Day 16 & 17 - Trekking

Since we went to class 6 out of the 7 days last week they gave us a 3 day weekend so my friends Julia and Ben Francavilla and Matt signed up to do a two day trek into the national parks close to the Burma boarder.

DAY 1: On Friday morning our guide picked us up at the resort at 8:30 a.m. for our trek. We met another guy from Ireland downtown (it was a great, small group to travel with) and off we went in our Song Tauw (which was an adventure in itself on the roads of Thailand) about an hour North of Chiang Mai to a market where the guide purchased food for the next 4 meals. It was nice to get out of the city to see some of the countryside and smaller villages. Then we headed into the northern part of Doi Suthep National Park where we hiked to Mork Fa Waterfall (pic 1). This waterfall was twice the size of the falls we saw last weekend. From there we headed further North through the foothills and mountains of Doi Huay Nam Dang National park to a hot springs (yes a very "hot" spring) where we ate lunch and soaked in the warm pools of water (pic 2). It was actually very enjoyable, because Friday was not as hot outside (low 80's). After our skin was red and our hands pruned we got our gear ready for the 3 hour trek into the mountains. About a half a mile into the trek was the Pong Dueat Geyser that reminded me of something you would see in Yellowstone (pic 3 didn't think I would see one of them in Thailand!!) The trek continued up and down two parts of the mountain range before we finally arrived in a Karenon village (descendants of the native hill tribes) about 5ish to spend the night in a hut. (pic 4 and 5).

Day 2: The group left the village by 8:30 on Saturday morning and hiked for an hour before we found the river where our elephant trekking began. Here three of us rode on one elephant (no seat belts included) through the river and along the banks for about an hour and half (pic 6). (YAY! I got to ride an elephant!!)

After that we got on a bamboo raft, that our porter had constructed that morning, with all our gear and continued down the river (pic 7). (NOTE: Bamboo rafting is about 15 pieces of long, fresh bamboo pieces tied together that the whole group stands on down the river. The porter and guide use Bamboo sticks as oars and when you go through the rapids the group balances the weight of the raft with their feet. However, through the bigger rapids the guide will yell for everyone to get down and everyone just holds on for dear life.) There were 5 other groups bamboo rafting with us that morning and we were the only raft that didn't tip through the rapids. We came very, very close because at one point we were all leaning with half our bodies and gear soaked in the river but luckily we managed to save the raft. After our 2 hour rafting adventure we stopped for lunch and headed back down to Chiang Mai (pic 8 workers in the rice fields on the way home). We had a blast on our trek!

*** See more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/jglesne/2DayTrekInDoiHuayNamDang?authkey=yVNlHWGH_UQ#

****There are many trekking companies in the Chiang Mai area who offer these package deals, so it was hard to know what company to go with. However, Matt had read about the Eagle's Nest in one of his guide books and we were thoroughly impressed with the company that was run by an Irish woman and her Thai husband. We were able to meet our guide the day before we left and felt very comfortable with what they were providing us. The trek included our guide Doh, our porter Song, food, accommodation, pickup/drop off at hotel, and two amazing days. I would recommend this company to anyway traveling in the area. That's my promotion for the week :)