July 8
We got back from our trek today. What an amazing experience. Our guides were great. Two of the three were from hill tribe villages themselves and explained so much about the different cultures to us.
Our first day was filled with rain and leeches. Everyone found at least one. Some folks found it all a bit freaky, but by the end of the day, having gone a great hike, it was all good. We spent the night in a hill tribe village.
The next day was amazing. We did a short hike in the morning and then mounted the elephants for an awesome ride on elephant back. It’s pretty wild getting on an elephant. At the end of the ride we got to wash and generally spray water all over the elephants, which was incredible fun. It looked like they were enjoying it too.
Day 3 was all about bamboo rafting down a river. That was earlier today and was a great experience floating through densely forested jungle and generally amazing scenery.
Now we’re back in Chiang Mai for one more night before we head off to the village tomorrow. Earlier this evening we went to Chiang Mai’s famed night market, which is filled to the brim with hill tribe crafts and lots of other stuff too. Now we’re doing laundry and spending one more night at our really comfortable digs before our one and a half hour ride tomorrow to the community.
One other item of note: Food Glorious Food — the food has been pretty amazing — lots of curries. the soups have been a big hit — anything with noodles and Tom Yum, of course. Five of us are trying to consume a one coconut every day, and everyone loves the mango smoothies.
We’ll try to get another blog post up in a few days once we’ve settled into our home stays and gotten the project underway. That’s it for now.
The Thailand Crew
