Jungle Trekking And A Summary

I kept the written journal going on the trek (and the trek was AWESOME!) but I really couldnt think how to sum it up. So I just stole Jonos email to a few of our friends, with his kindly permission. What a champ. Hes also quite good at going and buying me beer!
The photo to the right is the three of us plus our guide Sonny and the lady who was driving the ute. Prior to contrary belief, Sonny really does know how to smile.

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We're in Chiang Mai at the moment, which is in the north of Thailand. It's the second biggest city but it's a lot different to Bangkok, not so business-y and with a lot nicer atmosphere. We went on a three day trek the last couple of days, which was really fun. It was nice to get out of the cities and see some of the real country. The trek consisted of us hiking between villages through the jungles, along small country roads, and through rice paddies. It was just the three of us and our guide.
The villages are amazing, just as you'd imagine a village to be, with small rickety bamboo huts, pigs and chickens running around, and little kids who are amazed by pens and paper, etc, etc... We made lots of friends, especially with the kids, even though we couldn't speak any of their language. They each had their own little dialects so each time we got to a village we would ask our guide how to say 'hello' and 'thankyou', haha. On our last night there was a cow that fell into a gully and died in a nearby village and so our guide went on a night time trip to bring back some of the meat, coz it's apparently quite an event. So he brought back the meat and we had a bbq, sitting around with the village adults drinking their homemade rice whiskey (they drink it straight from a cup made from the cut of top of a plastic bottle, they just pass it around the circle), and eating the meat and rice with our fingers, sitting on a mat. They sure don't waste any part of the animal either: as well as the meat we ate the ear, the lung, and the oesophagus. The lung tastes frikkin' aweful but the other parts are alright.

We also rode an elephant and just before we went back to Chiang Mai we did the touristy thing and had a bamboo raft ride. The day before the trek we did a thai cooking course, which was very fun and educational, and Drew and I went and did a 'monk chat' at a temple in town. This was listed in Lonely Planet and we thought it would be interesting. Basically, you just go in and have a chat to a monk. It's good coz we got to learn a bit about Buddhism and monastic life and the monks get to practise their english. The monk we spoke to spoke really good english and was very smiley! We asked him the tough questions too, like the belief system of Buddhism, the Buddhist viewpoint on science, whether monks eat pizza, etc. We only spent two days in Bangkok before coming up here. The city was really big and busy and quite difficult to get around and there are a million touts everywhere you go trying to rip you off. It was interesting though, but two days was enough. From Chiang Mai, we are heading to Lop Buri (south) to go to a place called 'Monkey Town' and we will then spend a bit of time in that general area checking out some old war stuff like the River Kwai and the Death Railway, and a Tiger Temple where you can pat tigers and have them put their heads in your lap etc. After that, we'll head south towards Phuket and the beaches and Islands around there. We leave Chiang Mai by sleeper train in 2 days.
Notes about Thailand:

• The cities stink!! There is either this rancid smell of sewerage and rubbish in the air, or else there are the fumes from all of their dodgy old cars.
• Everything is so cheap! A meal will cost you anywhere between about 80 cents and 3 bucks depending on where you go. Our accommodation costs us on average about 10 to 15 bucks a night, often including breakfast. Tuk-tuks are probably the most common way of getting around, and they are really cheap also. A 30 minute ride will probably cost about 2 bucks, which is not much split between 3. This net cafe is costing me 15 baht for an hour, or about 50 cents.
• Drivers are crazy. No one obeys the traffic lights or stop signs etc. The other amazing thing is that no one gets angry, no matter how crazy the other drivers get. I wonder if it's something to do with their Buddhist outlook or something.
• Elephants are cool. You don't so much ride them as sit on top of them while they eat coz they have to eat all day, which makes progress very slow. When they walk you can't even hear them because they step so softly. They are really gentle and you can walk right up to them and play with their trunks etc.
• Thais love plastic bags. They put everything in them, which includes the juices that they sell on the street (you stick a straw in the bag and drink straight from it), sauces, take away soups, etc.
• Street food is everywhere. It is really cheap and very good. It is also very clean.
• Thai people love their King!! It was his birthday on the 5th and we were in Bangkok. EVERYONE wore shirts that say 'I love the King' or just had the royal symbol on them. The shirts are bright yellow. Heaps of people also keep wearing them for the whole month if you can believe it. Can you imagine people doing that for the Queen's birthday in Australia?! Everywhere in the country there are massive photos of the King, and shrines with flowers, etc. A few more things about the King: it is a crime to insult the King, if you drop a coin it is a crime to stand on it because it bears the image of the King (and the feet are considered the dirtiest part of the body, so it's a double insult), and if you are posting a letter you cannot lick the stamp to stick it to the envelope because stamps bear the image of the King (and Thais believe that only animals lick things, hence you're also not supposed to lick fingers after a meal either, etc).

So anyway that's about all I can remember to say at the moment. We haven't gotten sick so that has been a relief. It's a bit of a surprise actually considering we've been swimming in local creeks and running around barefoot in pig-shit covered villages playing soccer with village kids (Drew and I had cuts on our feet as well :-S).

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Thats Jonos labour of love. He mentioned bamboo rafting on a river, but what he didnt mention was its name. It was karmic love at first sight, we saw the name on a sign and rejoiced.

!! The Wang River !!

The mystical river that we knew existed but didnt know where came and found US. We were so happy we could have cried. I think Drew did. We stopped for a bit to jump from an unhealthy height into the river, and as we leapt we each wanged the Wang. Our guide Sonny videoed us on Jonos camera, and here is the end result.

I hope everyone appreciates the sheer random fluke that us rafting on the Wang River was, as much as we appreciate finding the damn thing out of sheer dumb luck.

I cant believe we finally managed to wang the Wang. Our happiness is complete.