In the Jungle the Mighty Jungle

Sunday was Day 1 of our trek. We left the guesthouse at 9am and drove for about 40 mins to a village market where we were instructed to stock up on necessities (torch, junk food, liquor). We then drove a bit further unloaded the ute and got moving, starting with a three hour trek, nothing too strenuous really, but gee was it hot! That night we spent in a Karen village. The sleeping arrangements were ten of us in one large bamboo hut on thin mats and pillow things with mosquito nets around us. The shower consisted of a hose with cold water and one bit of sheet metal so you got privacy from one side! The toilet was in a wee tin shed and was a porcelain bowl that you squatted over and then scooped water into it to flush. Princess Hayley coped surprisingly well =) The people of the village cooked us dinner which was lovely and then we sat around the camp fire talking and trying to play the guitar. The village people sell the tour groups beer and soft drinks and they also must get a certain amount for letting us stay and feeding us. We only dealt with maybe four people from the village but they were all lovely, although “Handsome Harry” was constantly drunk I’m sure!

Day 2 we left the village at 10ish and hiked for two hours or so to another Karen village where we stopped for lunch, this place had tiny kittens and puppies running around. So cute! Probably caught something off them but oh well, just had to cuddle them! After that we walked another hour or so to a village of small huts near a waterfall. The huts were so cute and fit two people per hut. Our “shower” that afternoon was in the freezing cold water under the waterfalls. The villagers brought out some of their handmade souvenirs as well, unfortunately for them we were a male dominated group but I was the sacrificial lamb and “supported” the tribe by buying purses, bracelets and scarves. Haha shopping in the jungle. That night after dinner we played drinking games, including a lethal game of spoons! Surprisingly the temps dropped pretty low at night so I pretty much wore everything I had packed to keep warm.

Tuesday was the final day and we only needed to hike one and a half hours before getting picked up by a truck and taken to a larger village, where we had lunch at a “proper” restaurant. After lunch we drove a little further and came to an elephant camp where we got to ride an elephant! It was the coolest, craziest thing. Although some of the staff were dodgy and the way the animals were treated was a bit dubious. I had brought a bunch of bananas and the elephant’s trunks were all over me before we were even seated = Hayley covered in slobber! As we rode, our elephant kept lifting up his trunk and blowing air at us until I gave him a banana…so so cute! Unfortunately we didn’t swap our camera with the others so have little pics of us on the elephant.

Next activity was bamboo rafting which really was lots of fun. We had three rafts for our group and each raft was trying to crash into another and splash or push each other off. There were no rapids or anything so it was completely safe and just nice fun. It took about an hour to get back to the guesthouse and once there most of us decided to go out to dinner and have a decent steak as we’d had no meat for three days…no we wouldn’t make good vegetarians!