Northern Villages Days 1-3

Hey Everyone,

After we went to the trek shop and picked up all our hiking gear the group headed to the night market for a group dinner and a chance to look around the market. The dinner was great, some good Thai food and the entertainment of song and dance was interesting to say the least. The group was really getting along though which was great.

After dinner Farrell and Dan got a chance to look through the night market. The market was filled with all kinds of shops and sellers and there was a lot of really great stuff. The two found a lot of great things that they wanted but decided to wait till they got back to Chaing Mai to buy the stuff from the market.

The next morning we stored out stuff and checked out of our room at Serenity hotel. We got in a truck to take us to the jungle. We stopped a few times to pick up water and supplies. We even had to stop at the tourist police and give them copies of our passports so they knew who was in the jungle.

One of our stops was for the restroom but we also got a chance to go swimming under a huge waterfall. the sight was spectacular and the pictures came out great. The water was so hard it even stretched out Dan's shirt when he was under it. We got back on the road and headed to our lunch spot. Farrell did not like the food very much that they had prepared and if she does not eat rice for the rest of her life she will be happy.

Finally we arrived at the starting spot for the trek. We got our backpacks on and headed into the jungle. In addition to our tour guide Dong we also had two local guides for the trek Mr. Boom and Mr. Sang. Mr. Sang lead the pack and was an absolute great guide. he was so experienced with the jungle and taught us some great tricks and told awesome stories. Not to mention the fact that his laugh was amazing and he was such a character. Everyone in the group loved him so much. We trekked through the jungle for about 3.5 hours and then arrived at our first village. Everyone slept in bamboo huts with mosquito nets. they were really cool but hard to sleep in. When we arrived to the village we showered, tried the local rice wine, had dinner and then got a tour of the village and how they live. Farrell even got a chance to work on her rice meal preparation. She would push down some wood that smashed into the pot of rice meal. She had a future with the village. On our tour we even saw tons of pigs, chickens and even a monkey. The monkey had a rope tied around its neck to keep it tamed but would jump off the ledge and practically hang itself. It was a rough site and Farrell was not happy about it. She almost snuck out in the middle of the night to let it loose but knew she would get lost in the village. After the tour we chilled around a camp fire, heard stories about the jungle and then called it a night.

Next morning we had a 4 hr hike. We had to go up both baby and mama hill. And you know mama hill wasn't easy. Mama hill was 25mins straight up with our packs on our back. It really worked the ass muscles and we are still a little sore from it. we were proud to make it to the top and the view was so worth it.

We were able to stop a couple of times to rest along this trek. During the rests the boys were able to compete in shooting contests with their sling shots. Dan even purchased one from a local villager but did not have as good a shot as Mr. Dong or Mr. Sang. On our last stop before Elephant camp Mr. Sang and Mr. Boom made the group chop sticks out of bamboo with their machetes for lunch and dinner. It was really cool.

After the 4 hours of trekking we made it to elephant camp which was so awesome. Just being able to watch the elephants hang around was great, never mind our 1hr ride that we got on them. So we had lunch, bought water and got on our elephants. Farrell and Dan by far had the best elephant. He was the pappa of the village. He lead the way and knew all the great posses for the camera. He did tend to stray off course a few times but only because he was hungry and needed to rip some branches off to eat along the way.

The elephant ride was spectacular and the pictures we bought were incredible. Even though we thought we were going to fall out of our chair the ride was great. Our driver even caught a huge tarantula the way, which is a delicacy to eat for the villagers. The elephants took the group to their next village. We dropped our stuff off and headed to the local river to bathe ourselves. the current was strong but we managed to wash a little. Then a few of the group members including Dan headed to the school at the village to play futbol (aka soccer). Dan had a memorable time playing and a really surreal experience when it started to pore like crazy (since it is the rainy season) and he was soaked running around playing soccer with thai villagers who didn't know a word of english but could speak sports.

The group had dinner that night with their new chop sticks and drank a lot, especially the german couple. After dinner and more drinking the group played a game called ping, pong, pang. if you mess up a player wipes a finger on the cast iron pot and wipes black ash on your face. With a few drinks everyone was covered in black and having a great time. The pictures are hilarious. Then Dan, the german Stephen, and Mr. Sand had to perform the elephant song for the group in Thai with hand signals, really emphasizing the giftedness of a male elephant, if you get what we are saying. The group then hit the nets, mosquito that is, as we all slept in one room together. At this bought it was the mosquitoes who got their chance at dinner on our flesh. Farrell's let is oozing a bit form her bites and it is pretty gross. Tiger balm in Thailand fixes everything though.

The next morning we headed to the river to get on our bamboo raft for our 4hr ride. It was so cool because the day before we got to see the locals build the raft right in front of us from their bamboo. The rafting trip was awesome and we saw 6 water snakes on the trees as we went by which is a sign of good luck in Thai culture. there were even some good rapids along the way. We stopped to have lunch and then sadly had to head back to Serenity hotel in Chaing Mai. The villages were so cool that it was hard to leave, well maybe not the squat toilets.

The next morning we got breakfast with Iona and Casey two California girls who were in our group and got along with us really well. We had our Starbucks, the only one in Chaing Mai, got massages and subway for lunch/dinner. It was an american day in thailand. Then we boarded an overnight train in Chaing mai to Bangkok where we are now. On the train Farrell and Dan got a chance to teach the group the game of Mafia and we played it for hours on the train. It was a good time and fun to see British people try to lie.

We are in Bangkok for two days and then we head out again with a new group to the south of thailand where we will see the rain forest, relax on the beach and interact with the locals in the south. We will be sure to post about that as well. Then we head to Greece!!!

Lots of Love,

Farrell and Dan