Fulfilling the Blog title

Our trek was another awesome day of adventure and making new friends. We headed out to the south of Chaing Mai with a company called Eagle House Treks (i highly recommend them, good price too). We were delighted to find that our group consisted of nine of us and we were bound to meet new friends. First stop we picked up two gorgeous, long legged, blond girls. Any guesses? Swedes. They were 18 years old, had just finished high school and set out to SE Asia for six months before going to college. wow. Next up we grabbed three Brits who had just graduated college and were touring SE Asia. Lastly, we picked up a young nurse from Barcelona who was still a little shell shocked by the fact that there were far fewer Spanish travelers in Thailand than she had anticipated.

We began our trek at a small village where we got a chance to witness the Karen people engaging in their own livelihood. We saw one woman weaving a dress for a wedding that will take about a month to finish in total. We saw a few pigs lounging around that are most likely almost dinner and a few kids offering handicrafts and bracelets. While this scene was interesting, it seemed a bit fabricated compared to the type of raw living situations I encountered in the Philippines. Nonetheless their handicrafts and woven scarves were beautiful and Lindsay bought one and we continued on our way.

We began our trek through the hot jungle and our guide (Mano) began to reveal that not only is he a tour guide with an attitude, but also some sort of Botanist. He picked up a leaf, put a little water on it, crushed it in his hand and POOF it turned into a deep red paint. Kor and I did the same and decided to put it on our faces as war paint. My came off that night in the shower- Kor's lasted for three days. Next up we happened upon another tree where Mano pulled off a big leaf with a thicker stem, broke the stem half way and proceeded to blow bubbles with the 'sap' from the stem of the leaf. Awesome! We decided red war paint and bubbles come from the jungles of northern Thailand.

We continued on our trek over a few rivers on "bridges" (wobbly logs help up by old rope) and ended at our next village. At this village Kor proceeded to get whooped by children in checkers and I bought some bracelets, ate lunch and got ready to board the elephants!

The elephant camp we went to was set out in the jungle and we could hear and smell the elephants before we even arrived. We bought bananas and proceed to hop up on our elephants and meet our "drivers." Lindsay and Elsa (Spanish girl) had an 8 year old driving their elephant and Kor and I were with the dad of the eight year old. The elephants had bristly hair and soft trunks that came right up to our hands when they sniffed the bananas. After a few minutes the driver of our elephant dismounted and allowed Kor and I to alternate taking the drivers seat. The elephants ears covered my entire legs with each flap and when it farted it felt like we might be propelled off the backside.

We spent about an hour on the elephants before heading to the river to float down on a bamboo raft. Mano warned us not to bring anything but ourselves as we would surely get wet. Kor brought along our "drybag" we had gotten in the south and packed his camera for some good shots. The bamboo rafts looked like something out of LOST; they were constructed of long shoots of bamboo and tied together with leather at the top and bottom. Our guide stood in the front with along bamboo stick and steered us away from rocks and helped guide us over small rocks and 'rapids.' Lindsay stood in the back and fended off rocks and did some simple steering while Kor and I enjoyed the ride.

About halfway through Lindsay and Kor decide to switch places and Kor stands up to take over the bamboo steering stick. We hit a small rapid and within seconds Kor is off the raft and all I can see if his yellow dry bag bobbing along in the water. Lindsay and I are in hysterics laughing while our boat guide is somewhat concerned that the only Thai guy on the trip just fell off. Kor flounders around in the water while we try to steer backwards and get him. Not possible. He finally swims up to the raft, dazed and confused from his fall, and gets back on while Lindsay and I are now in tears from laughter. He tries the whole steering thing again and brings us safely to the end of the river, soaking wet.

We dried off on the side of the highway and all nine of us from the journey passed out on the drive back to the city. We showered off at our RLD hotel and headed straight into the night market zone for rotee, foot massages and internet cafe. We then ate at a delicious spicy restaurant where I accidentally bit into a whole chili pepper. That was not a happy moment nor was the constant burning feeling in my stomach and abdomen I had for the rest of the night. Whoops! Good thing cooking school was up next...