Jungle muck and leaches

I just got back from a three day trek in the jungles of Northern Thailand. I rode elephants, hiked the jungle, slept on the floor, barreled down a river while standing on floating bamboo, and froze my butt swimming at a waterfall. Good times!

My hostel runs a trek to visit some of the local hill tribes, which consist of tribes originally from Burma, China, and Laos. Lots of places do that here, but I went with this one because they have an exclusive agreement with the tribes and return the majority of the profits to them in order to build water systems, schools, etc. Most other places around here just drive you up to a village and let you stare at the people. The one I went on was led by a member of the tribe and we actually had to hike through the jungle to get to the tribes. We spent two nights with two tribes, visiting their villages, having dinner with them, and just seeing what their life is like.

On the whole, the experience was well worth it. They didn't quite prepare us for what we were in for though. The description mentioned "walking" each day. What they didn't say is that "walking" is actually hiking up and down jungle hillsides on muddy cattle paths barely wider than a foot in some places. Or that some paths had been wiped out due to rain, water buffalo, and elephants. Or that rain brings out the leaches. Yeah, they didn't mention that. Go figure.

The bamboo rafting turned into a crazy whitewater ride, as the river rose quickly and unpredictably just before we were ready to set off. Even our guide was visably concerned, having needed to use other trek participants to just steer the raft through the fast water. (Tel, you were brilliant man!) A few crashes and one quick swim, but everyone made it back on land safely.

We wrapped up with the above mentioned icy plunge. There wasn't a person on the trip that wasn't thrilled to get back to a hot shower last night. I think a good massage is in order as well. Think I'll go visit the Women's Correctional Facility and get one :-) (Note: Not kidding. The women's prison has a massage program. They are all within 6 months of getting out and earn money for once they've been released.)

Getting groped (they were asking for bananas, but they'd eaten them all)

Bed

One of the adorable kids

Women from the village

Drying our muddy, muddy shoes

Making our way

Villagers working in the rice fields

Rafting

Group shot at the waterfall

Awesome view