The next morning we got up early and left the apartment for good to go to the bus that would take us to the trek. It was another of those local open buses but it actually turned out to be pretty fun. We met a German couple who we became friends with and 2 German girls who were also traveling in South East Asia. Our first stop on the trek were elephants. We were going to ride on their backs for a while and then move on. They were close to a creek and a mahout, which is an elephant trainer, brought one of the babies over to us. He/she was huge for only 1 year. Its skin was surprisingly tough and had coarse hairs all over it. I wanted it to wrap its trunk around my arm but it wouldn’t obey. It had to go and almost trampled my dad in doing so but what a memorable experience! It was our turn to ride the big elephants and I was exited. How often do you get the chance to ride elephants? So we got on, 2 people per elephant and walked on the special path specific for the elephants. My mom and I got a naughty one and the mahout hit it him twice on the head with his bamboo stick. I didn’t like that part. The rest of the ride went smoothly after that incident. It walked in the river and we spotted many kinds of colorful dragonflies and butterflies. We finally got off, my bottom was sore from being jostled around in our little metal seat on the elephant’s back. We left the camp and continued on our journey.

Le lendemain, nous avons commencé la journée tôt, car nous partions en excursion (trek) dans la jungle. Nous sommes partis dans un de ses bus locaux ouverts, avec nous il y avait aussi 2 jeunes allemandes et un couple d’Allemand. Au programme de la matinée, une halte pour faire un tour d’éléphant. En attendant notre tour, nous sommes allés près de la crique pour admirer le paysage, et là un groupe d’éléphants avec leur mahout (leur maître) revenait d’une ballade. A notre grande surprise, le mahout s’est dirigé vers nous avec un des 2 éléphanteaux, même petits ils sont assez imposants. Leur peau est beaucoup plus dure que je ne pensais et ils ont des poils noirs raides. Le mahout a essayé de lui faire enrouler sa trompe autour de mon bras, mais il ne voulait pas. Quand il est reparti il a presque renversé mon père, et c’est moi qui passe. Puis notre tour est arrivé pour faire la ballade, ce n’est pas tous les jours que je fais de l’éléphant! Notre éléphant n’écoutait pas son mahout, et il lui a donné 2 coups de bambous sur la tête, ça ne nos a pas vraiment plu. Mais après notre éléphant marchait et écoutait très bien. En fait, ils ne vont pas très vite donc on ne pourrait pas aller très loin, et la nacelle est très inconfortable quand il marche ça tangue et ton dos tape dans la barre de fer du dos de la nacelle. Je ne regrette pas d’avoir essayé.

The next stop were the waterfalls. The bus dropped us off and then left, only coming back the next day. We all walked for about ten minutes before arriving. I was slightly disappointed to find that there were already people there, but I knew in my heart that the world did not in fact belong to me and that those people had as much right to be there as I did. There we had lunch which was fried rice wrapped in banana leaves. It was good and all but I was too eager to climb the jagged rocks just below the waterfall. The spray coming from the falls made it difficult to look up at the water pummeling off the cliff. We stayed for a little while until we had to leave. The trek was all on foot now.

Après nous avons picniqué près d’une cascade. J’étais un peu déçue qu’il y ait des gens déjà, mais il faut que je relativise et le monde n’est pas que pour moi. Et s’il  y a un endroit joli autant que tout le monde en profite. Pour manger, on a eu du riz frit plié dans une feuille de banane. Nous nous sommes un peu amusé dans la cascade puis il était temps de partir pour ne pas arriver trop tard car à partir de maintenant nous avions bien 3 heures de marche pour arriver au village de Karen où nous allons passer la nuit.

There was a steep incline walking up the mountain, but our guide made it more fun for all of us. He seemed to know everything there was to learn about the jungle. He knew what plants could be eaten, where to find edible ants, what mushrooms were good for eating, fruits hidden in the trees, leaves that could make sounds and bubbles, just about anything that you would need to have for survival. There was one thing I noticed while walking up, I couldn’t hear any sound, no animals, no insects, or birds. It was all silence except for the crunch of dead leaves under our feet. The lack of wildlife was strange, I thought that Thailand would be more like Costa Rica which had lots of wildlife, but they were different. We walked on like this for the better part of 2 hours, our guide stopping here and there to show us another wonder of the jungle. We arrived at the tribe where we would be staying at for the night at about sunset. I could tell from the start that it was much poorer than the Thailand that I had seen. Their houses were made of bamboo, and I noticed that there were no telephone poles going to them which meant no electricity and no Wi-Fi which was ok with me since this was just for 1 night.

Il a fallu monté en haut de la montagne, pas si facile que ça mais notre guide était très bien et très compétent. Il connaissait tellement de chose sur la nature, ce que tu peux manger ou pas, les différentes plantes ou insectes. Il arrivait à faire des bulles avec la tige d’une plante! La fôret était particulièrement silencieuse, je n’entendais pas de bruits d’animaux, de chants d’oiseaux juste nos pas. Ca m’a paru bizarre car je me rappelle nos ballades en fôret au Costa Rica et il y avait tellement de bruits là-bas. Finalement, nous sommes arrive2s au village, c’était bien plus pauvre que le reste de la Thailande. Les maisons étaient en bois ou en bambous ils n’ont pas l’électricité ou le téléphone et surement pas de WIFI. Ce n’est que pour une nuit.

At our arrival, all of the little girls from the village came over to us and started selling bracelets that they had made. My mom bought several for herself and me, but not enough to buy some from all of the girls. Then they wanted to show us their schools so we followed them. This “school” was much different from my private school back in Massachusetts. It looked old and was very small. Being too timid to go inside, I asked the children who were playing a game kind of like steal the bacon if I could join in. We played and had lots of fun together until it was time to have dinner. I said my farewells to my new friends and went to eat. I had a pair of pants and sandals that I had outgrown on this trip so my mom and I gave those to the teacher. He said that they would be used as a prize for a game. I felt really good all through the green curry and bean sprout salad dinner and all the way until I went to bed.

Nous avons été accueillis par une horde de petites filles, qui voulaient nous vendre leur écharpes ou bracelets. Ma mère en a achetait 5, nous aurions aimé pouvoir en acheter à toutes mais ce n’était pas possible.Nous avons posé nos sacs puis elles nous ont fait visiter leur école. Par rapport à nous c’est un bien grand mot école, une salle sans bureaux ni bancs, ils avaient des cahiers et des crayons et quelques livres quand même. Avec Jayden nous avons fini par jouer avec les enfants il jouaient un jeu que l’on connaissait attraper le bacon, nous nous sommes bien amusés. J’avais une paire de scandale et des pantalons en lin qui m’étaient trop petits, ma mére en a parlé à l’instituteur, et il était très content, il nous a dit qu’il ferait un jeu et que quelqu’un gagnerait  ces choses. Je suis revenue juste à temps pour le dinner. Je me suis régalé avec le curry vert et la salade de germe de soja.

In between that, everybody in the group (except for my dad who was fast asleep) sat around a bon fire and played an infuriating Thai game called sticks. Our guide arranged them in different ways and it was up to us to solve the riddle. It was very difficult to come up with the answers, but once revealed they were so simple you felt really dumb, especially me since some were math equations which are my specialty though these were different so I didn’t know how to solve them. We played this for a while but I was and went to bed even though it was only 8:00.

Nous nous sommes assis autour d’un grand feu, les nuits sont fraiches ici dans les montagnes. Le guide pour nous occuper nous a fait jouer un jeu de devinette avec des bâtonnets il fallait trouver des charades, la solution était souvent très bête mais on a bien rigolé. Je suis allée me coucher vers 20h00.

Let me tell you about the building we slept in. It had a tin roof, and was elevated so the floor was completely open as well as both ends of the wooden structure. So basically we were sleeping outside. And there were no real bed or hammocks but solid planks of wood that stretched on either side. There were tent-like mosquito nets to protect us from being bitten. There were also a few extra blankets to make a mattress and pillow. I made my bed as best I could in the light only my flash light provided. I then carefully lay down fully clothed and drew the blankets close around me to warm up. I slept fitfully and was woken up around 3 am by the roosters outside. Those stupid creatures were mentally ill or something because the sun wasn’t even near poking its nose over the horizon yet and they were already chanting! I cursed them and eventually went back to sleep only to dream of them again.

Je vais vous raconter l’endroit où on a dormi. En fait c’était une baraque de bois avec un toit en tôle ondulée pas fermé des deux côtés. C’était presque comme si nous avons dormi dehors, il n’y avait pas de matelas, de hamacs seulement des nattes sur le bois et un sac de couchage avec une moustiquaire. On a pu mettre quelques couvertures dessous notre sac de couchage et comme oreiller. Il n’y a pas d’électricité donc c’était tout à la lampe de poche. Pas si facile que cela pour faire son lit. J’ai été réveillée par les coqs vers 3h00 du matin, je pense qu’ils ont un problème avec les heures car il ne faisait pas du tout jour!!! Je suis arrivée à me rendormir jusqu’au matin.

Morning couldn’t come fast enough but it eventually did and I was grateful. Judging by the look on the other people’s faces I figured that they slept as well as I did! Breakfast was simple, toast with a hardboiled egg and butter and jam. It wasn’t the most lavish breakfast I have ever had but it was sufficient and that is all that mattered. We left the village at about half past nine and continued with the second part of the trek. We walked for a longer period of time, three hours and found many interesting things on the way. We saw a tree that towered above the others and our guide found some sort of nut which he gave to the rest of the group. They looked like hazelnuts but tasted different, hardier, I’m sure that they would be great if I were trying to survive in that particular jungle. Our guide also found a giant spider the size of my mother’s hand. I hate spiders no matter how big or how small they are but I just find them creepy so I didn’t even give this one a second glance. Onward near the end of the trekking stage, the guide cut a small ground palm and cut out the heart. It was very tasty but I knew that I shouldn’t be eating it. Palms or heart of palm and palm oil are the reason for most deforestation in Indonesia and other countries around the world. I didn’t want to worsen that problem any further. Yes! Finally, we have found the bus! It took us to lunch and then to bamboo rafting.

En regardant les visages des gens de notre groupe le matin, je pouvais voir ceux qui avait dormi ou pas. Le petit déj était simple mais nourrissant, thé ou café, toasts, oeufs durs et pastèques. Nous avons refait nos sacs et après un brin de toilette nous sommes repartis car la marche n’était pas finie, il nous restait 3 h avant d’atteindre la route. Notre guide a continué à trouver des baies, et même un coeur de palmier qu’il nous a fait goûté. Il y avait aussi des araignées la taille de la main de ma mère, j’en ai les frissons rien que d’écrire cela. Nous avons récupéré le bus sur la route pour aller faire du rafting.

My family and I went on a raft together and I was surprised by its length and the size of the bamboos who were huge. Once we got started it was fun and tranquil, swiftly going down the river, occasionally having to duck under a low hanging vine or bracing for some small rapids. Nothing too difficult, only the fact that we hit just about every rock there was to hit in the river, in other words, if there was a rock, we would bump into it. At the end, we got to the last and biggest rapids yet. The steering person told us to hang on and then started pushing the raft with his bamboo stick down into the swirling water. My heart lurched as we descended, the entire raft submerged under the water, getting my shorts (which I had gone through a lot of trouble to keep dry), wet. My hand slipped on impact so my fingers got smushed between two pieces of bamboo. But the end was right there and then I knew that I would be alright. Back to Chiang Mai! We said our goodbyes to both German groups and settled into our hotel. We all took much needed showers and then went to have ourselves a late Thanksgiving dinner. The restaurant we went to was delicious, easily the best curry I had had in Thailand. Even better, the German couple joined us so we had an even better time. So that basically sums up Chiang Mai, we had an amazing time doing amazing things in only 1 week, can you imagine? It is time though to move onto the next country, Laos. I hope it will be as good as Thailand was, or better!

Notre raft de bambou était très long et les bambous étaient très gros. Nous sommes descendus sur une rivière qui avait des rapides mais pas dangereux. Sur la fin, il y a eu un passage bien plus tumultueux et nous nous sommes retrouvés avec de l’eau jusqu’au ventre, et le raft a tapé plein de rochers sur le passage. Je me suis fait un peu écraser les doigts car à un moment ils ont glissé entre les bambous et en heurtant un rocher ils se sont fait enfermer. Après, le bus nous a ramené à Chiang Mai, nous avons dit au revoir aux autres personnes du groupe et nous avons pris une douche bien méritée à notre hotel. Pour célébrer Thanksgiving qui était la veille nous avons mangé dans un super restaurant appelé Dash Teak House, j’ai eu un curry délicieux et Oliver et Kristina le couple d’Allemand nous ont rejoint. Nous avons passé une très bonne soirée mais tout le monde était quand même fatigué. Demain nous partons pour le Laos. J’espère vivre des aventures aussi bien qu’en Thailande!