Nine of us, including Scott and I, jumped onto the back of our tour truck and headed for the Tourist Authority to check our paperwork and our passports. Then we stopped at a small market to pick up any supplies that we didn't have with us. I bought a sorang for bathing and Scott bought a water and flashlight. Finally we were on our way to the waterfall. After just a short hike we took a quick dip in the freezing water under the falls. As we traveled further into the hills we stopped at a street side cafe to have fried rice with fresh Thai basil. This was the best fried rice I have ever tasted! After a bit more travel the truck dropped us all off near a hot spring to start off our hike. The first leg of the hike was about 2 hours to a small Karen village of about 10 houses. We rested there then continued on for another hour to the village we would be spending the night in. The house we were staying in was quite large with one large sleeping room, a small kitchen (a small room with an open fire for cooking), a dining area, and a small room for the caretaker. As many of the houses in the villages, ours was raised up on stilts and open air. As custom we were required to take off our shoes before entering. We also realized that the village had only two outhouses with bucket flush "toilets" and bucket baths.
Montri took us on a walk through the village, 20 homes in total. The residents grew rice and cattle for a living. Montri told us that many of the children grow up and move to Chiang Mai for work. They bring back clothes, food, and sometimes motorcycles back to the village. I could not believe the small dirk roads that these motorcycles would have to use to get back to the city. Montri also told us that the Thai government has a program to subsidize solar panels for electricity in some of the houses (ours not being one of them).
For dinner Montri and the other guides cooked chicken curry with fresh basil, pork with vegetables, and rice. Over a wonderful dinner I learned that we were traveling with three people from Switzerland, three Americans returning from the Peace Corp in Ghana. I decided to try out the bucket bath to wash up. The water was absolutely freezing, but at least I was relatively clean. I was totally exhausted after dinner and after chatting a bit with the other guests the mosquito's started to come out, so I went to bed.
Day two of our trek we rose with the sun. For breakfast the guides prepared "omelette's" Thai style and toast. The rain was slowing from the night as we started our one hour hike to the elephant village. The jungle was beautiful in the mist, however it was very slippery and I was defiantly wearing the wrong type of shoes. Tri made us all walking sticks out the bamboo to help us get to the village.
After waiting a while for the elephants we got a hour tour through the river. Scott even got to ride on the elephants neck. I was starving when we reached the next village, but we still needed to travel further down the river on bamboo rafts before lunch. Our guides made two bamboo rafts. A couple us had to sit down in the front of the raft, including me, and we were soaked by the end of the journey. After rafting we had pad thai for lunch and met our truck driver to take us back to the Eagle House. I was so glad that we had reserved one extra night at the hostel because I was totally exhausted when we got back to Chiang Mai.
We all piled into the the back of the truck
Inside the market
Hiking through the jungle
Dinner cooked by our guides
Chicken in our house
Our accomodations
Small Village
Riding elephant through the river
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