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| Elephant Riding in the Jungle on a Mountain
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Okay, I'm back in Bangkok and finally Bryan and Amanda had to go back to work so I have some peace and quiet to think and actually write a blog. If my english is a little broken I apologize ahead of time because I'm used to thinking in backward english as I attempt to speak Thai to the people here. After the plane ride to Bangkok and then the subsequent plane to Chiang Mia the adventure began. Wednesday morning we were picked up by a sawntang, "songtaw" which is a pickup truck with benches in the box and it is a taxi. We were going trekking in the jungle on a mountain south west of Chiang Mia near the mountain with the highest elevation in Thailand, Doi Inthanon, which is 2565m I believe. It was very different to see the tops of mountains covered in vegetation because I'm used to seeing the Rockies which are covered in snow, as recently as the Sunday I left because I flew over them. The sawntang dropped us off for lunch, which was probably rice but I forget. Our leader's name was Rambo, and he was as accurate with his slingshot as Rambo from the movies was with his machine gun. We were trekking with a couple from Germany, a guy from England and two from Spain, who pretended they didn't speak English so they could have their little conversations on their own in Spanish, but I knew...I knew. The trek was far from hard but a little bit tougher than easy as we walked on logs over rushing rivers, curb-wide cement blocks where if you lost your balance you were going to be 'that guy' who just fell thirty feet and wished he stayed at home. There were beautiful waterfalls that we swam in, the views of the rice fields with mountains in the background were beautiful, and the temple we visited was wild. We got to the campout around four o'clock. A few of us wandered around to a camp just below the hill we were camping out and found a soccer match on possibly the worst pit- no i can't call it a pitch. a parking lot full of gravel would have been a better pitch, but like many other things out here, you shrug your shoulders and realize your on the other side of the world and somethings are going to be different. After supper my jet lag really kicked in for the first time and put me on my back. We sat around the fire at night with an incredible view of the mountains in the background. The eight of us shared a bungalow to sleep in, each with our individual mosquito net around our bed. On thursday we trekked a lot more I think which was fun and the second waterfall was a lot better than the first. We walked through northern hill tribes which the pictures I'll add will show small bungalows with boars lying underneath, soi (street) dogs everywhere, random chickens walking around, skinny, skinny cows walking aimlessly around and the people, although nice, have a definity chip on their shoulder and you know you're in the north. Next was bamboo rafting, Team Canada and the Englishman. Bryan, Amanda and I, along with Bran the Englishman had a raft with our Thai guide, and we flipped the raft over, our guide lost his steering stick, Amanda screemed for the first fifteen minutes, but it was generally a pretty calm ride. Elephant riding was a fun experience. Bran and I got aboard this huge fella, who we were constantly feeding bananas because we wanted a nice ride. We were again picked up for the ride home by the sawntang or something like that, and took the hour or so ride back to Chaing Mai. We met up with our Thai guide at this place called Utopia for supper and a live band in the evening. Listening to Thai sing Linkin Park and Green Day is quite the experience. I got really sick though and had to head home early. I spent the whole night puking and the next day lying in bed aching. It was the river water from the bamboo raft. Oh well, it was worth it.
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Posted by shrades94 on 2007-10-28 21:21:42 | Rating: | Views: 94
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1. Sounds incredible.
2. Eating rice - always.
3. You feeding the elephants bananas non-stop. Funny!
4. Have an awesome adventure! :)
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Posted by Rachelle
on 2007-11-03 20:22:49
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I LOVED Thailand when I went there last year. Our catch cry from that holiday was "Same same but different!" (I'm sure you would have heard this by now, lol) The elephants were my favourite part- I even got a tattoo of an elephant's head in the colours of the Thai flag to commemorate my stay there. Enjoy the rest of your trip.
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Posted by kaos264
on 2007-11-19 05:10:26
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