Jungle trek

having a few Chang beers with our fellow mates in a hilltribe village in the jungles of thailand

the tribe people making dinner

our sleeping head quarters. Mattresses on the floor with bug nets over the top

a typical house in the hill tribe villagen

So we are currently sitting on a bus making our six hour journey to the Laos border. From there, we board a slow boat and make the two day journey down the Mekong river to the city of Luang Prabang. Last night we got back from our two day jungle trek which was one of the coolest experiences of my life. It all started out when our guide picked us up at our guest house and we crammed 12 people into an extended cab pickup truck outfitted with benches and a roof. We were the only Americans out of the group. There was couples from France, Germany, and Istanbul, as well as a father and son from Australia. The cool thing was at least every one could kind of speak English. After the hour and a half drive out of the city we entered the Doi Inthanon National Park. Our first stop was at a waterfall that dropped down about 140 feet. After that, we drove about 20 minutes to the entry point where there actual hike would start. About 5 minutes into the hike we reached a geyser pool consisting of 5 geysers spewing out water at 90-100 degrees Celsius. After the pools we got off the beaten path and made the three hour hike to the Karen hill tribe. The hike was pretty intense and it didn't help that it was 80+ degrees. You could definitely tell the people who were fit and those that were not. Once we reached the Tribe almost everybody went down to the river to cool down. Later we all sat down while our guide and a few of the tribe people cooked us dinner. To my surprise they had Chang, a Thai beer that every one was pleased to see and we all sat around enjoying more than a few. It was interesting learning about everyones lives in other parts of the world. The next day we enjoyed some coffee, tea and hot chocolate for Teala by the campfire before breakfast. After breakfast, we packed up our bags and made a 40 minute hike to the next village where we would catch a ride on some elephants. The elephants were rigged with a bench seat for us to sit on. Our guide just sat on top of the elephants head, which you can see in the pictures below. It was pretty exciting initially going down the river banks because it felt as if we were going to fall face first into the river. The elephants had no problem crossing the river which was only about four-five feet deep. The elephant ride lasted about an hour and a half. After we unloaded off our giant ride it was time to catch the next one on bamboo rafts on our final leg of this amazing journey. The rafts Consisted of about eight 25' bamboo trees tied together with tree vines. The raft ride took about two and a half hours after we stopped at another tribe for a break. On the ride we shot some mini rapids which on a few occasions I thought we were going to tip. However only Sean, the Australian dude, managed to fall in twice. When we reached the end, we unloaded our packs off the rafts and enjoyed some Pad Thai for lunch before cramming back into our outfitted pickup for our ride back to Chiang Mia.