We drove towards the mountains getting to the elephant riding place. Like everywhere safety isn't really a priority, people walking around and in between the elephants trying to feed them or take pictures. They loaded us 2 to an elephant, no belt to hold you, and away we went. Never thought Deb would ride the elephant but she did, sitting 10 feet in the air on a steel seat, holding on for dear life. We journeyed through the trees going up and down hills to the river we crossed in order to get back to the trail head where we got off. From there we started our trek up to the remote village in the mountains approx. 7 kms and a 500 m climb, where we would be spending the night. The scenery was beautiful. We came to a waterfall where we were able to sit and relax and enjoy for about 1/2 hour. We continued our climb, stopping for some rest times and water as the temp was about 28deg. We got to the village and it was quite plain to see that we were going to be ruffing it, there was no hydro, no running water, no doors on our sleep shack, and about a dozen mats on a bamboo floor to sleep on 3 feet off the ground. We all chuckled about this and kind of knew what kind of sleep we would be getting. Supper was served, new menu - rice and chicken in broth and vegetables, quite tasty. Andrew, our host, soon had a fire going (it was really cooling off ) and out came a guitar and Lucas from Argentina and our guide began to play. It wasn't long and the children from the village showed up to sing for us, this turned out to be quite funny as there are always the entertains in every group of children. It was a very enjoyable evening around the campfire bit it cooled off very quickly. Could tell it was going to be a long night.
Thursday morning, Fred was up early (5:30) to get the fire going as we froze all night long. Slowly our group started getting up. One of the guys from Holland got up, teeth chattering, wondered to the fire, Fred showed him where the dog spent the night by the fire, all he could say in his broken English was 'lucky bastard'. We had quite a laugh. We looked very tired, knew there wasn't a hot shower to take but Andrew, our host, had the tea and coffee kettles on the fire for something hot to drink. This was very welcomed. Everyone was amazingly in good spirits even with a lack of sleep. Breakfast was served, the scrambled eggs we decided to have last evening changed to boiled eggs and toast. We were hungry so ate them as we knew we were going to be trekking for a few hours. We we headed down the mountain by 9:30 in our shorts and t-shirts as the temp had risen. The scenery down the mountain (different way) was as beautiful as what we saw yesterday, it took us about 3 hours to get down. Our lunch was ready, this time we had noodles and chicken, tasted great. After lunch we took a short drive to the bamboo rafts waiting for us on a small stream. The rafts were 6 bamboo poles, 25 feet long, tied together. There were 4 people to a raft along with a boy with a pole to steer us down the river. It was very refreshing to get some water splashed on us as we rafted down the stream. We went through some rapid areas getting wet but no one fell off. It was a really good experience and a great end to our 2 day excursion with a great bunch of young people. We loaded back into our truck and drove 1 hour back to Chiangmai for a hot shower in our hotel room. We had an invitation from Lucas and Katelina to visit them in Argentina. Lucas's family farms there, he is also involved in the farm but also is an Agricultural Commodity Broker. They just purchased a hotel there that Katelina will manage. They were very interesting people to visit with as he was very interested in the farming in Canada.
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