3 days - 2 nights trekking in Chiang Mai area

The day after the Elephants Camp and the Long Necked Women Village, Kate and I were off to a wonderful adventure: trekking for 3 days and 2 nights. That would include elephant riding, waterfalls, hot springs, bamboo rafting and 2 nights in 2 different tribes villages.

Our group was small: only 6 people. That was rather nice. From our hostel we were 3: Kate, Maryne and I and we were joined by 2 Spanish girls: Erika and Maribel and finally Patrick from Ireland.

Maryne, Kate, Maribel and Erika
Coi and Patrick

That was a good crew. We had fun and it was really nice. Our guide was Coi, a local Thai who was really funny!!

Coi and Maryne

The first day we firstly stopped at the local market and Coi did some shopping for our group. We then headed to the waterfalls. Once there we found other groups but it didn't bothered us. It was just nice.

Once we enjoyed enough this, the car took us to the hot springs and left us there. We would carry on by walk.

The hot springs were .. hot!! Not surprising you would say but we were expecting to be able to go in.. but as the temperature was about 45 degres, no way! We therefore went to what they call "the pool" and managed to have a swim. The temperature was about 30 degres so that was manageable. We stayed there for a while enjoying the nature around us.

After a while the rain started and therefore we had to get changed and hope the rain would go away as we had about 2hours walking before getting to our village where we would stop for the night.. It stopped raining for about 1hour and then started to pissed down!!! We were soaked!!! but I thought it was funny and good fun as we should expect it knowing we're in Thailand during the raining season.

The hot springs (temperature 45 degres)

The hot springs (temperature 90-10 degres)

Once arrived at the village and after a nice cold shower (lol), we had dinner.. Actually only Maryne cause the food was way too spicy for us. Seeing that nobody was eating, Coi kindly cooked some plain rice for us. Thank you Coi!! We were so happy. Sometimes you don't need more to make your dinner :-) At night, Coi lighted a fire and we talked all together around. That was a nice, quiet and nice evening.

The following morning we were all awake by 4 o'clock by the chickens singing.. I think we managed to stay in bed until 8am for the breakfast to be served :-)

On the second day we walked 3hours. It wasn't so hard even if some peolpe might disagree with me.. The landscape were beautiful and it all worthed it! Once arrived at another tribe village, we had lunch and then we were off for the elephant riding! The best fun ever :D We were paired and we actually had a French team (Maryne & I), a Spanish team and a English team (ish cause Patrick's Irish..).

Landscape

The ride was soooo nice and we were very privileged cause we were alone, no other group. We walked manly in the river and saw loads of buffalos lying in the river. That last for 1 hour and we managed to sit each in turns on the elephant head. We really had a wonderful time and were sad to leave the elephants..

Me on the elephant head and Maryne on the background

After a few minutes walking we arrived at the village we would stay for the night. We had a good night that we shared with another group staying nearby. In their group they had only 1 girl for about 10 guys, the other way round than our group.

The night was better than the previous one even if this time we had frogs singing in the morning!! But we didn't care cause the bamboo rafting was ready for us!! We all packed our bag properly making sure to put our camera and anything else important in plastic bags as our bags will be on board with us.

We trusted Coi and started the 2hours rafting on a bamboo!!!! That was an experience! More than once the rafting nearly went in the water but each time Coi managed alright. That was really good fun. The weather wasn't great on that day therefore we were a bit cold but it all went fine and we enjoyed ourselves witch was the most important thing.