Kemi and I had signed up for a two day trek in bangkok for chiang mai. We didn't really know what to expect, except that we knew there would be elephants and rafting at various points. We hadn't banked on serious effort in walking.
We got a 4x4 to the starting point, we were a group of 11 with three british (a guy from aston named Suk made the third), two french canadians (Pascale and Gabi) and 6 french. Luckily for us, our (hilarious) guide JJ forced everyone to speak english, because our monoglottism meant that everyone had to make concessions for us. Our group had maybe 10 languages between them, and me and kemi contributed exactly english to that - woop the english educational system!
We began at the elephant farm, we were high up in the mountains (or so i thought) north of chiang mai, and we were assigned elephants in twos, before we ascended our elephant, a baby elephant took a liking to kemi and wrapped her leg in its trunk and tried to push her over, it was hilarious. When we were on the elephants, we went on a small trek, up steep hills and through mud, which fortunately our elephant - unlike the others - chose not to spray all over us. We could sit on their heads and their massive ears would flap over our feet and fan them - it was lovely. When that was over, we drove up slightly higher to where we would walk from.
Our walk was mostly uphill, at a ridiculous incline - imagine an analogue clock showing the time two o'clock. The angle that the hour hand is at, is the steepness of our path. I use the word path loosely, it was a muddy mess, with slippery rocks and roots providing the stepping stones, pure, sheer, undiluted effort. It was a blessing when we reached a waterfall in which we could bathe - it was really beautiful and relaxing. Nonetheless, the trek had to continue, so we set off again.
Kemi and i kept up a healthy pace though, remaining at the front of the pack with Suk, Pascale and Gabi. However, we were so fast that we soon left the rest of the group behind, and we were left with Nak, JJ's 13 year old cousin who hadn't done the walk before either, or perhaps only once, and didn't speak a word of english, but pointed and smiled with utmost charm. We reached a horizontal path, and kept going in the vague direction we had been for the rest of the walk - however, we took a break about half an hour later, only to realise that we had no idea where the rest of the group were. We yelled, wandered back and forth, when luckily some villagers coming home from the rice fields walked by and nak asked them for directions. We reached the village intact, only to discover that the others weren't there - they had gone back to find us! Fortunately, we all regrouped about ten minutes later and we could have a look around our accommodation for the night.
We were just outside a hilltribe village (powered by solar energy, the smarties) in a place with one kitchen, one toilet and 5 bedrooms. All were made of bamboo and leaves for the roofs. The view was staggering, we were on the edge of what looked like a valley so as we looked out, we could see really far below and beyond, and because it was a clear night and there was obviously no light pollution, we could see the stars and the fireflies. After dinner we taught Pascale and Gabi how to play spoons, and JJ gave us a rendition of the thai national anthem.
Kemi and I had cleverly managed to get ourselves the biggest room, and the most well insulated, but because we were playing cards, we swapped with two french women who didn't want to be woken up by Gabi and pascale when they came in to sleep. As we were swapping over, we heard a scream in our new room.. we rushed in to find out that there was a scorpion on the wall. A genuine, vicious looking scorpion. We freaked out. Suk managed to nudge it outside, but outside was literally just on the other side of a milimetre thin bamboo wall, and there were gaps in between the walls and the ceiling. We nervously altogether unrolled our bedding to check for more nasties, and frantically put up our mosquito nets, all to the cacophony of deafening frog croaks. They were everywhere, but you couldn't see them, just hear the harmonies of their croaking cranked up to 11. It was an awful night's sleep. We were really nervous about scorpions lurking about, and didn't want to move lest we dislodged the mosquito net from under our sleeping mats. I had to get up in the middle of the night to dash to the toilet about 30 metres away from our camp, and it was so dark and so terrifying - but somehow we survived until the next day! Hurrah!
Now, the logic is that if you climb uphill to get somewhere, you must go downhill to return. Apparently not. Our journey to the bamboo rafts was steeper uphill than the journey there, only it was tempered by equally steep periods downhill. I don't know which i disliked less. However, as we trudged onwards, drenched in sweat and trying our hardest not to fall over, I maintained my position as fifth in the pack of 13, I realised something: I am not dreadful at walking. In fact, i really rather enjoyed it - only in retrospect of course, at the time i was happy and miserable at the same time. What propelled us onwards was the realisation that if we stand still, the insects WILL get us. Dying of exhaustion beats dying of insect bites any day, and we practically jogged our way home. I counted this morning how many bites I have - 68 on my arms and legs. They are horrible, insects here have a resistance to insect repellant, might as well just lay myself out on a banana leaf and invite them all to a Jo-Buffet.
Nonetheless, we reached the river for bamboo rafting, and that was a lovely conclusion to our trek, the river was not as nice as in vangVieng, and the locals were not as friendly, but it was soothing regardless.
On the journey home, we continued our theme of interesting cross-cultural conversations. We worked out idioms in different languages and the difference between 'I'm french' and 'I am french' as well as finding out other countries' stereotypes - it was really really interesting. We resolved, Gabi, Pascale, Suk and ourselves, to watch the football together that night, so having feasted and washed, we set off for the night market quarter.
We found an English pub (next to a german beerhaus, populated by thai women in dirndls, quite the strangest sight i think i've seen in thailand thus far) and noticed that it, like most of chiang mai, was a sea of orange. Kemi and I had resolved to support Spain, and we tentatively sat ourselves near the 60 inch screen. There were some english boys near us, who had initially worn spanish tops and then swapped for dutch ones upon seeing the crowd, so we borrowed their tops for the game - i was ramos, kem was fabregas. What a match. It started at 1.30 am and we didn't get in until half past four in the morning. We sampled the delights of thai mcdonalds and did jagerbombs with the non fizzy thai redbull and chatted to the columbians behind us. All very interesting.
Today is our first day off in a while, so we're taking it easy for a while, might get out mopeds and explore the town later, shall be v. v. interesting.
xxx
Had a decent night's sleep yet?
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