We found a good little guest house in Bangkok, where we recovered from our dreadful day’s journey (3 hours of seasickness and a 10 hour coach are not a good combination), and ate some great food off the street stalls before heading straight up to Chiang Mai.
We planned to do 2 things in Chiang Mai, a 3 day jungle trek and a Thai cookery course. First was our jungle trek.
We stopped on route at the local markets to pick up supplies and watch the locals eat fried locusts. Nice. Then something that Lou had been looking forward to ever since we arrived in Thailand. We went elephant trekking for an hour. We were one of 2 couples on the trip and we followed behind them on the baby elephant looking at a big grey wrinkly bottom! It was a wobbly ride on top, but we soon took the plunge and sat on the elephant’s neck/head. We had bought bananas to feed the giants, but ours seemed to tuck it away in the crook of his trunk and then throw them on the ground when we weren’t looking! The mother on the other hand couldn’t get enough. It was an ambition fulfilled.
After a lunch of fried rice and fruit, we ventured off in the back of a truck up a very steep and muddy track on the side of a mountain to start our hike. Immediately we were in the jungle and were surrounded by thick vegetation that closed in around you hiding the person in front from view. We could have done with a machetti. We battled on for a good couple of hours before stopping at a waterfall for a swim/wash. Jonty enjoyed throwing himself in off the rocks and Lou dangled her feet. Then back to the jungle, this time walking through paddy fields and picking some rice. That night we stayed in a hill tribe village where all of the huts were made from bamboo. We had a great dinner by candlelight and learnt a little about the tribe’s culture. Each hut had its own ‘pet shop’ consisting of dogs, cats, chickens and a pig, not to mention spiders in the toilet. Underneath where we slept was the pig’s sty and he grunted away for most of the night.
We awoke to a panoramic view of jungle and paddy fields, and a breakfast that was even too large for Jonty to finish. Then we were straight back amongst it. Today we crossed numerous streams using log bridges and the first one we came to a snake fell out of the tree. So Lou was on the constant lookout for the rest of the day. We stopped for lunch at a hut at the top of the mountain, the guides started digging and presented us with a meaty cricket which they roasted over the fire and Jonty bravely or stupidly ate. He soon regretted it.
We had a mini adventure swinging on tarzan ropes before arriving at our camp for the night. The site was unbelievable. Surrounded on all sides by mountainous jungle and set next to a waterfall. The good thing about this waterfall was that you could walk right up to the base of it and have a power shower. Lou tried to be like the timotei girl from the advert but the water was too strong. We lit a campfire drank a cold beer and ate some more good food. It was very cold that night, so we ended up wearing most of the clothes we had brought with us. We awoke the following morning to find the hut owner frantically following the snake tracks that had appeared under where we had been sleeping.
Our hiking on the final day was a long uphill, followed by a steep downhill, but a refreshing swim awaited us at the base. Our mini-adventure finished with a float down the river on bamboo. The guide at the front steered us expertly through the little rapids, whilst the rest of us sat and enjoyed the ride. We got the truck back to Chiang Mai and rewarded ourselves with a foot/head massage.
The next day we ventured off to the cooking school and split up. We were apart for a whole hour-an unusual situation for us. Lou went to the local market with the instructor to buy ingredients for the dishes and learnt about the local produce. Jonty stayed at the cooking school and bashed up a green curry paste. We got straight into it, chopping up our ingredients and cooking them in our own woks. We got to eat everything we produced and struggled to finish anything after the first dish. The dishes we cooked were vegetable spring rolls, Thai green chicken curry, chicken with basil leaves, pad thai, green papaya salad and sticky coconut toffee banana. We learnt a lot about preparation and flavours and are really looking forward to using our recipe books when we return home.
We left Chiang Mai on the overnight bus back to Bangkok. Lou had her bag broken into, the thieves had enough time to figure out and undo her combination locks, steal some items and then relock the bags. We were dropped off at 5am in Bangkok and went back to the hostel before realising that anything was wrong. Very frustrating.
We spent a day sightseeing in Bangkok with some friends that we met in South America, it was amusing to have seen them in 2 continents, especially when we have never met them at home and they only live 20 minutes away! We briefly looked at the Royal Palace (which is nothing like the one in Indiana Jones) before we jumped onto a long boat and spent an hour cruising the canals of Bangkok. It was fun.
Next stop Vietnam.
