Trek in Chiang Mai

On our third day in Chiang Mai we organised a trek in the jungle. This is the main attraction to Chiang Mai and something that everyone had recommended for us to do. We got picked up from our hostel in a little truck and after a quick stop to pick up some supplies, arrived at a village where we were served lunch. After lunch we started walking and it wasn't too long till we saw the elephants we would be riding. This was an amazing experience, although I think it helped that we had a good elephant that stuck to the path and followed the guide through the river. The other group with us had a much larger and naughtier elephant. He was always disappearing off the path to eat, he sprayed water and broke a few trees on the way. Half way through the ride, the other group wanted to get off as they were getting a bit worried, especially when they had big branches falling on their heads and shoulders.

After the elephants we started our long trek through the jungle to where we were spending the night. It was really hard going, all uphill, the temperature was really hot and it was very humid. Luckily everytime we thought we couldn't go anymore, the guide stopped for a rest and after some water we felt fine again. Just before sunset we arrived at our cabin. Dinner was made for us on a fire, green curry and rice and there was a fridge full of beers. We spent the evening chatting with the others in our group and our guide who wanted to practice his English (although he was really good already). He got quite animated when he was immitating the lady boys to try and explain to us how to spot them. He also taught us some cocktail stick games. We were all pretty tired after the tough day of trekking and were asleep by 10:30pm.

The next morning we had scrambled egg and toast and headed out of the village and back into the jungle for the next part of our trek. The next place we came to was a waterfall and becuase we were so hot from 2 hours of trekking, we dived into the cold, but refreshing water. After a nice swim, we trekked a bit further for lunch at another village then got transported to the rafting station.

Here we went white water rafting down the river, there wasn't too much white water as it's the dry season, but we still got drenched and managed to lose our guide on one of the rapids. One minute he's telling us when to paddle, the next minute he's swimming past our raft chasing his oar. We thought we'd be fine without him, but got stuck on a rock and had to wait for help from on of the other groups. Eventually the guide got back in once the rapids were over. We enjoyed this part and would like to do it again, but next time with bigger rapids. Finally we switched over to bamboo rafts. These just seemed to sink straight away and we were basically sitting with half our bodies in the water, floating down the river. We were slightly worried that we were sinking, until we found out the pater was only about a foot deep. After drying off, we headed back to Chiang Mai. We really enjoyed the entire trek and would definitely recommend it if you come here. It did help that we had a really nice group with us.