So during our three week stay in Chiang Mai we all went on a two day jungle...adventure. That's the word. On the first day, we got picked up from our guesthouse and driven up the mother of all scary roads (we actually dubbed it death road) it was so steep and twisty turny we thought we'd all fall out the pack of our truck and go rolling down the mountain. Anyway, we eventually stopped for a quick picnic lunch before beginning our three hour trek back down the mountain.Our guide was called 'Rambo' (and you better be reading this Harminder) and had actually met Sylvester Stallone himself. The trek itself I found long and hard (I'm not a great one for exercise as I'm sure most of you know) but- and forgive me if I get a little poetic here- the views were stunning. Forest covered mountains with little hill tribe villages dotted on them, stretching for as far as you could see. We also saw industrious termites, spiders as large as your face (no joke) and some odd fungus that Rambo insisted was 'magic mushroom.' Stop panicking! Not of us ate it. We were saving ourselves for the opium the following afternoon. (Part joke. Only Rambo had it and he could have been lying.) During the trek we stopped off at a couple of picturesque waterfalls for a rest and a swim which was very welcome and extremely refreshing. We later trekked on some more and made it to camp. And no jungle experience is complete without wooden huts, campfires and outdoor showers. It was extremely fun though and we fell asleep full of anticipation for the next day.
Day two was genuinely on of the best days I've ever ever had. It started with toast for breakfast and a quick walk to the next activity. The group was split into two here and mine went off to another waterfall whilst the other went to the elephant camp. We would swap over later as there weren't enough elephants to go around the eighteen of us. The waterfall was lovely and though we only dipped our toes in it this time I've never had cleaner feet. (Maybe apart from the time some of us went to a fish spa back in the city and had the dead skin nibbled off our feet by little fish- not as disgusting as it sounds I promise) Then it was our turn to elephant trek. You have to sit in a little chair/bench thing on the elephants back while it's trainer ( or Mahout) sits on its neck and nudges it behind the ears. We went two to an elephant and my pair got the only mother elephant whose baby followed her everywhere. This sounds very cute and it really was until mum wonders off into the jungle to pull down a small tree for its baby to eat. I've never been smacked in the face with a branch so many times! It was fun and surreal and terrifying and quite uncomfortable and totally amazing.
After this, it was on to the next adventure: river rafting. Basically three of us in a rubber dingy with one pole and one oar trying to navigate a river with low bridges, fallen trees and swimming dogs (it even jumped in our craft at one point) we did capsize when I found a spider in the boat and tried to kill it with the oar, while at the same time we all ducked to avoid overhanging branches whilst trying to get comfy. Disaster! We all managed to scramble back in and steer (drift backwards really) to the finishing point. Then, after a quick lunch it was time for.. Bamboo Rafting. This I recommend to everyone. It was like the previous activity except this time we had a boatman to steer. His name was Em, he was fourteen and he just loved capsizing us and rocking the boat and chucking us all in. We all stopped at one point to use a tyre swing to jump in the river with which all the locals (and Em) found dead amusing. We had so much fun that our raft and another groups were a full twenty minutes behind everyone else. When we finally 'parked' (and were thrown in all over again) Rambo did not look best pleased....
Well that was my amazing weekend in the jungle. I have barely started on the rest of my time in Chiang Mai and though it involves me losing a toenail, being a total culture vulture and learning the results of my Thai language test... it will have to wait for another day.
Sawat De Ka!
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