bird legs getting bigger

So, Dave and I signed up for a 2 day one night trek. The night before the trek I get an awful food poisoning! - I'm up puking all night, so the next day they tell us we can go on the one in 2 more days... So eventually the evening before our new trek day comes, and Dave gets as sick as I do!!!! But, sort of luckily, he isn't up ALL night and we manage to get 4 hours sleep. The next day Dave is feeling pretty shiit ( but no longer physically sick) so I inquire, and they tell us they can't postpone again, and no money back. HA! So, we went! I was feeling pretty OK, and Dave wasn't too well, but he managed and had fun...

We ended up in the back of a seated truck with a German couple, 2 Finish boys, and 3 Dutch girls, and our two guides and a driver in the truck. We ended up getting along with everyone, however, there were lots of times where people just went off speaking in their own language, so you don't feel included, but it was no bother!

Our first stop was at a waterfall in the forest. Very beautiful, very cold, about 3 streams coming from the top. We all took pictures and waded in the water, but it was too cold and shallow and the water was too powerful coming down to really swim.

After the waterfall we stopped for lunch - watermelon and pineapple slices, and fried rice and veggie.

After lunch we trucked to a hot springs. They had made man-made pools of the natural water and told us we could go down and swim for 30 minutes. - We all ran down, stuck our toes in the water and discovered it was boiling! So unbearable to any of us in the hot sun, it was hotter than a hot tub or any bath I've ever had. So we all just ended up sitting around the pool cooking in the steam.
After this we started the trek part of our trek! We walked a little ways to the natural stream of the hot spring and watched that for a bit. I've never seen any hot springs before so it really amazed me. It was a river with water so hot it was bubbling out of holes in the ground and causing steam so thick it looked like fire smoke. Really amazing, and so warm I didn't want to hang around too long.
After this we walked, and climbed, and descended and walking and climbed and climbed and descended and walked and walked and walked and climbed. Honestly I don't even want to describe it with details! We basically walked through the jungle for 5 hours in the sun, and it wasn't a flat walk! ( AND! - This was an easy trek by far compared to others I've heard of.) Some of the hills going up were so long I wanted to cry at times, for real! And I found myself not allowing myself to look up, to see how long they went, I'd often just keep my eyes right in front of me, so that I couldn't be daunted with the never ending hill ahead of me. And for as many hills we went up, we also had never-ending hills down. These were well received at first, but going down steep never-ending hills makes your calves jelly! And you aways have to be on the lookout as to not slip.

During our walk there was 2 major rest stops at little villages in the mountains - where we could purchase cold water too! These were fun to stop at - there are no roads leading to these villages and they have no electricity, everything they need - river water and farm animals is all right there. I enjoyed watching all the little chicks and piglets and cattle. - And seeing the village people go about their business.

Most of the walk was on thin trails, above the steep mountain, so when you took your eyes off the trail you could see forever rolling mountain tops and fog, verrryyyy purdy. - Also all of the forest leaves are falling right now, so beautiful colours. - But dead dry leaves make walking down steep hills very dangerous! Lots of people were falling! I didn't wall, yippeeee! Neither did Dave. My favorite parts of the walk were when we had to corss streams. - Usually it was a bit cooler and out of the sun near streams, and there was also a fun broken down bridge or wooden plank to walk across. - Also, Cattle hang out around the stream, so it was nice to be greeted by their ringing bells and twitchy ears once in a while.

I think maybe by 6PM we made it to the village we were to stay the night at. It was a small area on the riverbank. Our room was a big open wood hut with mats and blankets on the ground and mosquito nets to hang over while we slept. Dave immediately passed out on his matt for a while and I went to 'shower' with the others. 'Showering' was jumping into the river and soaping up! By now the sun was going down and the river was freezing! But I sunk in, because I didn't want dried sweat on my all night! It was really refreshing and I was so glad I did it.

We had dinner in the dark with some lights around a big wood table. Dave and I were the only vegetarians, and we felt spoiled! They gave us a big bowl of rice each, and then THREE huge veggie and tofu dishes, the other people had meat dishes and I think in total there was 12 huge dishes of food along with a bowl of rice each. It was way too much! - Especially after having food poisoning - our stomachs were so small! One dish was a potato and tofu red curry, one was a green bean and tofu in a spicy sauce, and the other was mixed veggie and tofu in a mild soy sauce. I felt like a queen. A spoiled brat queen! We ate so much but hardly touched it!! I hope it didn't go to waste after.

After dinner we all sat around a fire, while they cooked HALF A PIG over it =(. Eeep! And everyone but us 2 feasted on the big pig, and we all had a beer and sat listening to the Thai boys sing and play guitar, very very nice!

Dave and I were the first to sleep. It was a good sleep because we were exhausted, but other than that I woke up A LOT because I was so sore. For some reason I thought there was only enough room for me to sleep with my legs curled up. - I woke up with my Knees aching, and THEN realized I had enough room to stretch them. From about 4AM onward roosters were singing, I didn't mind, but I think it really disrupted Daves sleep.

After I woke up I went to the dining table for breakfast and got to watch elephants get bathed in the river! It was so sweet and so surreal for me. The masters would ride them in, say a command, and then the elephant would either sit in the river, or lay down completely with only its trunk sticking out, and the master would scrub them! So sweet! For breakfast I skipped the eggs cause of my queasy stomach, and had tomato, toast with jam, and tea - same with Dave.

After we packed up we all got to ride elephants along the river for just over an hour. The scenery for this elephant ride was much more  spectacular than our first ride in Koh - Lanta. - Mainly because the river was so vast and wide and seemingly in the middle of no where. - My photos will speak more for this than me.

After the elephant ride we went bamboo rafting for 2 and a half more hours down the river! The rafts are literally just bamboo tied together. This was sooo much fun and very refreshing. There were two raftts, and Dave and I got the smaller one with the German couple and a guide. Most of the way the Donkeys - or boys rather, pushed us along with bamboo sticks, and me and the other girl - Christine, just got to relax! We sat on the raft and wet our bums and legs and occasionally jumped off into the water. It was just so so nice to be sitting on that raft, looking beside and above and the beautiful jungle. Some times the river got more rapid and that was a lot of fun, we got cooled and wet then, and bashed into some large rocks. At one point just Christine and I pushed, and gave the boys a break, and that was actually nice too, to use some energy up.

After the rafting we got dried off and changed and then ate lunch at a restaurant overlooking the river. - We each got a plate of Pad Thai, and then 2 more heaping plates put on the table if we wanted more - and also pineapple slices. I over ate! It was soo good. So I then spent the 2 hour bus ride back to town sleeping my bulging belly off.

Now we are back in Chaing Mai and a little tired. I'm going to go to the night market tonight, and then maybe for some soup at a nice veggie restaurant I found. In the next couple of days we want to go to a tiger sanctuary and take a cooking class. I will try to add photos of our trek tomorrow! And if not then, very soon!

peash