Tired of my city-girl ways, I signed up for a ‘trek’. Around Chiang Mai area are hills, lots of trees, rivers, tribes, waterfalls, elephants- you know, Thai countryside. Just what the soul needed. I took my first elephant ride through the jungle, which I enjoyed way too much- they are the perfect vehicle for traversing wild territory – forget the Land Cruiser. The elephant takes a lot of fuel though – average 3 bananas/sugar canes per step. Apparently the daily cruise is also known to them as the ‘snack walk’. When the tourists ran out of treats, the ol’ girl foraged, up the hillside, down the gully. Quite exciting as she half climbed a tree. I couldn’t believe our rigged seat stayed on her back!
Next was the waterfall hike where we also saw some hilltribes. Nothing too exciting, but nice being out in trees and escorted by a little pack of tribe-dogs.
A close rival to the elephant ride, though, was definitely the bamboo raft ride. It was 8 fat bamboos wide and about 25 feet long, driven by a standing guy with a long pole. Huck Finn Thai style. Due to the large amount of rain in recent days, the river was fast and fun. Minus the one section we got out and walked due to the death of 2 japanese tourists the month before on that patch when the river was that high. Eek. Just about the time I started thinking, ‘riding is nice, but I’d like to try driving this thing’, the guide handed me the pole. Of course it was a wide, boring part, but I still pretended.
