The Land of Thai part 2

Thanks for all the interest in part 1 of my Thailand adventure.  Clearly my lips swelling up to an abnormal size stole the show.  I'm glad everyone liked the story!

I want to note that while I am writing this blog, the water is currently turned off in my apartment.  So I welcome the brief journey back to Thailand as I remember the trip.  Makes me think of sunnier times...  Perhaps I'm supposed to learn something like "don't sweat the small stuff" or "only worry about things that are actually in your control (which is apparently not a lot of things."  I'm not sure.

Anyway... back to beautiful Thailand...

After Rochelle and I spent four nights on Koh Phi Phi, we took a ferry, then a van, then a train, then another train to get to Chiang Mai.  I think Chiang Mai was my favourite city... at least I liked it quite a lot more than Bangkok.

 Waiting for our night train

 This is the Surathani Station

 Rochelle and I sat across the aisle from each other, which was ok especially because no one sat across from either of us for awhile and the person didn't come until the beds were already made.  So we could stretch out a bit. 

 The train

 When you book an overnight train, your ticket will specify if your bed is the upper or the lower bed.  Which means the chairs fold down into the lower bed and then a compartment is pulled down from the ceiling unveiling the upper bed.  She and I both had the upper beds for our first night train.

I am very excited to be able to sleep on the train apparently... though in reality I was certain I was going to fall out.  There wasn't really much keeping me in the bed.

After we took the overnight train from Suranthani to Bangkok (which I rode without falling out of bed, into the aisle), we boarded ANOTHER train to go to Chiang Mai.  It was definitely the most travel we did in a consecutive period.  I did a lot of reading on this trip.  Which was admittedly awesome.  I read a total of 4 books.  I love vacation.

When we arrived in Chiang Mai our hotel had a shuttle waiting for us to take us to our lodging for the night.  We had signed up for an overnight elephant trek for one night with our TAT tour guide.  The hotel that we were at was the base for departing for the trek.  Apparently there was some kind of meeting that we missed because we got to Chiang Mai too late.  So early the next morning Rochelle went down (isn't she awesome?!) to find out what was going on.  Here is where we found out that we weren't going for one night, but two.  And... it was a lot more of an intensive trek than we had originally thought.  When someone says "elephant trek" to you, do you think the elephant is doing the trekking?  Because I did.  But instead we were going to ride the elephants, then trek up the mountain, stay overnight with the hill tribes, the next day climb up the mountain even further, stay another night with a different hill tribe area, walk down the mountain in the morning, and end the excursion with a ride down the river on bamboo rafts.

I think Rochelle was more excited than I was.  Don't get me wrong... I like hiking.  I do.  And I was excited to do this whole adventure in the jungle in Thailand!  But this sounded like camping... and I have had very little experience with that.  And not just camping... but hiking up the mountain to your campsite type of camping.  Hmmm...

But there was no turning back!  So I packed my backpack with overnight stuff for two nights to be spent in the Thai jungle and a group of 13 plus our guide set out on the journey.  There was a couple from Germany, a couple from France, a girl from Germany who was studying in Korea, four guys from the States, one guy from Wales, another from New Zealand (now living in Australia), and the two of us from Canada.  After driving out of the city a bit we stopped at the place where we were to ride the elephants.  I was most looking forward to this part.  This was on my list of absolute musts for visiting Thailand...

 I LOVE the baby elephants!  They're just so cute!  So this hut area on the left is where we boarded the elephants and sat two to a seat.  And then the handler sat on the head for the most part.

 Their eyes are so expressive.  I just wanted to give this one a hug.

 And we're off!

 This is one of my most favourite shots from Thailand... I was hoping to get the moment when his trunk touched my hand but it's still cool.

 Our elephant's handler.  He was also pretty handy with Rochelle... or at least held her hand for a bit.  I think he was in love...

 Feeding the elephant

 Our elephant really liked to go off the path... right here you can see him ripping bark off the trees to eat.  At one point he pulled down the branches of a tree that proceeded to land right one my head!  But I couldn't be mad at him...

Again... the baby ones are just so cute!  And this one looks like he is smiling!  I love it.

It was so much fun!

So after "trekking" with the elephants (how misleading!) we actually started trekking up the mountain...

 This is a view down into the valley after already walking up a bit

 After awhile we stopped for a rest by this stream

 Walking through some farmland as well

 Then we got to this waterfall!  And we swam in it and everything...

 I hate chickens.  And yet in Thailand they were roaming around everywhere!  This was basically a trip of confronting my fears or discomforts: petting tigers, hiking up mountains, being around chickens, etc.

 This is the hut we stayed in the first night.

 That night the fire pit was a big hit.  Especially because there were two guitars that some of the tribe people had so two of the guys from our group played them around the fire.  It was great fun!

 Nop (sp?), our guide not only led us up the mountain, but also cooked for us for our meals.  Here was the first dinner..

 He's making green curry

 And man was it delicious!  Probably the fact that we were all so hungry from trekking made it taste as good as it was... but seriously... the best green curry I had in Thailand.

 After eating it was time for fun around the fire pit.

 When you sign up for something like this, you really never know what the people are going to be like on the journey with you.  But it was such a good group of people.  Everyone was really nice and even more than that, everyone was a lot of fun!  We definitely had a good time getting to know one another and chilling in the Thai jungle.

 For awhile, Nop took over some of the playing and singing.  One of the best parts of the night was when he was requesting different songs for the guys to play.  And one song he requested he called "Lemon Tree"... but no one knew what he was talking about!  We kept thinking "lemon tree... lemon tree... I don't know any song about a lemon tree..."!  Eventually some said... "let it be"?!?!  And that was it!  So he started singing "lemon tree" to the tune of "let it be" and it was the funniest thing.

 This was inside the sleeping hut.  That mat directly in front of the door was mine... so I was really grateful that no one tripped over me getting into bed!

 Mosquito netting is very important.  I'd like to tell you it was comfortable... but I would be lying.  Lets just say I slept because I was really tired...

 Coffee and tea before breakfast.  And Coke too.  It's nice to have options.

 Before we left this area, we got to tour a bit of the village.  We were with the Karen people, hill-tribe people who live near the Burma/Thai border.  This is a school and some of the kids in their school vests and skirts. 

 The other end of the school.

 Nop explained some of the interesting things of the Karen people, like how they are not Thai nor necessarily residents of another country.  They are very traditional and have tried to keep out of society largely.  He told us about their family structures, the schools, their religions, and so on.  It was fascinating.

 And then we went on trekking...

 Because of my sunburn from when we were on Koh Phi Phi, my skin would bubble like this when I was hot.  So when I was cool and resting, my skin looked normal.  As soon as I was hot, my skin all bubbled up on my limbs and basically any place I had a sunburn.  It was strange...

 Again with the chickens...  even when we stopped for lunch.

 I don't have photos of some of the more treacherous parts of the trek, especially because I was trying very hard to put one foot in front of the other and to not fall down the mountain.

 Our second home for thenight

 The second place was right beside this beautiful stream

 The hut where the family lived, and under the overhang we had our meals.  Up on the left you can see the outhouse.  I seriously wish I had taken a photo of inside the outhouse.  It was hilarious.  It was a squatter.  Basically I got really strong thighs by the end of this trip.

 Where we slept.

View from inside the hut, looking out.

I actually think the second night was almost more fun than the first.  Maybe it was because we became a lot more comfortable with one another.  Although we didn't have the guitars, Rochelle and I taught a couple campfire songs or games we knew and then we also ended up playing a card game with everyone that was super fun as well.  And really, the sleeping area at this site was awesome!  I slept so well!  Not long... but really soundly.  Oh... and I didn't shower for over three days.  I found that impressive as well.

The next day, after we hiked down the mountain and then got some lunch, we went on a bamboo raft journey.  It was awesome!  It was even pretty rough at certain points, which made it even more fun.  And we saw so many butterflies, water snakes, and other wildlife. 

 The guy directing the boat did so with just a really long bamboo stick that he used to push against rocks and the bottom of the river to keep us on track.  And he did so standing the whole time!  I opted for sitting.  It meant I remained on the raft as opposed to falling into snake infested waters.

We're clearly having a good time...

So that was our jungle trekking experience, complete with elephants, waterfalls, chickens, and bamboo rafts.  I have to say, I was really proud of myself for making it up and then down the mountain.  In my Toms.  I was clearly not prepared for how arduous a hike it was going to be.  But now I have a better sense of my limits... and I am apparently able to do more than I thought.  And without a shower.  It's almost like I was camping.

Only one more part of the journey to tell, and that would be the couple days we spent in Bangkok.  It was right over Lunar New Year (or Chinese New Year, as I always knew it to be).  So stay tuned for the last segment, which will come soon.