Trekking and Songkran
OK another longer post. Here goes
Spent monday night at a Muat Thai match, which was excellent. Drinking all night and yelling and seeing these guys get pretty beat up. Thai boxing is one of the most intense, becasue they kick, knee, punch, elbow, and grapple. The last match was heavyweight, but wasnt as impressive as some of the middle and light weight fights...
tuesday morning Mike and I joined eight others and a guide for a three day trek in the Northwern jungle. We drove out of town for two hours, arriving at a tribal village way back in the mountains. Seriously tribal people. Bamboo huts and chickens everywhere and old ladies with black teeth(which Im told is quite attractive among the hill tribes) trying to sell us beads. A two hour hike brought us to a waterfall which we swam in, and another hour later we were at a camp in the mountains around a mile high. Nothing to it but a hut with twelve mats on the ground, a table with an awning, a cooler of beer/water/soda and a fire pit. our guide cooked excellent curry and veggies, and we drank around the fire until 10.
the next day was four hours hiking to the elephant camp, where we had lunch and rode elephants for about an hour to another tribal village. The elephant ride was excellent, but painful as we were sitting on these wooden benches on the elephant's back. After a rest in the village and more old ladies with black teeth selling beads, we hiked another 45 minutes to a much larger village, the Pulau (Im pretty sure. Ill have to check my facts later...) They were extremely friendly, like pretty much everyone here. played a game of soccer with Pulau vs tourists, tied 2-2. We ate dinner and watched the local kids do traditional dances around the campfire. Drank till very late and slept on a mat again.
wednesday is the first day of Songkran, the Thai new year festival. It is the water festival, for some reasons connected with Buddhism, so the entire nation is invloved in a water fight. Kids in the village had makeshift water guns and we got a little wet. another hour hike down the mountain and a truck picked us up and took us to a river for bamboo rafting. the rafts were held together only with some twine or leaf and steered by young kids(10-11) who were more concerned with getting us wet and throwing moss atr each other than steering. By the time we made it to the bottom of the rafting run, most of the bamboo had come undone and we were bascally in the water the entire time. Still it was a total riot, pushing people off and steering with a big bamboo stick.
The journey back to Chang Mai was about an hour and a half, and all the way back there were groups of kids along the freeway with buckets of water they would throw in the windows of the truck (we were all in the back) Even motorbikes had buckets thrown at them. by the time we reached the city, we were all soaked and traffic had us standing still. i got out of the truck and was immediately offered a beer and a cigarette, and made about 400 new friends in 3 minutes. Bought a bucket and proceeded to join was has to be the biggest water fight in the world. Everone in town is soaked, smiling, drinking, and pour water on each other. Trucks with 8-10 kids in the back travel around the main loop. The kids have 50 gallon drums filled with water and they use bucket to soak people on the street as well as other cars. Ive been to many celebrations and holidays, but this is by far the best.
Ok I could talk about Songkran for five days so I'd better end it here. more water fighting today and then tommorrow its off to HK.
n-
Spent monday night at a Muat Thai match, which was excellent. Drinking all night and yelling and seeing these guys get pretty beat up. Thai boxing is one of the most intense, becasue they kick, knee, punch, elbow, and grapple. The last match was heavyweight, but wasnt as impressive as some of the middle and light weight fights...
tuesday morning Mike and I joined eight others and a guide for a three day trek in the Northwern jungle. We drove out of town for two hours, arriving at a tribal village way back in the mountains. Seriously tribal people. Bamboo huts and chickens everywhere and old ladies with black teeth(which Im told is quite attractive among the hill tribes) trying to sell us beads. A two hour hike brought us to a waterfall which we swam in, and another hour later we were at a camp in the mountains around a mile high. Nothing to it but a hut with twelve mats on the ground, a table with an awning, a cooler of beer/water/soda and a fire pit. our guide cooked excellent curry and veggies, and we drank around the fire until 10.
the next day was four hours hiking to the elephant camp, where we had lunch and rode elephants for about an hour to another tribal village. The elephant ride was excellent, but painful as we were sitting on these wooden benches on the elephant's back. After a rest in the village and more old ladies with black teeth selling beads, we hiked another 45 minutes to a much larger village, the Pulau (Im pretty sure. Ill have to check my facts later...) They were extremely friendly, like pretty much everyone here. played a game of soccer with Pulau vs tourists, tied 2-2. We ate dinner and watched the local kids do traditional dances around the campfire. Drank till very late and slept on a mat again.
wednesday is the first day of Songkran, the Thai new year festival. It is the water festival, for some reasons connected with Buddhism, so the entire nation is invloved in a water fight. Kids in the village had makeshift water guns and we got a little wet. another hour hike down the mountain and a truck picked us up and took us to a river for bamboo rafting. the rafts were held together only with some twine or leaf and steered by young kids(10-11) who were more concerned with getting us wet and throwing moss atr each other than steering. By the time we made it to the bottom of the rafting run, most of the bamboo had come undone and we were bascally in the water the entire time. Still it was a total riot, pushing people off and steering with a big bamboo stick.
The journey back to Chang Mai was about an hour and a half, and all the way back there were groups of kids along the freeway with buckets of water they would throw in the windows of the truck (we were all in the back) Even motorbikes had buckets thrown at them. by the time we reached the city, we were all soaked and traffic had us standing still. i got out of the truck and was immediately offered a beer and a cigarette, and made about 400 new friends in 3 minutes. Bought a bucket and proceeded to join was has to be the biggest water fight in the world. Everone in town is soaked, smiling, drinking, and pour water on each other. Trucks with 8-10 kids in the back travel around the main loop. The kids have 50 gallon drums filled with water and they use bucket to soak people on the street as well as other cars. Ive been to many celebrations and holidays, but this is by far the best.
Ok I could talk about Songkran for five days so I'd better end it here. more water fighting today and then tommorrow its off to HK.
n-
posted by Neil at 7:52 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home