Trekking

Our bathroom has a box, roughly the size of a cereal box, mounted to the wall. It's job apparently, is to serve as a personal water heater. It wasn't working. The water was frigid and after a poor night's sleep from being so cold the last thing I wanted to do was endure a cold shower. I compromised and stuck my head under the faucet...at least I'd have clean hair ;)

We had breakfast at our hotel which consisted of scrambled eggs, toast and Nescafe. Real coffee is hard to come by around here! We explored the area a little bit and found a cheap internet cafe. Then headed back just in time to join our group and board our makeshift tour bus...basically a pickup truck with seats lining the back.

12 of us crammed into the back while Hadas got to ride shotgun. In addition to the driver, Rambo and another tour guide stood on the back holding on for dear life. This would never fly in the United States...

Our first stop was the tourist police station, where the police were from the mid-west, not Thailand. They are volunteer tourist police and their job is to take down all of our info and our itinerary...in case we go missing. Comforting.

Our next stop of course was yet another market! Surpise! The Thai people really love their markets. I got a bag full of oranges for 10B and more coconut pudding :) We jumped back on the truck for the rest of our 2 hour drive up to the hills...

We arrived at the base of the hills and were really excited to see elephants! We were able to walk right up and pet them, and then got the chance to ride them. Last time I was here I went to an elephant camp, but these elephants were not really part of a camp. They almost seemed to be these people's pets. Not quite as thrilling as seeing elephants in the wild, but a little less constructed than my previous experience. We climbed up the bamboo ladder and slid onto the elephant's harness. Our elephant trainer strapped us in...it made me feel a bit safer, but honestly, if this elephant falls or decides to get all crazy on us...we're done for regardless!

The elephant started his route and stopped by the bungalow where we could conveniently buy "elephant feed" for 20B which consisted of a bag of bananas and freshly cut bamboo. And this elephant knew immediately. He was swinging his trunk up at us and breathing all heavily, elephant snot and all, until we hastily stuffed bananas into his trunk. We had a hungry, greedy elephant in my opinion! 60B later and he still wasn't full!

The ride was fun and scenic, if not scary at times...especially going downhill. Our trainer took us on a slight detour so he could roll some kind of joint out of banana leaves...? Then we went on a different route than everyone else so he could secretly deposit it on a shelf in his bamboo hut. Random. Our elephant went to take a drink at this huge vat of water. He basically sucked up the water in his trunk and then let it empty out into his mouth. We got to watch his shadow. I was just crossing my fingers and hoping that he wouldn't decide to spray us with all that water! That was the last thing I needed when going on a 2 day trek in the mountains with no hope of a shower for at least 48 hours! The hour long ride seemed to last an eternity and I was happily ready to de-board...

We hopped back onto our truck and headed to lunch. We stopped at a small village at the base of a hill and had green curry and rice with mixed vegetables. Also freshly cut pineapple and watermelon for dessert. Then Rambo passed around bamboo walking sticks and we were off on our hike up to the hilltribes of Chiang Mai.

It was then that we really started meeting our group...a couple from Ireland 6 months into a year long trip around the world, another couple from Oregon on a month long trip to Thailand, a couple from Brazil and Australia, and 2 brother/sister duos from Canada and Europe. Also a single traveler from the Netherlands on a year long trip herself...

The group included 3 other nurses which made for some interesting conversation. I spent a long time talking with Dee, a midwife from Ireland, about the state of the healthcare system and patient safety concerns we both share...

We hiked for about 2 hours through a village and then into the woods. We hiked a dirt path that meandered its way alongside a river...sometimes rocky and difficult, but easy for the most part. Although I must say, I was starting to wish I still had that blood I donated in Cambodia for some especially challenging inclines...I was definitely feeling a bit winded...

The waterfall was beautiful. To get to it you had to walk across a bamboo log laid over the running water. It reminded me of that scene from dirty dancing, although I resisted the urge to belt out "Hey Baby" ;)

We hung out there for a little bit, most people went swimming but I passed on that. It wasn't that warm out to begin with and the water was frigid! We had some snacks and then headed off for the last 45 minutes of the hike...

We eventually arrived at our accomodations...straight out of Swiss Family Robinson...a bamboo/wooden bungalow set up on stilts. We had to remove our shoes to enter (going along with Buddhist tradition) and inside were neatly arranged rows of mats on the floor with mosquito netting above...14 "beds" in all including a room which we fondly referred to as the 'master suite'...

Our bungalow was positioned right next to Rambo's own house, a bungalow also, which appeared to be 2 rooms. Between them both we set up a campfire just in time for sunset. It was beautiful up there...we could see out above and across all the hills. The 'facilities' included a manual flushing squat toilet just up the hill. Across from this were a few pigs tied to a tree and some cows. There were chickens running around followed by chicks and a few mangey looking dogs and a cute little puppy.

There was a huge cooler filled with Chang beer and we were to use the bottom of the cardboard beer case to "keep our tally" which we would pay off in the morning...we all kinda sat around the picnic table talking and getting to know each other before changing and washing up for dinner.

Rambo's wife made a delicious green curry and enough spring rolls to feed an army! The food was excellent. They had solar plate and did have minimal electricy. However, we experienced a power outage mid-dinner and she came around with candles. She dropped some wax on the table to keep the candles standing upright and then covered them with a cut out pice of plastic bottle...very resourceful!

After dinner we all settled in around the campfire...we played some games, sang some songs, and basically just talked for hours. It was a very interesting group of people...everyone had such interesting travel stories to share and different yet similar backgrounds ("same, same but different"). It was cool to hear everyone's life situation and how they came to their decision to travel...as most of the group were long-term travelers. It was really tough peeling myself away from the warm fire, but I was exhausted. I layered up my clothes, spread out my sarong on top of the mat and settled in for a loooong night of restless sleep!

Despite the 3 layers of blankets, I was freezing!!! It didn't help that my mat was situated close to a broken window....poor choice on my part! At one point I stuffed my feet into my wool hat, but even this didn't help much...I kept waking up in complete darkness, thinking "will this night ever end?!"...eventually it did, but the only thing that could get me out of bed was that people were reporting it warmer outside and that a new campfire was already going...

To be continued!