Lady Boy Water Buffalo and Trekking

The ride from seim reip back to thailand was not so bad as the way in. I still swear they took us on another road. We arrived on the other side all dusty and reddish from all the dust blowing into the bus.

If you see an ad for an air con bus ride in cambodia, let me tell you it is fake. There are no air con buses in cambodia. They sell you and air con bus ticket, then tell you the air con is broken, open all the windows and then say " air con!" as they laugh to them selves.

I was not laughing, my hair and my lungs were ashy red from a layer of dust. Getting into Thailand was so good, the roads, the service, the buses. everything screams 1st class after you come out of cambodia. we got dropped of on the famous Khao san for like the 10th time now... and we made our way back to Sawasdee house, for like the 10th time now...???
i lost count. We di how ever meet to nice nihingos (Taike and Sho) they are "little bit famous" comedians from Tokyo. Sho has been on tv in osaka, so maybe we might have seen him. Then he could live up to his "little bit famous" title.

we invited them to the sawasdee house with us, and then we all walked the streets around our guest house. We chilled in Bangkok for a few days, spending our days at the internet, relaxing, eating street meat and pad thai. On the wednesday (i think) we booked a 3 day 2 night jungle trek up in the north of thailand. While we were waiting in the lobby we met Jess (from Tacoma), and the 2 Hollands (Sabina and Marilese) we all became fast friends and embarked on the 12hr bus ride to chaing mai.

We got to chaing mai at about 6 am, and i dont think any one was fully awak because some idiots kept talking/screaming on the bus all night. They loaded our packs onto the top of a truck, then put 13 ofus in a Sangthew ( a truck back with 2 benches in it) and drove us to some random guest house. Usually his type of situation has scam written all over it, but we've been very lucky. The guest house was very nice and not a rip off. we were alowed to go and shower and rest, and be ready at 930 am for our trek to begin.

On our trek we had a fun mix of people. I really think we were lucky to all be placed in the same group because we were all basically the same age and really cool.
Our group consisted of
Jan, shiv, Matthew (california), Marilou (Cali), Matthew (NZ), 3 Danes (Morten, Morten, Kasper (denmark), 2 Hollands (sabina and marilese), 2 koreas (Can't remeber their names), aviel (Isreal) Jess (Usa)

we started our day at a small camp lodge on a mountain where we had a lunch of fried rice and fruit, then we got set on walking up a mountain in the jungle. Our end point for the day would be a hill tribe village at the top. On the way to the village we stopped at a water fall. The hike was hard, but not too painful.

At the village we stayed in a wood hut, with 13 mats and blankets in it. it was really rustic, and we were able to walk around the village and see people doing their daily bit. It was really nice. Northern thailand gets SOOOO cold at night, so bring a fleece and hoodie. Me and shiv could have never thought it would be so cold. The warmest ting we brought were long sleeve shirts. So we layered, and have been layering our clothes for weeks now!

We ate an awesome dinner at the lodge and them our tour guide "jim" started out some "games" sort of like weird thai ice breakers. it was good weird fun. The next day we hiked to another village at about 10am, then hiked to an even bigger waterfall camp and had lunch.

After lunch we hiked to another lodge in the jungle and proceeded to have the stranges night ever. the night started out with dinner and chat, and then a crazy thai drinkking game ( where no one got to drink) ensued. If you got the movements wrong jim took out a big "used" dirty grease charred pot and put the greassy charcoal on your face. it was nuts! you also had to dance like a water buffalo while this was going on.It was also LOI KRATONG during the time we were in northern thailand. Its custom to light a big landern and watch it flaot up into the air, Jim said the lanterns go to burma, but i dont know? we also wrote all our names on the lantern and made a wish as it sailed away. After that we all jammed around a fire and danced the night away.

The next day we started of on another hike, that led us to an ELEPHANT FARM!! me and shiv were really lucky to have a great guide walk us there. He told us all about witch doctors and the village people. many hilltribe people still see a witch doctor, but more so as a secondary specialist after a regular doctor. In the past, many people only saw the withch doctor.
he told us how to know if an elephant is male of female just by looking at the poop and pee. As well we learned how to tell the age of an elephant just by looking at the poop or pee!
We got to ride elphants through the jungle. I dont know how to explain that expeirnce, but it was nuts! they are so smart, and actually talk to one another. we were on the dad elephant and jess and morten were on the mama, and we had a baby elephant come along inbetween for the walk. it was amazing.

Next we went white water rafting. In our raft was me shiv, matt , marilou and jess. we screamed all the way down the rapids, and got so wet. I think thailand is so good at introducing people to all these amazing sports and experiences, some of wich you can try again when you get back to your home country. cause i know i would never have tried white water rafting in alberta!

Next we rafted down the river on a bamboo raft. Shiv was the main paddler and he sang "the log driver song" it was really amazing. Shiv said it was like his all time boy hood dream to paddle down a river, it was very tom sawyer.

To end the crazy day we had pad thai, and bought photos of our adventures! every one has to get their hussle on!
so amazing was this adventure!