In the days leading up to our much anticipated group trip, in all
honestly, we were feeling a little nervous. Would we die on the trek
due to our lack of physical fitness? Would the people be super lame?
Would we be able to adapt from doing our own thing all the time to
going along with the group? Would people get our weird and hilarious
quirks? Would it be worth the huge lumps of money we shelled out? But
looking back on the trip I can definitely say that I wouldn't trade
those two weeks for anything.
After meeting our group/tour leader (an amazing enigmatic Thai man
named "T" - more fondly known at Tesus Christ, T-biscuit, T-Rex,
T-Xibit... you get the picture) and a night out on Khao San Road, the
first week of the tour began with an overnight sleeper train to the
northern province of Chang Mai and the worst most non-existent sleep of
my life. We spent a day in Chang Mai hanging out at the pool, going to
the night market and exploring before heading out early the next
morning to start our "trek".
Our local guides - Sammy and "Mowgli" (we didn't find out his actual
name until the last day of the trek - and to be honest I still can't
remember it!) - were phenomenal. They were so much fun, had limitless
energy (almost to the point where it was annoying to see them leaping
around as well sweated and panted), and cooked us the most amazing
meals from food that they ported on their backs up the mountains we
could barely crawl up. They also led us in some ridiculously hilarious
trekking games (that resulted in everyone having their entire faces
covered in charcoal) and would set off firecrackers randomly throughout
the day without warning.
The first day we got to play in a waterfall (and pretend to be
Pocahontas?) and trekked just under 2 excruciating hours to the first
hilltribe village where we spent the night. All 12 of us slept in one
big room that smelt of tea leaves and was situated over top of a barn
(complete with roosters who woke us at 5am). The village was such a
departure from anything I have ever seen and was truly eye opening.
There were animals everywhere (including TONS of little piggies!
:):):)). The only shower was a network of bamboo shoots that funneled
water to a spot in the river. In classic Emma style, I managed to fall
and wipe out the entire bamboo structure. Literally. Luckily a man from
the village ran down and was able to reassembled the mess I had made.
Talk about an epic fail.
The next day we trekked for four hours to an elephant reserve and got
to ride elephants for 2 hours to the next village. There is no way to
describe riding a massive leathery elephant through the jungle except that it was AWESOME. The elephants were
so cool (and have hair?) and were really well behaved - except for
Charley and Izzie's which kept spraying them with dust and muck with
its trunk.
The last day of trekking didn't really involve any trekking, just
bamboo rafting for about 3 hours down a river that may or may not have
had rapids (luckily us girls had Tesus to maneuver our raft). The scenery was out of control and even though we were
completely submerged (the girls weren't allowed to help paddle?...
not that we would have been much help anyways) and almost capsized a
few times, it was hilarious fun.
After a night of Ring of Fire back at the hotel in Chang Mai (started off by my dropping a 26er of Vodka on the ground at Tesco creating a lake of alcohol in the juice aisle), we spent
our last day up north in an all-day cooking class (yes, you read
right) where we learned how to make 6 different dishes (including our
beloved Pad Thai) from a hilarious Thai chef. Then in was back to
Bangkok on the dreaded sleeper train to say bye to some of our new friends and pick up a few newbies.
... and that was just the first week!
