Thailand 2017

Ok, we are back from the jungle "TREKKING". Here is the story.

At 6.00 am exactely we left with our ride, a ISUZU jeep, in which we had to climb in the pickup back area, with small and very uncomfortable benches which we had to share with 5 other persons and luggage for 3 hours to the mountains near the border of Myanmar.

First stop was to visit an Elephant park, to feed and wash the Elephants in the river. The park was not what we expected, as the Elephants were not free to go where they pleased and it became clear that when they had to go into the water for the bath, they did not want to and they were forced because the group was there to give them a bath. They also had to do some tricks, which is not something they should do in a good retirement place.

After this we went on for more driving and we stopped in a small village of illegale but tolerated refugees from Myanmar all working hard for living. The strange thing is that they all had a big Isuzu in the wooden carport which was almost bigger than the house they lived in.

Finally after some more driving we arrived at the beginning of the track that would lead us to the village where we would spend the night.

The track was really difficult, we were sliding on steep slopes with dry leaves and hard round lemonlike fruits rolling under our feet, all of us were falling several times, we had to cross the river, so wet shoes and feet and had to climb very high hills.

So everybody was dirty, falling, stumbling, grabbing thorny trees and bushes, cutting our hands and scratching our legs, until finally on the highest hill we had lunch.

We still had several hours to go!!!

After lunch all of us slided down a hill and one of the girls hurt her ankle and had to use a stick to walk on. We still had a long way to go. 

After 6 hours trekking we finally arrived at a farm, there was no electricity and no running water, only a fire place and 2 very old people, at least that's what we thought, Maggy became friends of course with the lady and understood that she was only 40. As you can see on the picture, this place does not make you any younger.

The dinner was cooked by our guide on the fire stove and was good to have. Some of the group went back to the forest to spot some animals, but we safely stayed at the fire place. They did not spot anything, so no regrets.

We decided to go to our humble sleeping place, which was nothing more than a very thin plaid, and some blankets on the floor. We were happy to have mosquitonets and a place to rest.

We were so tired, we slept until dawn.

In the morning we roasted some bread on the fire and our guide made some scrambled eggs for us. Together with coffee it was a good breakfast.

The group consisted of mainly persons that booked the 2 days trekking and only 3 persons and ourselves had booked the 3 days trekking. Because of the difficultylevel and the dangers of falling we decided to join the 2 days group and return to Chiang Mai 1 day earlier.

The second day, was much easier, we did some bamboorafting and walked to a waterfall in which we did some swimming.

Then 3 hours back into this horrible jeep, and we were back in Chiang Mai yesterdayevening.

Lucky for us, there was still one room available in our hotel, so we enjoyed last night in a cosy bed.

Our muscles are still hurting, but we survived and accept that trekking in the jungle in Thailand is not easy at all.