Of Trekking, Elephants, and French people

Since the surroundings of Chiang Mai are a trekking paradise, I booked a two-day tour. Right from the start, my mood was slightly dampened, as all my fellow participants were French. As they are known to hardly speak the English language or simply not willing to speak it, I expected little conversation - and was not disappointed! :-)

But the tour itself was great. Our three guides were funny and luckily could speak some English. After about a two-hour drive, a shared lunch (where surprisingly, English was briefly used) and a refreshing dip at a waterfall, we hiked for about four hours before arriving at the small mountain village where we wanted to stay overnight. The people here live relatively secluded and very simply. For me, it was a great experience to get to know a completely different lifestyle than ours. In the evening, we made ourselves comfortable with a few beers by the fire.

The next day, we hiked through the forest for a while before being loaded onto a bamboo raft and floated down the river for three hours. That was really fun!

On the way back to Chiang Mai, we stopped at a farmer and his elephants. We fed them and were allowed to splash around and spray them with water. :-)