Into the jungle

We took a two day hike into the jungle of Northern Thailand (2 hours north of Chiang Mai and approximately 2 hours southeast of Burma). The first day involved a 3 hour continuous ascent- it was like walking up Mt Bonnell for 3 hours in 90 degrees through mud, rocks, grass and elephant poo. (our guide gave brief tutorial on elephant poo. I can now tell you what an elephant ate and it's approximate age based on the poo. I can't wait to share at a cocktail party!) Elephant tracks served as stairs for much of the hike. We passed through an elephant training camp and saws couple elephants being ridden and a couple lazy ones sleeping in the shade.

At some point during the hike, I brushed up against something to which I was allergic. I had an itchy blotch on my arm three quarters of the way through. The guide gave me this mysterious balm to put on it that worked likes charm. But by the end of the hike, I was covered in hives and wanted to crawl out of my skin! When we arrived at the village where we were stating, I jumped into the "shower" to wash off what I was covered in. The "shower" was essentially a hose with a spray nozzle in a small metal stall about 3 ft by 3 ft with a toilette in the middle. The water was ICE cold (from natural springs on the mountain). It was rustic and minimalist but worked!

The hike ended at a Lahu village where we spent the night in a bamboo hut (and, yes I mean hut - no electricity, no hot water and dubious plumbing). The hut was raised about 4ft off the ground so that you weren't on the earth. But, animals, including chickens, cats and dogs passed underneath. There were many weird noises underneath us during the night including fierce cat fight. Although our accommodations were Spartan, the view was spectacular!

I spent the remainder of the afternoon learning how to use a slingshot. Several hours later, I was a decent shot (I could injure someone in a crowd, but am not good enough to hunt dinner with it)

We cooked dinner over a wood fire on the floor of the hut. Admittedly, I was skeptical of the sanitary conditions in which the food was prepared. Dinner consisted of sweet and sour chicken, mushrooms with tofu, grilled whole fish, and rice. It was surprisingly tasty and we didn't get sick.

Our guide attempted to serenade us on the guitar with pink flloyd and bob Dylan classics. While his guitar skills were good, he didn't know the lyrics that well...
Due to the lack if electricity, we went to bed shortly after sunset. I was exhausted and slept fairly well. I woke up a couple times due to the animal skirmishes below the hut. I felt the need to wake SHelly from a dead sleep a couple times when I was scared. He told me he wasn't going under to look and promptly fell back asleep.

We awoke the next morning to a rooster crowing underneath the hut. It was quite the wale up call. Since it was a bit chilly at the top of the mountain, I opted not to take a morning ice shower.

Breakfast consisted of tea, pancakes (made of a mystery grain - maybe corn meal), pineapple, and bananas. It was the best pineapple ever. I ate almost the whole thing (I let shelly have two small pieces).

We hiked down the mountain (a very steep descent) to a waterfall, where took a very chilly "shower". To get to the waterfall, I had to climb over wet rocks. I *almost* took a bad fall, but just went a bit further into the water than I had intended.
We then hiked along the river for another hour before going rafting for an hour. We were supposed to raft further, but due to the height of the river it was considered unsafe ( two weeks ago another tourist fell out of the raft upriver and broke his leg in several places).

Needless to say, it was quite the adventure and I had no idea what I had signed up for. I would definitely do it again!