Thailand Honeymoon. Chapter 8: Trekking

In hindsight I would have stayed an extra day or two in Chiang Mai because we loved it.  That said, time was limited and little did we know but over New Years there is a 5 day national holiday when pretty much everyone leaves Bangkok to come to Chiang Mai to camp and go to the top of the mountain to visit the huge temple near the summit.  So, unfortunately we didn’t make it up to see the temple but we did still make it into the mountains.  We signed up for a day trip through our hotel and the trek started around 8am and lasted all day.  

We first drove into the mountains then hopped out to start a short hike.  We saw some of the local ethnic tribes while walking through and witnessed the some of the real Thailand that we, as tourists, so often miss. The bridges we crossed were less than stable and more than once I feared it would not support my weight, but alas, we clearly made it safe and sound.  We hiked near some rice paddies and along the creek before climbing up...and then down a large hill to see another waterfall.  We had the option to go swimming but man it was chilly so instead I just put my feet in while Judd went climbing and exploring. 

Traditional ceilings:

Two sewing looms

We ate lunch at a local café before starting our second elephant ride.  It feels pretty awesome to be able to compare two different elephant steeds. This elephant clearly didn’t like us as much...she sprayed us with snot twice and a third time with creek water...we were grimy and slimy by the end. Despite our overall appearance, we had a really nice time and it was a long ride- about an hour- so we gave our naughty elephant some bananas and sugar cane when we finished up. 

Happy Baby! 

That's an action shot of us getting "snotted"

She's preparing to snot us again...

She got a little distracted by a snack...

The final leg of the trek was actually really cool. I had not really been looking forward to it but the bamboo rafts were awesome and though we got soaked it was beautiful to float down a quaint river and enjoy the scenery.  Sorry for the lack of pictures...we couldn't bring my camera on the raft because we were drenched and faced the risk of flipping on more than one occasion.