Adventure Trekking in Thailand

July 07, 2016

Adventure Trekking in Thailand - Part II

Day 11 - June 24, 2016

Friday

This morning Boon cooked us a delicious breakfast of hot chocolate, fried eggs and pancakes cooked over the fire in a wok before we headed out to explore the village and visit the school. The kids were so cute and their school was simple but clean. We left the school and headed out through the rice paddies to see how to plant rice. We visited some ladies working in the fields and they showed us how to pluck the rice plants and bundle them for replanting. They thought our kids were pretty cute. When I pulled out my camera to take pictures, a few of the ladies posed for the camera. One cute lady, who looked close to my age, even pulled out her own phone and we all took a picture together. We hiked another 3 miles through the rice paddies and jungle to a beautiful little waterfall right next to a small little elephant camp with 2 elephants. We swam in the waterfall and played and watched the elephants while Boon and Boon 2 carved bamboo with their machetes and made us coconut sticky rice and vegetable ramen cooked IN bamboo over an open fire. They carved a triple bowl and tongs and chopsticks out of bamboo for us to eat with. It was unbelievable! After lunch we hiked another 3 or 4 miles back to the village to pack up and head to our next camp. We hiked over 3 hours today in the hot, sticky, humid, buggy jungle and the kids did great! Isaac was our fearless leader and as long as he was in the front with Boon, he never complained! Mikey was our expedition photographer and as long as he could pursue his creativity while hiking, he never complained either. Those two ideas were game-changers!

Our last little adventure was another elephant ride. These elephants were enormous! Isaac and Jeff were on an elephant that was at least 10 feet tall! They looked tiny up on top of such a huge creature! They had 4 elephants for the 7 of us so we had to do some double-riding. I was with Mikey on the 7 year old male, who was still huge! The hair on his back was really coarse and spikey. I was wearing shorty-shorts over my swimsuit because we were going to be bathing the elephants and it seriously chafed my legs! All of us had the same problem, especially us girls! Ouch! Calvin rode the smaller 4 year old elephant and as soon as we got to the swimming hole, the little one dove under water to roll around, launching Calvin into the water. It was a bit sketchy since there were 3 other HUGE elephants stepping around close to him. These elephant mahouts kept a chain around their elephant’s leg and seemed a bit more rough with the animals. It was not quite as magical of an experience as Blue Elephant.

Now that we swam in elephant poop water and had been in the jungle hiking and without a shower for nearly 2 days, we were smelling pretty ripe. To top it off, we hadn’t brought any soap! I had thought of everything from a thermometer to take the kids’ temperature if they got sick to a travel towel when we were away from civilization. But I hadn’t packed any soap! It hadn’t been a problem before because all of the houses we had stayed at had provided some. But now that we were out in the middle of the jungle, it was a problem. We checked at the village and they had none. No soap in the entire village. (Or toilet paper…apparently they use a stick. Seriously, that’s what our guide said. With a straight face.) When we got to the Eco-lodge, I was hopeful they might have some. Nope! No soap. It’s one thing to rinse off, but let’s be honest…it’s not really the same without a little soap to get the grime and germs and stink off. I finally remembered that Kate had bought a beautiful little flower carving of soap in the night market in Chiang Mai. We were desperate and despite Kate’s protests, we hijacked the soap from her (with a promise to replace it) and we all scrubbed in the concrete camping shower. But, they had a little electric water heater so it wasn’t a cold shower this time! Bonus!

After another cooking class and some delicious Thai food, we crawled under our mosquito netting and tried to go to sleep. Poor Isaac. He is a pretty adventurous kid, but not with food. And out in the jungle, there are no other options. He tried really hard, but just didn’t like any of the food besides the pineapple. He seriously would rather starve instead of try another curry. So he did. He ate only pineapple and about a tablespoon of rice and went to bed hungry, with the promise of scrambled eggs and pancakes in the morning.

June 25, 2016

Saturday

Last night, after the kids were all settled and quiet and I was fast asleep with my earplugs, Jeff was awoken by a crazy, loud ruckus of growling and elephant roars. He shook me awake to ask if I had heard it but I was clueless. The girls heard it in the next cabin over and were totally freaking out. It sounded like a tiger attacking the elephants across the little valley from our huts. We found out the next morning that it had been a fox getting too close to the elephants and they were roaring because they were frightened and trying to warn they fox to get away. Life in the jungle is fierce.

Hiking through the terraced hillsides was beautiful!

They divert water from the mountain streams and then use gravity to water all of the rice paddies.

Cooking the ramen in the large bamboo and the coconut sticky rice in the 6 smaller bamboo sticks.

Our dishes and silverware. All made from bamboo with a machete by Boon 2.

Napping by elephants.

Serving the ramen.

Eating the ramen. Messy but yummy. And something everyone loved...even Isaac!

Cooking pancakes on a wok over the fire.

Breakfast.

Mikey sitting on the porch drinking his morning cup of hot chocolate.

Visiting the school.

These boys were Mikey's age. They were really friendly but became quite shy when I asked to take their picture.

This little boy was so excited to show me the picture he had drawn.

Learning how to plant rice.

Mikey the photographer. He's taking a picture of the coolest moth with giant eyes on it's wings. It think it was called the night butterfly or something.