So the day after the one before it we went trekking in the mountains/jungle just north of Chiang Mai. Due to the heat...(and possibly fears of being too smelly and bitten by every insect imaginable) we just opt for a one day trek which will try to cram in a few different attractions.
We get collected by our tour"guide" (apart from telling us when to get on and off the bus he didn't offer a whole lot of information!)So in our little pick up truck bus we head off for the hills. There are 2 other people with us a nice Scottish girl (Kay) and a hilarious German guy ( yes you read that right) named Jan. Jan is the chatter of the group which is good cos he gets us all talking to one another. He comes out with gems such as " Have you guys noticed how Thai people don't really get irony...or like sarcasm". er...Ellie and I just bite out lips and are like "No I cant say I've noticed that about Thai people" (The tumbleweed whenever I told a joke in Germany on the other hand!! though maybe that was just my jokes!!)
He was in Bangkok too, and showed is some pictures on his camera of riots. The tear gas and red-shirts running from soldiers with guns were a stark contrast to the smiling faces and water pistols that we encountered just a few streets away.
The first stop on our 'crazy jungle adventure'is a butterfly and orchid farm. Both nice, took some ponsy pictures of flowers and butterflies. You can buy souvenirs made from lacquered orchids and on a slightly creeper note lacquered butterflies.Pretty though... until you realise you are wearing a hair-slide made of actual insect! (so I bought an orchid one)
Butterfly
Orchids
Next stop is a trip up a very bumpy narrow little road -which Jan jokes are like the roads in Dunigill (Donegal).Brilliant :) When we get to the top of the road it is time for the elephants- yay!So even though it is probably a bit mean I don't wrestle with my conscience too much because we still get to go on elephants- which is good. Ellie and I climb aboard our one who we unimaginatively name Nellie. Jan and Kay's elephant is called Hugo which they then have to change to Huga for obvious reasons.
Hungry Hungry Huga
Elephant family
Huga
We make our trip up the mountain (well about 30 mins) by elephant. Scenery is beautiful but you have to keep feeding the elephant bananas to make them go and once you run out of bananas they kind of just want to do their own thing! But we make it to a little platform eventually and hop off. From their we have to walk to the river and zipline across in a little cage . On the other side our driver collects us and brings us to our next little part of the adventure a trek up the mountain to the waterfall.
The trek is amazing. The smell of the plants are gorgeous.The sounds all around us are like something from a relaxation cd; there's clinking of cowbells from cows grazing on the mountain, the sound of bamboo stalks knocking off each other, water flowing and breeze bustling through the trees. However before I float off on some out of body experience the heat smacks me down to earth and after about 15 minutes I feel as though we have been trekking for 2 hours. To make things worse I'm wearing my "Dublin half marathon" t-shirt so it'll be extra embarrassing if I collapse in the first 20 minutes! I crack into my cold water pretty early but am still struggling- It takes us just over an hours walking/climbing over things to get to the waterfall at the top and we are wrecked. However long it took us to drag our feet the last few steps- we are all stripped down to our swimming gear and in the water pool in about 60 seconds flat! The waterfall is lovely though I'm sure more spectacular in the wet season. All the same apart from for a few seconds during icy soakings at Songkran this is the first time we have been refreshingly cold in a few weeks and we are amazed to see goosebumps on our skin
After we are finished our little swim our guide hands us Pad Thai (fried noodles) wrapped up in a little banana leaf parcel and we gobble it down while sitting on the rocks! After that we start to make our trek back down the mountain but it is much more enjoyable than the way up as it takes us a lot longer to overheat!
After that our driver brings us to our next activity... but this post is long enough already so I'll talk about that next time!
more pics to follow!
We get collected by our tour"guide" (apart from telling us when to get on and off the bus he didn't offer a whole lot of information!)So in our little pick up truck bus we head off for the hills. There are 2 other people with us a nice Scottish girl (Kay) and a hilarious German guy ( yes you read that right) named Jan. Jan is the chatter of the group which is good cos he gets us all talking to one another. He comes out with gems such as " Have you guys noticed how Thai people don't really get irony...or like sarcasm". er...Ellie and I just bite out lips and are like "No I cant say I've noticed that about Thai people" (The tumbleweed whenever I told a joke in Germany on the other hand!! though maybe that was just my jokes!!)
He was in Bangkok too, and showed is some pictures on his camera of riots. The tear gas and red-shirts running from soldiers with guns were a stark contrast to the smiling faces and water pistols that we encountered just a few streets away.
The first stop on our 'crazy jungle adventure'is a butterfly and orchid farm. Both nice, took some ponsy pictures of flowers and butterflies. You can buy souvenirs made from lacquered orchids and on a slightly creeper note lacquered butterflies.Pretty though... until you realise you are wearing a hair-slide made of actual insect! (so I bought an orchid one)
Butterfly
 |
| From Triphopopotamus |
Orchids
 |
| From Triphopopotamus |
 |
| From Triphopopotamus |
Next stop is a trip up a very bumpy narrow little road -which Jan jokes are like the roads in Dunigill (Donegal).Brilliant :) When we get to the top of the road it is time for the elephants- yay!So even though it is probably a bit mean I don't wrestle with my conscience too much because we still get to go on elephants- which is good. Ellie and I climb aboard our one who we unimaginatively name Nellie. Jan and Kay's elephant is called Hugo which they then have to change to Huga for obvious reasons.
Hungry Hungry Huga
 |
| From Chiang Mai |
Elephant family
 |
| From Chiang Mai |
Huga
 |
| From Chiang Mai |
We make our trip up the mountain (well about 30 mins) by elephant. Scenery is beautiful but you have to keep feeding the elephant bananas to make them go and once you run out of bananas they kind of just want to do their own thing! But we make it to a little platform eventually and hop off. From their we have to walk to the river and zipline across in a little cage . On the other side our driver collects us and brings us to our next little part of the adventure a trek up the mountain to the waterfall.
 |
| From Chiang Mai |
The trek is amazing. The smell of the plants are gorgeous.The sounds all around us are like something from a relaxation cd; there's clinking of cowbells from cows grazing on the mountain, the sound of bamboo stalks knocking off each other, water flowing and breeze bustling through the trees. However before I float off on some out of body experience the heat smacks me down to earth and after about 15 minutes I feel as though we have been trekking for 2 hours. To make things worse I'm wearing my "Dublin half marathon" t-shirt so it'll be extra embarrassing if I collapse in the first 20 minutes! I crack into my cold water pretty early but am still struggling- It takes us just over an hours walking/climbing over things to get to the waterfall at the top and we are wrecked. However long it took us to drag our feet the last few steps- we are all stripped down to our swimming gear and in the water pool in about 60 seconds flat! The waterfall is lovely though I'm sure more spectacular in the wet season. All the same apart from for a few seconds during icy soakings at Songkran this is the first time we have been refreshingly cold in a few weeks and we are amazed to see goosebumps on our skin
After we are finished our little swim our guide hands us Pad Thai (fried noodles) wrapped up in a little banana leaf parcel and we gobble it down while sitting on the rocks! After that we start to make our trek back down the mountain but it is much more enjoyable than the way up as it takes us a lot longer to overheat!
After that our driver brings us to our next activity... but this post is long enough already so I'll talk about that next time!
more pics to follow!
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