Chiang Mai & the Trek part 2
After an awesome breakfast and trying to feed Melon to the most stupid dog we headed for our morning shower at the local waterfall. This was great as ever...tho a little reminiscent of photoshoots in some male-orientated magazines! Spent the day after walking through jungle, mountains and rice paddies which would suddenly appear on the hillside. After Suzie's wee shoe problems yesterday she was wearing Chews shoes I was giving her a hand down some of the more slippery slopes!
Awesome huge lunch which gave me time to pimp my waterbottle in Bananaman! Stand-by for a photo once I find somewhere with a connection which can actually upload pics! I took the 2 hour long option on the walk later where we got to hike up and down some jungle mountainsides full of crazy Spiders with all kinds of armour on them...and some others which were just plain huge!
Martin, Seb, Andy Stuart and I decided it was necessary to go climbing up the waterfall to find some slides. Was a bit more difficult getting back down tho with the force of the water and the jump needed at the end to clear the rocks jutting out! That night we adapted our games in true student fashion into you could either have black or drink. Mostly we were drinking Sam Sung and coke which apparently has some hallicinogenic properties. OK this time though! Sent Chew out for the guitar later in the night but he dissappeared and didn't return so went on a night trek up the jungle path to the other camp where we were greeted by hog roast and brilliant tunes - courtesy of our brilliant singing!! Apparently I specifically made quiet a lot of noise on my way back...sorry guys!
Final day of the trek was basically loads of hiking which was great...and then the torrential rain hit - it is monsoon season afterall! I hid under a tree to put my camera in a waterproof part of my bag...when I turned back the path had turned into a torrent of blood-red water! Bit of an ill-omen but made it safely down the mountain to play in yet another waterfall at the bottom! This time us boys decided it was all about the conga-slide...almost crushing that which lies between Seb's legs into a rock at the bottom!
The afternoon was rafting time! Mainly this mean splashing all the other rafts by smashing your punting stick into the water next to them, making jungle-style war cries (I'm very at home with this now after the whole Jungle Social thing!) and trying to stay standing on the bamboo! Suzie, me and Ann had a complete nutter for a helmsman who steered the boat by thrusting his stick deep into the water and lying pretty much horizontal whilst kicking the boat away with his feet, thenhopping back on board! Awesome! AS nutters do he decided that it'd be a great idea to take us down a waterfall which everyone else stopped before! Absolutely brilliant tho there was no point trying to stand up for this bit! Busy revelling in his glory afterwards he turned back to find we were inches from smashing into a rock...launched his punt into the water and tried to steer. Managed to clear the rock but the punt ended up almost underneath the raft and in far too hard. Next thing, after he got back to his feet, he sprinted down the length of the raft (about 10 metres) and dived off the back of it after his punt which was well upstream (very fast water).
With Ann screaming useful directions (like exactly where next to the bank I should position a raft which is blatantly not that easy to control) my jungle-skills leaned at primate school allowed me to stop the raft to wait for our mentallist guide! See no need for all the screaming and worrying girls!
That night we hit the Sam-Song buckets on a post-trek we-survived-it-without-injury celebration. Unfortunately this was a bit premature...it seems more than a single bucket of Sam Sung, Red Bull and whatever else goes in there is lethal. I remember up to the second (shared between Martin and I) and dancing loads, but apparently sometime after that I was escourted back in a Tuk Tuk and there are photos of the girls looking after me at all of about 12.30! Scary. But then again there's nothing to prove the photos are real... I was also looked after by Thorsten, a German doctor on our trek...who seemed to be very involved in taking photos all the way back. Now where does the feature in his hypocratic oath?!
Unsurprisingly the day after not a lot happened. Woke up still feeling crap then headed for the internet cafe then the station and supper for 30 Baht of Pad Thai Gai (finally I can say something in Thai) and then another overnight train.
Awesome huge lunch which gave me time to pimp my waterbottle in Bananaman! Stand-by for a photo once I find somewhere with a connection which can actually upload pics! I took the 2 hour long option on the walk later where we got to hike up and down some jungle mountainsides full of crazy Spiders with all kinds of armour on them...and some others which were just plain huge!
Martin, Seb, Andy Stuart and I decided it was necessary to go climbing up the waterfall to find some slides. Was a bit more difficult getting back down tho with the force of the water and the jump needed at the end to clear the rocks jutting out! That night we adapted our games in true student fashion into you could either have black or drink. Mostly we were drinking Sam Sung and coke which apparently has some hallicinogenic properties. OK this time though! Sent Chew out for the guitar later in the night but he dissappeared and didn't return so went on a night trek up the jungle path to the other camp where we were greeted by hog roast and brilliant tunes - courtesy of our brilliant singing!! Apparently I specifically made quiet a lot of noise on my way back...sorry guys!
Final day of the trek was basically loads of hiking which was great...and then the torrential rain hit - it is monsoon season afterall! I hid under a tree to put my camera in a waterproof part of my bag...when I turned back the path had turned into a torrent of blood-red water! Bit of an ill-omen but made it safely down the mountain to play in yet another waterfall at the bottom! This time us boys decided it was all about the conga-slide...almost crushing that which lies between Seb's legs into a rock at the bottom!
The afternoon was rafting time! Mainly this mean splashing all the other rafts by smashing your punting stick into the water next to them, making jungle-style war cries (I'm very at home with this now after the whole Jungle Social thing!) and trying to stay standing on the bamboo! Suzie, me and Ann had a complete nutter for a helmsman who steered the boat by thrusting his stick deep into the water and lying pretty much horizontal whilst kicking the boat away with his feet, thenhopping back on board! Awesome! AS nutters do he decided that it'd be a great idea to take us down a waterfall which everyone else stopped before! Absolutely brilliant tho there was no point trying to stand up for this bit! Busy revelling in his glory afterwards he turned back to find we were inches from smashing into a rock...launched his punt into the water and tried to steer. Managed to clear the rock but the punt ended up almost underneath the raft and in far too hard. Next thing, after he got back to his feet, he sprinted down the length of the raft (about 10 metres) and dived off the back of it after his punt which was well upstream (very fast water).
With Ann screaming useful directions (like exactly where next to the bank I should position a raft which is blatantly not that easy to control) my jungle-skills leaned at primate school allowed me to stop the raft to wait for our mentallist guide! See no need for all the screaming and worrying girls!
That night we hit the Sam-Song buckets on a post-trek we-survived-it-without-injury celebration. Unfortunately this was a bit premature...it seems more than a single bucket of Sam Sung, Red Bull and whatever else goes in there is lethal. I remember up to the second (shared between Martin and I) and dancing loads, but apparently sometime after that I was escourted back in a Tuk Tuk and there are photos of the girls looking after me at all of about 12.30! Scary. But then again there's nothing to prove the photos are real... I was also looked after by Thorsten, a German doctor on our trek...who seemed to be very involved in taking photos all the way back. Now where does the feature in his hypocratic oath?!
Unsurprisingly the day after not a lot happened. Woke up still feeling crap then headed for the internet cafe then the station and supper for 30 Baht of Pad Thai Gai (finally I can say something in Thai) and then another overnight train.
posted by Ian Matthias at
8/30/2006 05:43:00 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home