Lauren and I just returned from our three day trek through an area north of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. We were accompanied by a British guy named Matt we met a few days ago as well as 10 other tourists from Germany, France, Isreal, Canada, and the US. We're not sure how much ground we covered over three days. The hiking was not too strenuous but the scenery was fantastic. We swam in the pools of 3 waterfalls, rode atop an elephant for an hour (Lauren's life flashed before her eyes), did some bamboo rafting and some (pretty mild) white water rafting. Meals were provided and we camped in two villages of the hill tribes of Thailand, though we did not interact much with the local village people.
I'm not sure if I should use the word 'forest' or 'jungle,' but that doesn't really matter. It was lushly green and amazingly loud at night from all the insects (that makes it a jungle in my book). Fortunately we were not rained as the trail would have been very slippery had it been wet. The first two days were mostly walking, interrupted by swimming at waterfalls (an activity I quickly got used to), while all the other activities were, unfortunately, left until the last day. Despite a few places where the trek could have been improved, we had a fantastic time overall, not including one sleepless night due to another guy's snoring (so loud Lauren took video/audio of it with her camera).
Bet spent one day trying to get to a local national park and found out it's pretty much impossible to see outside of a larger tour organization. After that she took her Thai cooking course, the fruits of which were delicious as we ate them tonight.
Tomorrow I think we're in for a relaxing day in Chiang Mai. After that we may try to see the National Park that Bet tried to see. Soon we'll head north to Pai and Mae Hong Son. Later for now.
