Finally we booked onto a trek, there’s so many to choose from but they all seem pretty much the same. We opted for a 2 day and one night trek where you visit a tribal village modeled on the real thing. This village was home to 3 different tribes, The Palang (big pierced eared tribe), The Karen and the Paduang tribe (long neck tribe) and you could see it was set up for tourists. We bought 3 scarves (they’re on the way Mum and Nicki, look out for a big parcel soon!), hand made at the village and you could see the women weaving them. Very nice fabric and colours.
Next up we drove to have some lunch and ride on some Elephants. They basically control the Elephants with food and let you buy some bananas to feed them. They go crazy for these and anyone who had a bunch on them was getting lots of attention with trunks going everywhere!
Elephants are huge beasts, and not having the pleasure to ride on one before, it was actually quite unnerving. Safety seems to take a back seat on most activities, maybe this is just magnified what with us coming from the sanitized west with all the rules and regulations that exist there. Once on the Elephants, we were pretty much left alone to wander down a set path which was guided very casually by the guides. Mind you, the Elephants must do the same trek day in day out and there were Papaya trees, Coconuts and Banana tree branches at each section waiting for them so I guess we were as safe as could be. And it was kind of fun, especially when they took a bathe in the river, with us still on top! Needless to say we all got soaked… especially by the cheeky baby Elephant!!
After this it was a two hour trek uphill to the Karen tribe village where we were staying overnight. After 3 months of minimal exercise this was quite hard going, but we really enjoyed it. There were two groups and I think we had the wrong guides. Ours was very fit and we were kind of jogging to keep up, whereas the other groups guide was doubled up, panting for breathe when we finally caught up!
The village was great to see. It was all bamboo huts, kids playing with hoops and sticks, animals wandering around (pigs, chickens, goats, cows and dogs). It felt like a Utopia, like a really safe haven full of innocent playful fun. And they had sit down toilets in a special bamboo hut! Along with power shower, depending on how hard you could throw the bucket of water over yourself! We were cooked food by the village and it was all good. Green curry with sticky rice, just what we’d been searching for ;).
After dinner in the evening we were treated to some tunes on the guitar from the tour guides friend. He started off with some Thai love songs and just when he was losing us he hit us with some good old rock n’ roll! A sing-athon ensued and we went to bed really late. First time for us in a bamboo hut and we slept like pandas!
In the morning it was up at dawn for a 2 hour trek, all downhill to the waterfall. We had a welcome dip in the pool when we finally made it, my knees were gone and I was sweating like a beast, so it was very refreshing! Then it was a final trek to do some white water rafting down the big mama river, it was exciting to meet locals down the river, children swimming in the clear waters, parents getting the catch of the day ready for lunch, while we hit few rocks and waves, just fantastic.
To complement the day we couldn’t have gone without getting our feet wet on a traditional bamboo raft,very slow compared to the white water rafting guided by el capitain Lion! hurrah!
Next on the list…the Gibbon Experience. Can’t wait!
Till next time, take care of yourselves and each other 
