January 21 - 22, 2013 - North Thailand
The was the first day of our 2 day trek in the north of Thailand. There were only 6 of us on this trek. One dutch and one Korean guy, a couple from germany and us 2 American girls. It was a 2 hour drive to the start of the trek but had a few stops along the way. The first was at a botanical garden and butterfy farm. The butterflies here were lacking, definitely didnt compare to the butterfly exhibit in Houston. The the botanical garden consisted of rows of orchids they were growing. They were brilliantly colored in yellow, white, pink, purple, blue. Almost every color. My orchids never looked that good.
The next stop was at a market were I had to eat some noodles. Im quite sure I may have a noodle problem. I always want to eat noodles. They are so yummy and warm and low fat. Yum. We finally reached our hiking start point and hiked about 30 minutes before we stopped for lunch. Lunch was a banana leaf filled with pad thai noodles. Again, tasty, I love noodles. Mostly noodle soups but dry noodles work too. After lunch we finished up our hike. The landscape was so green and lush. The last bit of our hike over looked the valley where the elephant camp and our grass huts for night were located. We checked in to the elephant camp and put our stuff down in the hut. It was just the 6 of us for the night. The hut was situated on the hill with a balcony overlooking the bar and restaurant and the elephant camp grounds. It was an open air hut with mattresses along the floor. Each mattress had a bug net, two blankets, and a pillow. All the beds where in one open room. The bathroom was about 100 feet away.
After settling into our home and having a complementary cup of coffee we got our chance to ride an elephant, bare back. Alene and I shared the elephant. For the first part of the ride I rode on the back and Alene on the neck. We went on a very slow walk along a trail just outside of the camp. After following the trail they led the elephants to a little pond where they walked in and sat down. We hopped off and where handed buckets to wash the elephants. I jumped in the water without thinking and soaked my wallet and all my money. hah. After the elephant bath we got back on. I got the neck this time. It was WAY more comfortable than the back. On the back you have a gaint backbone digging into your butt. It was painful. We cooked dinner and hung out with our group that night. We even taught them the vegetable game. Epic! Always great for a laugh.
The guide built a fire for us and we enjoyed seeing the stars and watching the fire.
The morning we had a slow start. Breakfast at 9. To cook our toast the guide split a stick about half waydown, slid the bread into the slit and the tied the open end of the split stick together. Then we told us to hold it over the smoldering fire for a bit. Sure enough, it toasted our bread perfectly. We also got a boiled egg with the toast for breakfast and all the coffee you could drink. Around noon we loaded up in the truck for the drive to the waterfall trail. Once there we were handed our lunches, the same thing as the day before, and headed down the trail towards the waterfall. The entire hike was along a very beautiful and lush creek/river. After about an hour we reached the waterfall. It was small in comparison to some of the waterfalls I have seen on the trip but you could hop in and swim right up to the bottom of this one. And thats exactly what we did. We braved the cooooold water and managed our way to the waterfall for a quick photo op. We then settled in the sun to dry off and eat lunch. The hike back was easy and we stopped along way to take pictures.
And that was the end of our fun. We loaded back up into the truck and headed back to Chiang Mai.
What I have learned:
Riding elephants is VERY uncomfortable.
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