Chaing Mai and the Hill Tribe Trek

After leaving Kanchanaburi we had to take two different local buses, 2 hours each, to Chaing Mai. The local buses were "fan cooled", literally, there were actual fans attached to the ceiling... haha. They were a little cramped, things here are made for short people! But we made it to Chaing Mai were we stayed our last night in civilization... We went to a trek shop to rent our equiptment (backpacks, mats, and sleeping bags) and packed up the essentials for our 3 days in the hilltribes. We left at 8 am tuesday morning with about an hour sawngtaw ride near where the trek started, but first we had a pit stop.... at an elephant camp! We were so excited, we got to ride elephants! We each bought a bag of bananas to feed them and headed out, the elephants care taker lead us through the nearby hill to their sleeping area, and through the river, we had about a 40 minute ride... Very cool. There were even a few baby elephant following their mothers around, SO cute! Although it was fun to ride the elephants we had to feel bad for them, what a life, hauling tourists around! We are more excited for tomorrow because we get to go to an elephant conservatory. Elephants have a history of being mistreated here in Thailand and the place we are going tomorrow cares for mistreated elephants, nursing them and giving them a home.
After our elephant ride we loaded back into the sawngtaw for a quick ride to the start of our trail. By the time we were ready to go it was around 12 or 1 in the afternoon, the hottest part of the day... luckily much of our hiking that day was covered by trees, but with the heat and humidity it was still incredibly hot. We hiked about 5 hours or so on the first day, stopping a few times along the way for breaks. We had a local guide named Can who is from Chaing Mai, as well as a porter, a young man from one of the villages we stayed, we carried all our food and water. They call him Superboy.. I'm sure you can guess why!

We arrived at our first stop around 6 or 7 pm. Our 5 star accomidation was a bamboo hut that is built several feet off the ground to protect from animals and flooding in the rainy season. There are 6 people total in our group and we all slept in the same hut. After laying out our mats we crashed out for about an hour before getting called for dinner, we were all so worn out after hiking all day. Mosquitoe nets were also provided, and we learned that bamboo is NOT comfortable to sleep on! Even with our little mats the ground was SO hard! All part of the experience though :) Before bed we all went into the owners hut and played cards with our guides, it was a good end to a loong day.

The next morning (wednesday) we woke up early and had a good breakfast or eggs and toast before getting packed up and heading out for another 3 or 4 hours of hiking. The hike was beautiful, although strenuous. I was just so pleased that my leg has been holding up! As we neared the end of our hike we came upon huge rice fields and then after going up over one last steep hill we came up over looking the most beautiful valley, you could see all the little huts from the village and the rice fields and gardens surrounding, i have some amazing pictures that i will post as soon as i get a chance. It was really surreal walking down into the villages, like walking into another world. They live so differently than us, it really made me think about our lifestyle and all the excess "stuff".. We have so many things that we think we just couldn't live without but there are people all over the world that have nothing. We live in such a bubble, especially in Utah.

After getting settled and eating lunch in the villiage we got suited up--we have to wear our bathing suits and then a sarong on top to keep modest in the villiages-- and followed our little guides, the cutest little girl around 6 years old missing her two front teeth and her older brother, to the nearby river. There was a little waterfall and the kids used it as a slide down the rocks. It felt so good to wash all the griminess from the day off... it was after we got out of the water that we noticed little black things on us which we immediately assumed where leechs! Gross! We tried to get them all off and them headed back to the hut to change and check our bodies for any leeches we missed. We were a little grossed out, but then we aske Champooh (our tour leader) and she informed us that they weren't leeches but that they were dragonfly larva.. still gross, but less disturbing!

After changing we got a tour of the village and were able to see how the women make the rice that they harvest, they have to first break the rice out of the shell by using a big wooden contraption that uses a lever method to pound a log into a bowl of rice which then breaks the shells. Next they put all the rice from the bowl into a flat woven basket and shake, becasue the rice is heavier that the shells, the rice stays in the basket and the shells fall out. --I'm not sure my explanation makes sense, but i have pictures to post later! We were also able to see how the women weave fabric to make shirts and scarves and bags, etc. It was so interesting to watch! Unbelieveble how something like that can take weeks to make and we just buy clothes whenever we want.

After our tour we made dinner for all the village children, fried rice with veggies... we all chopped up the veggies and cooked everything thing in a big wok over an open fire. It actually turned out really really good and we were a little disappointed that we didn't have any leftover for ourselves! haha.. but the kids were so cute! They all lined up to eat and we served them all. Then after dinner we all sat around the fire and the kids sang us some songs and then we returned the favor.. we didn't get a chance to plan anything and had to come up with a song we all knew, so we sang the song from Aladdin "I can show you the world" and then a girl from our group, Ava, played the guitar and sung a couple childrens songs that she wrote.
It was such an amazing day... I just love being able to take part in another culture and way of life, it really puts things in perspective.

Today was out last day of trekking, we got up early and spent some time eating breakfast and getting ready to go before heading out... destination:civilization.. Objective:HOT SHOWER! I loved the whole trekking experience, but i was definitely excited to have a few modern convenienves back :)
We arrived back in Chaing Mai with a 3 day, 30 mile trek under our belts... through the Thai jungle no less!

It was an amazing experiance.. Now we are back in Chaig Mai getting ready to head out and do some shopping at the night bazaar. The shops open in the evening and stay open till about midnight... If nothing else it has been really fun to window shop and people watch..
But i am out of time, i'll get my pictures up as soon as i can!
Love you all!

--Just a side note, i am sorry about all the misspelled words and improper grammer! I'm rushing to type and not going back to spell check! haha