Monday, October 13, 2008

Thailand Trek to hill tribe village

From Chiang Mai we bought a 2-day tour. We ended up being the only tourists on the tour (benefits of travelling in low season). We drove a couple of hours north of Chiang Mai, got on elephants for a short ride, walked up the hills for over 2 hours, refreshing swim in small waterfall included, and arrived to a little village, where a minority tribe, called lahu, lives. The picture shows the bamboo hut where we slept last night. No electricity, but there's running water and spotty cell phone connection.
It rains for a short while every 2-3 hours, so everything we have is wet. I managed to slip and fall on the muddy "streets". So my pants are hiker-dirty.
On the high side, hut provides mosquito nets in the bedroom, we had some local food for dinner, and a couple of old ladies gave me a foot massage. There's a toilet just downstairs from the house.
Some animal chewed on my shoes during the night. However, more importantly, no insect bit us.
The following day, the roosters woke us up early. We had breakfast in the hut, and started the 2-hour slippery downhill trek. We had a refreshing swim at a bigger waterfall, and then did a little bit of white water rafting, and floating down the river on a bamboo raft.
Quite an experience!
Mercedes

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