts were a lot of fun!  We had a few fast rapids, and the view was amazing.  Also, when the water was calmer, we could swim beside the raft and float down the river.
Our drive back to Chiang Mai was pretty rough.  We sat at the back of the pick up trucks on some very bumpy roads.  But we made it back and now I am writing this blog :)
trek2

Well that's all for now.
Cheers,
Naddy&Mal

2 comments:

  1. Spectaculiar! The blog/ pictures are amazing!!
    Seems we are travelling with both of you

    ReplyDelete