Chiang Mai Part One

What a weekend! We arrived in Chiang Mai on Thursday, a little after 9.30 a.m. The night train was great fun (just like caravanning on rails) and I actually had my best night's sleep so far. The Rough Guide was 100% accurate when it warned about the crazy tuk-tuk drivers and touts at the train station - it was like the paparazzi had descended on us! Anyway, we managed to negotiate a minivan to take us to Julie's Guesthouse (as long as we agreed to view another one first!)

Julie's is great, we arrived and there were vacancies for us (that's me, Katie, Fiona and Brendan from Australia who we met on the train.) Sitting in the chilled-out lounge area waiting for our rooms, we also met Rianne from the Netherlands, who I ended up sharing a twin room with.

It was soon time to organise our activities, and we were quickly booked onto a 3-day trek for the next day. That evening, the gang headed off to a Muay Thai match - I decided to stay "home" and repack - some stuff went in the bin and some is still waiting to be posted home soon! Still... too... heavy...

Friday was trek day, and off we set in the morning, after Fiona had to be whisked off by moped to a photo printers, to retake her Vietnam visa passport snaps - Vietnam immigration won't grant a visa to an applicant wearing a boob tube in the picture!!! And then there were 12: me, Katie, Fiona, Rianne, Daniel (Italy), Manuel & Sandro (Germany), Tuomas (Finland), Adam (U.S.A.), Narani and another couple whose names I didn't catch (Netherlands).

First stop was a market to stock up on food for the weekend, where I discovered that my bag (on the floor of the van) was now soaked in fish "juice" - not sure exactly what it was, pooling about under the seat, but I still stink of Grimsby docks!

Then we had about 40 minutes riding elephants through the jungle, after which the baby one decided it would pick up my leg with its trunk and head-butt me into the mud! Then it began - the "2 hour" (read 3 hour) trek up to the mountain tops to camp. I nearly died! It was incredibly steep and I really found it hard on the old thighs. Just as I felt things couldn't get any worse, the heavens opened and I experienced my first monsoon rain, so now I had gravity and slippery mud to contend with!

Just before the "attack"

Eventually we arrived, completely soaked to the skin and all our clothes were promptly hung out over the camp fire to dry. After a good meal, campfire songs and mind-bending riddle stories, it was time for our first night in a bamboo hut.
Luckily, day 2 was much more leisurely (relatively speaking) although without the kind assistance of Daniel and Tuomas, it would have taken me a good few hours longer than everyone else to make my way down the hill to swim in the waterfalls. By mid-afternoon, we were at our next camp, this time not at the top of the mountain, but by a roaring stream...