The one where we are all pooped..

Yesterday afternoon we finished a 2 day trek in the hills outside Chiang Mai. Today we are very sore and sorry for ourselves! It's midday and all we've done thus far today is eat and sleep. Well, I've eaten but not slept. But I'm getting used to that now, I don't think I've slept properly in almost a month! Too much excitement and rock hard beds for me. I'm hanging out for my lovely pillow top mattress at home (spoilt).

So a recap of the trek:

It started out with half hour ride in the back of a tuk tuk/ truck. They are called Songthaews and are basically a ute converted to have bench seats in the back, with a roof over the top. After 30 mins we stopped at a market for a brief wander around, while the guide purchased lunch materials for the trek. Market was stinky and very uninteresting after being to many markets over the last few weeks. Avalon complained the smell was stinky in her nose, so we waited outside! Back in the truck for another 30mins to an Orchid and Butterfly farm where we dropped everyone else off and continued on to the long-neck Karen tribe 'village', which we paid extra to see. It was a total tourist trap and not really a village at all, just a collection of souvenir huts that Karen tribe women come to stay at during the day so that tourists can gawk and buy their handi crafts. It was really a rip off, but I'm glad we went because it was very interesting to talk to some of the older women about the traditions and apparently it is a dying tradition because more and more of the younger generation are choosing not to wear the bands because they don't want to (and aren't forced to) and also because they are expensive for families.

 

 

 

Back in the truck to the orchid farm (there were very few butterflies) for a quick look around. Nothing too exciting here, some pretty orchids and cute ducklings wandering around!

 

 

 

Back in the truck once more for another 30 mins drive to the base camp for the trek. Fried rice lunch was waiting for us, plus a cool looking bowl of soup that the lovely Thai ladies made especially for Avalon, complete with a piece of sausage? shaped like a bear face?



 and no, she didn't eat it, but did keep telling the Thai ladies that the bear was very cutie! She did eat a whole plate of fried rice though!

 

After lunch, the trek began and around 20 of us set off the Black Lahu hill tribe we were to spend the night with. After about 20 mins, I got a rather unfortunate case of Bali Belly/ Thai Tummy?? and got to reach an all-time travelling low: diarrhoea in the jungle while the rest of the trekking party had to wait. Needless to say, I did NOT make eye contact with any of my trekking mates when I rejoined the party. It actually topped that time in Ethiopia when Sol and I made the 2 day bus trip to Lalibela and we stopped once after 6 hours for a toilet break.. along a dry dusty road with no toilets in sight, just half a dozen tiny bare shrubs that offered no leafy protection from the rest of the bus travellers. That was the time I learned never to wear trousers on such a trip because squatting to pee with a skirt on like the locals is much more discreet than mooning the bus with your bare white bum because you have to pull your trousers down. Lesson learned. Anyway, it provided the locals with a good laugh!

 

Toilet issues aside, it was a hard trek. Once I got sick, I passed Avalon over to Sol and he carried her the rest of the way up the mountain. I carried our backpack most of the way, which was almost as heavy! Our kind guide took pity in the steepest parts and carried my bag though, which I was soo grateful for because the hills were VERY steep! By the time we reached the top, you could tell which ones were the smokers, as they started to drop like flies, the higher we got and were pooped once we reached the top! We were all pretty relieved to finally reach the Black Lahu tribe village at the top. We didn't see too many villagers, as we had our own long-house style dormitory with mattresses under mosquito nets. We had dinner at the long house, followed by music and games, which degenerated into drinking and loud chatting. Avalon and I went to bed early and Avalon has become such a flexible sleeper that she fell asleep fairly quickly despite all the noise.

 

piggies in the village

on the deck of the long house

precarious pussy cat!

hanging out, listening to one of the guides playing guitar and drinking local whiskey

 



Avalon's Lahu friend.

 

 

Next morning we woke to the sound of chickens underneath the long-house. After a quick breakfast, Avalon got to partake in her fave new pastime: chasing chickens and roaring at them! Shortly after that, we started the long descend.

 

 

After about 2 hours of pretty steep descent (fortunately down a different route to the one we took to reach the village, because I don't think I could have climbed back down that way, it was so steep in parts!), we reached a nice waterfall for a rest and swim. After that it was cross country for another hour. We passed a couple of small swellings along the way, one of which had a tiny baby monkey as a pet, which I got to cuddle. It was so cute! It's mother was shot by villagers, and the owner rescued it's baby.

 

Avalon was pretty thrilled to pat the monkey baby! Actually, if it wasn't for Avalon's amazing eyesight, we wouldn't have stopped to see the monkey. As we walked past, she started yelling out that there was a monkey and we all thought she was being silly because all we could see was what looked like 2 dogs playing underneath a table. But it turned out she was right! It was a small dog playing with the monkey baby.

 

Not long after, we reached the road where our truck was waiting for us and from there, drove to the elephant camp where we had lunch waiting for us: Pad Thai and fresh fruit. After lunch we went on an hour long elephant trek. Avalon actually almost fell asleep on the elephant! It started raining though and woke her up. It was the only time it rained during the 2 days, so we were incredibly lucky, considering it is the rainy season! It would have been super tough to climb up and down the mountain in the rain. It was wet and muddy enough in parts! After the elephant ride, we put our swimmers, life jackets and helmets on and went white water rafting. I had checked beforehand and knew that the water levels were pretty low, so the rapids were tame enough that it would be safe for Avalon. As an added precaution, we had 2 guides in our boat, plus Sol paddling and Avalon and I sitting safely in the middle of the boat. We did tell them in advance that Sol can't swim, but I think it got lost in translation, because when we mentioned again halfway down the rapids that he couldn't swim, the guide said "What?! Oh my Buddha!" haha. Never mind, Sol absolutely loved the rafting! He did so well, considering he has never paddled a canoe or boat in his life and had to respond quickly to English commands. He got mixed up a few times and jumped to the other side of the boat when he was meant to be paddling forward etc which made for quite a few laughs! We were the last of our group of boats to leave, but arrived first at the landing, overtaking all the other boats who got stuck on the rocks. We had an awesome team! Avalonny loved the rafting. She especially loved (as did I), when we passed a mahout elephant training camp where there were 2 mother and baby elephants being washed in the river and we had to go around them. The baby elephants were sooo cute!! It was a shame we couldn't take our camera with us.

After the white water rafting, we switched to Thai style bamboo rafting for the rest of the journey down the river to the landing where our truck met us, ready for the 1.5 hour journey back to Chiang Mai. It was a very busy 2 days and we are well and truly pooped, but we are so glad we decided to do the trek! It was a pretty well trodden tourist route, which I'm not a big fan of, but it was still good fun despite that. It was fun to meet the other people on our trek (Avalon made friends with an older British lady who took her under her wing and drew pictures with her, gave her lots of cuddles etc) and it was nice to get that sense of achievement after climbing up and down what felt like Everest. It was also nice to feel a sense of achievement from managing to do all of the above with a 2 year old! It's no mean feat to carry an active toddler on your back up a mountain for 3 hours.. she was very patient but sick of being carried at times. Plus preventing her from walking off steep cliffs, falling off elephant etc. I would def. do it again though.. she got a lot out of it, as did we!