Random pictures of Ayutthaya and some others thrown in… these are from Jen’s camera.
A couple pictures from the night market… only showing 1 of the many courts. Taken from a really neat place for drinks
Reclining Buddha in Ayutthaya
A few pictures from the trek… again from Jen
Final day of the trek was a fun one. It was a short, hour or so, walk to the rafting camp. Amy, Jen, Tej, Agnes, Juliet and myself were in one boat, and the Danes and the Australians in another. Our boat definitely kicked butt. The river was quite low, but the big rocks in the rapids added some fun when it could have been a little less exciting without them. We got stuck once or twice but nothing close to what happened with the other boat. After a bit of “shakey shakey shakey” we eventually got to where we switched over to the bamboo rafting. The river guide picked me to “captain sparrow” the boat at the front, and after a few screams, a somewhat sinking raft, and the advice “if it not sink it not fun!” we continued down the rest of the river. It was pretty relaxing and very “Thailand.”
After one last meal we got back into the truck and had a really not fun at all 1 and a half hour ride back to Chiang Mai. We had a nice little chat with Oaf before getting dropped off at our old hostel. We couldn’t get a room, but eventually found another after a bit of walking around.
A nice meal and a dip in a really cold pool, a bit of law and order on TV, and then off to sleep we go.
We woke up had eggs with toast and fruit. We had some time so we walked around the village. Granted there was a solar panel powering the store, and some hefty radio antennas by some of the huts, you felt that you were at an authentic (if slightly modernized) hill tribe village. There wasn’t anyone trying to sell you gaudy souvenirs, the water and pop didn’t really cost much more than it would from the 7-11 down in Chiang Mai. There was a school with about 12 kids in it, cattle roaming around, chickens everywhere (the roosters started at about 1:00am eugh!) pig pens, pigs not in pens, really neat stuff.
We got back and it was a much easier hike to the next village, much smaller, and essentially it was just to get out of the sun, buy some water, and maybe a bag of chips. We walked along a stream, through the jungle, and eventually to the first waterfall. It wasn’t huge and the water was freezing, but it was an opportunity to swim and become less sweaty. We had lunch and played with a cat for a while and then went on to the next waterfall. It was beautiful, sandy bottom, but not deep enough to swim. The water seemed warmer and it was great for the legs and feet to cool off. After this we walked off to the camp for the night. No roosters this time! It was right on the side of the creek, and we had a big bonfire. There were some huge chunks of wood and Tej and I had a mission to burn through them before going to sleep.
We woke up around 8:00 to give copies of our passport to the guide to take to the tourist police (so they knew who was where) then later around 9:00 were picked up to bring our bags to storage. We left around 10 so the guide could pick up the ingredients for our dinner at a market. Our tour consisted of 4 Danish girls: Louise, Lada, Sophie, Melaina; 2 Austrian girls: Agnes, Juliet; 2 Australians: Sam, Lisa; 1 U.K. guy: Tej and us 3 Canadians.
The first stop was the elephant park. We had some food first and then got up on the elephants. We were short one elephant sort, so myself and Tej ended up riding on the neck of the elephant where the guide usually goes. Amy and Jen were in the seat behind me… at least at the beginning. The seat started tilted to one side, Amy’s side, and it just kept going more and more. Eventually it was me jumping off the elephant to try and hold up the seat while Amy and Jen hung on up top. Eventually we got them back up onto the neck of the elephant and were able to reattach the the seat to the elephant and continue the tour. The rest of the trip on the elephant consisted of him sucking up saliva and spraying it on us as we walked through the jungle.
We then got to the first day of hiking. It was pretty hard the first day. Really steep, really hot, and really dry. For the most part the group stayed pretty close together, but for the end, the steepest part Tej and I decided to go off ahead a bit instead of waiting for everyone as we had been and as happens when two guys are off showing that neither of us are all that tired, we ended up hiking up a lot fast than either of us really wanted to.
Eventually we met up with the guides brother who took us to the village. By the way, the guide’s nickname is Oaf — pronounced “Off.” Anyways, we get up there, a really neat bamboo building with nice mosquito nets. Amy and I got a massage from the tribe, it was really nice after the day of hiking. I had 3 people working on me at once… fan-tastic!
Dinner was curry by candle light, followed by fruit. We played cards with Tej and Louise and Lada for a while and had a pretty early night (even after trying to stay up “late” aka like 9:00)
Short one this time… we are planning on taking the train tomorrow to the old capital, and some city with monkeys everywhere… then it will be on the way to Chiang Mai. That is where we are hoping to have some fun with the outdoorsy trek type adventures. This area is fantastic and it is fun to be in the city, but I think we all want to get moving into the next part of our adventure, and really see what Thailand has to offer.
