TREKKING DAY TWO

I stayed up with the French and Spanish people until two in the morning getting quite drunk and singing songs around the campfire. It seemed like a good idea at the time! When we went to bed in the hut we all got a fit of the giggles and we just could not stop laughing for ages and some of the Japanese tourists who went to bed a lot earlier were not very amused with our infantile behaviour. And I am not proud to say it just made us all laugh even more and the Japanese man shouted at us to get out of the hut. We eventually settled down to sleep.It was really cold during the night, the temperature drops a lot. The next morning I got up at six thirty to see the sun rise. The Japanese man was by the campfire, which had been rebuilt by one of the villagers for us to wake up to. He was quite chatty so I just acted as if I was not associated with all the giggling the night before, I think I got away with it!! The guides made us a great breakfast of eggs, toast fruit and lots of tea and coffee. The sanitary facilities were limited but we all managed to clean our teeth and use the revoulting toilet.
We then said goodbye to the rest of the group who were doing a three day trekk and myself and two Swedish girls, headed off with a guide to walk two and a half hours to another waterfall.
It was a steep climb up the mountain side and down the otherside. I got quite scared on some sections of it.The path was less than two foot wide, with a sheer drop on one side. I just told myself not to look down. But I did have to hang onto the guide at one point because I froze with fear. Thankfully the Swedish girls were very patient. They were also a bit nervous. Eventually we reached the most amazing waterfall amongst the trees and this time we paddled in it.



We then walked to the Mae Mud village and the Shan tribe and we had lunch there.



We then got a truck ride to the Mae Wang stream to go bamboo rafting. We got soaked but it was fun



After that we headed for the elephant rides. I was in two minds all day about whether to do the ride or not. But I was assured they were kept in good conditions and the ride was out in the mountainside.So I agreed to do it. I wish I had followed my intuition. I am smiling here because this was taken at the start of the ride.

But by the end I was literally in tears. It was horrible. The animals were just treated so badly. They took us round this preset route for an hour. And once you start on it there is no going back .So I was stuck on this elephant. Frightened to death I might add, as it was very high up and I just did not feel secure. The poor animal had to negotiate very steep hills along narrow paths and it all felt so wrong. I will never ride an elephant again. When I go to Laos I am going to see if there are any elephant sanctuary,s that I can go to to help out to make up for the fact I fell for the tourist publicity and went on the ride.
But saying that the two day trekk on the whole was great. Ever muscle in my body ached and I was glad that I was not doing the three day trekk when I got back to my hotel.