'Cheap Cheap, I give you good price'
'Do you want a suit?'
I've heard it all before!!!!!!!!!
My head might just pop!
We'd just arrived back in Bangkok after spending two tranquil (!) weeks down south in the islands - well they weren't that peaceful really because we went to the Black Moon Party, various pool parties and then had a 12 hour coach ride back to the capital. We're tired, we're hungry. We can't find anywhere to check in. Finally we find somewhere, eat, then go to sort out our Vietnamese Visas (time is running out) - but there's no luck as it is shut for a week for Chinese New Year.
Now I'm not a celebrity but can someone get me out of here... please!!
We decided to fly up to Chiang Mai and do an elephant trek in the jungle while our visas were getting sorted.
Our friend from Slough, Kristian, came along too. We thought we'd take our little rucksacks but when he turned up he had a huge bag with him (I thought we were the flash packers!) Turns out he's got tins of tuna, vinegar (?), bread and basically half of 7Eleven! I don't know what Lyns and I expected when we booked a JUNGLE trek, but he convinced us to buy trainers just in case, so we got some.
In our group we have four Alaskan boys (who really don't appreciate my Sarah Palin jokes) two Danish girls and our tour guide, Yo.
The trek started off nice and easy - we went to an Orchid and butterfly farm. I love butterflies as it is, so taking pictures of the creatures on these lovely flowers I thought; 'this trek is just what I needed, nice and chilled'.
Then we went for a not-so-very light stroll in the jungle. It was horrendous. Lyns and I lagged behind. Even with our sticks and leaf hats on, we weren't impressed! Kristian was not too far in front of us - think he was weighed down from all the tins of tuna! The other members of the group were barely sweating - do they have jungles in Alaska and Denmark or something?!
Turns out these pro jungle trekkers had only opted for the two day tour rather than the three day one (like what us mugs we were doing) because it sounded too intense - you have to climb up a mountain.
WHATTTTT????!!!!
I thought it was a nice simple jungle trek. We clearly didn't read the itinerary.
We had a nice lunch of rice in a banana leaf - so that was a highlight of the day and also the scenery was amazing.
I did want to shoot myself in the head through sheer tiredness after three hours of it though.
We stayed in a hut up a hillside - there were elephants at the bottom in fields, a food hut near them and a lake for swimming - which I readily jumped into!
That night we played Jungle Jenga, cards and learnt campfire songs in Thai. There were so many stars to gaze at in the sky. It was beautiful.
The next morning we woke up, bathed the elephants and then went for a little ride on them. We did swap about quite a lot on top of the elephant. Sitting on it's head, on the seat. It was quite fun - sometimes a bit uncomfortable!
Then afterward we parted with the Alaskan's and Danish and Slough United plus our tour guide Yo, trekked up a mountain. Oh yes. It was steep, it was hard, but we sang the whole way up there and it was worth it.
The views were out of this world. We stayed with a local family who were really friendly. Their house was basically a hut on stilts with an outside wash area - which was just a big tub of water and the toilet was a hole in the floor!
By this point we were so pleased to be up the mountain that none of it bothered us!
We watched a breath taking sunset, had dinner by candle light. Sang songs again round a campfire. There is no electricity in this village, and between us we brought one torch - well Kristian brought the torch we stupidly didn't think to bring one.
The next day we went down the mountain - I pretty much slid the whole way down - damn trainers with no grip!
We went to two waterfalls, which were both stunning.
It was all go, after getting to the bottom we then went white water rafting - which was hard work and then went bamboo rafting.
I've never worked out so much in my life.
Even though we went to Chiang Mai to get away from the bustle of Bangkok we ended up climbing a mountain, doing big jungle walks, rowing rafts, swimming in pools beside waterfalls - basically we were knackered!!!
It was so worth it though. Just to get away from the tuk tuk men if nothing else!
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