Thailand - Trekking

After a small but nice breakfast of fruit at the guesthouse, I took a little walk to look at a couple of wats. The first one I arrived at was interesting, and had a large stupa. You have to take off your shoes to enter. One of the buildings was over 500 years old and had some lovely murals on the walls. I got picked up at 9:30. There were three other people from my guesthouse going on the trek, and we stopped to pick up more people in the city, including four Dutch, three Israelis and two Brits. We were in a rather uncomfortable vehicle consisting of two flat benches on the back of a truck with a roof. We drove for a while through the Thai countryside, and stopped at a market to get snacks. By this time I was hungry, and so I got a snack of some deep-fried things in a banana leaf. They were quite good. I used the bathroom at the market and was amazed at how clean it was - a great contrast to China's disgusting toilets. Tons of tourists passed through the market at around the same time as us.

Eventually we arrived at our destination, a small village in a valley. Our first activity was taking an oxcart around for a short trip. I was unfortunately put in the front and had to watch the bovines defecate and piss inches away from my body. It was a rather unpleasant experience. Next, we had lunch after walking through some rice fields to a hut. We were served Pad Thai and fruit, a very pleasant meal. After our meal we were taken on an elephant ride which was very interesting. The elephant took us through a stream and ate tons of foliage along the way. The 'driver' of the elephant used a cane-like stick to prod the elephant into moving. After dismounting the elephant, it was time to hike! We walked through the village and turned onto a path that started out paved and but gradually became more trail like. The heat was oppressive and in no time , my shirt was wet with sweat. The jungle was very interesting, with nice foliage, but I was disappointed not to see any wildlife. At one point a lizard landed on my neck, but that was it. The hike was grueling, as it was uphill and the air was sweltering. Finally we arrived at a bat cave and went inside. The air was nice there as it was cooler and there no mosquitoes. I saw one bat hanging from the top of the cave. The bat cave was at the top of the mountain, and the hiking afterwards began going through cultivated land, until we arrived at the village at around five in the afternoon. This village was inhabited by the Hmong people, who are originally from China, and look Chinese. Our accommodation was a large hut in which everyone in our trekking group would sleep together. Surprisingly, the toilets were clean and there were even showers (albeit cold ones). The guide informed us that there was nearby waterfall with a swimming hole . Since dinner would not be served for at least a couple of hours, we decided to go down for a swim. We went down a muddy path, and were disappointed to see that the 'swimming' hole was not adequate for swimming. The pool had been artificially created by a small dam and did not have adequate drainage. The pool was filled with dirt and sediment and was disgusting. We returned to the camp and saw that the second group of trekkers had arrived. Since I couldn't clean myself in at the waterfall, I had a cold shower back at the hut. Among them were two Slovenians. I had never met a Slovenian before, and they seemed pleasant enough. After sitting for a while, dinner was finally served, a green curry and stir-fried vegetables. For desert was fresh fruit. After dinner, sleep came quickly, as I was exhausted from the hike.

The next day I woke up early and read my book for an hour before breakfast. For breakfast we had eggs, toast and fruit. They also provided tea and coffee. We left at around nine, and took the same path to the waterfall before continuing through the jungle. A couple of hours later we arrived at another waterfall, which had a natural pool and was quite pleasant. After chilling for a while, we continued on until we reached a dirt road which we followed until arriving at another hut that was playing loud karaoke music. There, we had a lunch of fried rice, and waited until our transportation picked us up. We were then taken to do our whitewater rafting down a slow moving river. It was quite fun really, although we got very wet as other boats splashed water at us. The river was quite slow so we got stuck a few times as well. Upon arriving at the end of the rafting, we sat in a hut for a while and I purchased a mediocre ice cream. We were then taken to another hill tribe village, where I bought some cheap gifts from an old lady and took her picture. About an hour later I was dropped off at my guest house and wandered around trying to find a restaurant. I stumbled across a nearly empty but extremely delicious place where I ordered green papaya salad and pad seew. It was absolutely delicious and cost less than two dollars! Since Chiang Mai is renowned for its night market, I decided to check it out after eating. It was raining, but the rain was a pleasant respite from the oppressive heat. The market had a lot of fake stuff, like those in China. I bought a new wallet to replace my own, which was falling apart. I also bought some other small gifts. I returned to my guest house, read a bit, and then went to bed.