Welcome to the Jungle
Trip Start
Mar 14, 2006
1
170
374
Trip End
Mar 15, 2007
Where I stayed
North of Chiang Mai, Thailand
Thursday, August 31, 2006
After a few hours drive north of Chiang Mai we arrived at the start of the trek where we filled up on lunch first under a bamboo covered shelter with enough insect repellent being sprayed around to floor an elephant.
Undecidedly we all put on our ponchos and rain jackets with a slight doze of rain starting to come down with us lasting maybe 5 minutes before they all came back off again as soon as we reached the top of the first slope.
The trek to the village we would spend the night at saw as cross a river were following at least 20 times with a couple of the group involuntarily deciding that falling in and wading though was the easier approach.
The mainly uphill slog revealed some great jungle scenery or at least it did whenever you looked up with the problem of trekking seeing you stare at the square foot of ground immediately in front of you for most of the time.
Our guide who was a top character, and who also seemed to know every Bob Marley song, stopped off along the way a few times to stock up for dinner by collecting caterpillar like worms from the Bamboo proclaiming them to be just like French fries - hmmm.
Once at the village the view from the top of the hill gave an amazing vista down the valley to the river below with low cloud partially obscuring the view but adding to remote atmosphere of the place even with the ice cold Beer Chang conveniently on hand.
The 'Bamboo Hotel' were we would all be staying the night was a simple big hut with enough mats and blankets for us all although we did seem to be kept apart from the rest of the village although two little girls were more than happy to play with us wanting me to swing them by their arms which tired a lot slower than mine did.
Dinner saw the Bamboo worms being produced lightly fried with enough salt to make me agree that they did indeed taste like fries and certainly made the game of cards later on more interesting with a loser takes a spoonful rule.
The evening saw us being entertained by 2 of the younger guides who could knock out a few great tunes on the their guitar while we sat around the fire talking and playing cards in the candlelight before the appearance of the more 'special' hill tribe past time.
