Day 26...Chiang Mai

Sawadeeka,

So after the most hectic day yesterday all we wanted to do was rest, but that was certainly the last thing that happened.

Since my new title of Miss International flower bloom required duties beyond taking part in the pageant, I had to get up at 4am to get my hair and make-up done to greet the governors at the grand parade this morning. Dom unsurprisingly didn't go to this parade as I think he couldn't face the possibility of a repeat of yesterdays events. The parade was really fantastic with music, dancing, flowers, floats, colour etc. The last two days I have had my picture taken so many times you wouldn't believe. This morning was just extreme though, literally hundreds of people all at once wanting a photo!! It was definately my 15 minutes of fame!!

At 8.30 I had to come back down to earth and get back to the guesthouse quick as the two of us were heading off on a two day trek. I hopped in a tuk-tuk and like lightening in slow motion got back.

Chiang Mai is renowned for its trekking - apparently among the best trekking in Thailand. Even when we were in Bangkok, one of the travel agents we were talking too told us not to trek in Bangkok as you never get as much for your money and its just not half as good and to wait for Chiang Mai to do it. So we were really looking forward to this.

The truck picked us up at 9am. There was already two people in the truck suffice to say who thought I was a freak dressing up for trekking (I had changed into jeans and T-shirt but the hair and make-up was still on). We picked up another 4 people at different guesthouses to make a total of eight of us heading to the depths of the jungle. It must have taken a couple of hours to finally reach a small village where we had a traditional Thai rice lunch cooked for us. Following a break to let the food settle we began what turned out to be a 3 hour walk through the jungle in the blistering heat. We spent the first hour going up - that was hard work, plateaued for a bit before becoming really steep downwards. Along the way was fantastic as our guide kept picking out lots of plants which are used as spices in cooking, we were able to taste them and everything.

There was only one path so it was impossible to get lost, so when I say Dom and I got separated from the group it means that there was a large distance between the people in front of us and behind us - not to worry. We were on our own as some oldies(!) had fallen behind and the athletic ones were way out in front when we saw a village to which we presumed was our destination, however on approach to the village we heard a couple of gunshots - aaahhhh!! It then comes as no surprise that we didn't enter the village alone, we waited for the laggers hoping they woud be shot first! (It turns out that 'the men' were out hunting).

Walking through this village was like stepping back in time. The huts were made of bamboo and were all on stilts, there were children running around picking things up off the ground, eating them, dropping them, the picking them up and eating them again, there were piles of wood for burning and piles of bamboo scattered around the place, there was also animals everywhere; chickens & dogs especially.

Once we were in the village we were free to walk around and explore. Dom and I walked down to the river where 'the men' were building bamboo rafts. Everytime they get tourists into their village who are bamboo rafting back to the other village (the one we had spent the day walking from) they have to build new rafts. This is because this tribe live upstream and the village can only be reached by walking meaning they woud have to carry the rafts back to their village each time. So instead, they continously build new rafts. The village downstream then breaks down the rafts after use and uses the bamboo for their own needs. We were to do the bamboo rafting tomorrow so they were working quickly. We walked up the river a little bit when we realised that we had stepped in a footprint much larger than ours - elephants! Wanting to explore but not get trampled at the same time we didn't go too much further upstream but enough to get the picture that the jungle is a very beautiful but scary place.

Eventually we headed back up to the village there were half a dozen teeangers from the village playing a game which is like volley-ball but with your feet. They have to do the keepie-uppies (that footballers do) over a net in the middle, obviously if a side dropped the ball, the other side would score a point. The main difference was the ball, it was about the size of a coconut but made from weaved bamboo! After a few minutes of us watching they invited us to play. I declined sparing myself from humiliation but Dom joined in. Being the footballer he is he fitted right into the game and did really well, he was doing over-head kicks, backward kicks, and fancy twists and turns with the ball - they knew he must have played at home coz he was a bit too much of a natural at the game!! He ended up playing for about 45 minutes with them until it got dark.

The food that night was good - traditional, but I think they had spiced it down a bit for the tourists which was a bit of a shame, nevertheless it was still lovely. As there was no electricity, we spent the evening sat around the fire with the villagers playing games with matches (sounds worse than it is), telling jokes, stories and singing (as one of the guys had a guitar) until late.

There was one large room which had about 20 thin mattresses laid out on the floor with mossie nets over them - this to be where we all slept for the night. Whilst this was great to do and an experience in itself, i was glad it was only for one night, it may be ungrateful/selfish/snobby etc but I would not be able to live without the luxuries (or what I view as necessities) of home; electricity, toilet, windows, road access etc. I wonder if these tribes started living with modern luxuries would they still prefer their traditional living methods?

Anyway, a fantastically tiring day...well deserving of a good nights rest...

Team Domro