Chiang Mai Day Trek

Our fourth and final day in Chiang Mai was a full one! We reserved a full day trek all around Chiang Mai to do a number of activities!

We started off our day by being picked up at our hostel and driven to an orchid and butterfly farm. Unfortunately we didn't get to see a single butterfly BUT the orchids were plentiful and gorgeous! There were hundreds of orchid plants all different shapes, sized, and colors! Fun way to start off the day!

Next we began our uphill drive into the mountainous area of Chiang Mai. In these hills are the Karen Hill Tribes, tribes of people indigenous to the area. The Karen tribes gained some fame because of the Long-Neck Karen Tribe, one of the many tribes in the area. These women put copper rings around their neck to lengthen them as a symbol of strength and beauty. When I was in high school I did a report on the tribe so it was so exciting to be able to see them in person after learning so much about them! The girls in the tribe begin putting rings around their neck when they are about 5 years old and add another ring every few years. The women in the village had stands set up selling hand carved figurines and hand woven scarves. I bought two scarves, both with incredibly vivid colors! We also got to visit some of the other tribes in the area who showed us how to weave dried leaves together to make a roof, dressed us up in some traditional costumes, and taught us about some of their customs. One of the tribes that we met were known for their love of dog.... So gross! But all in all the tribes were very interesting!

We all got back in our caravan to head to the next stop when our tour guide come over with his finger over his mouth saying "shhhh". He pulled out a few marijuana leaves and put them on the floor of our caravan! Apparently the Karen Hill Tribes had a secret little side business going on along with weaving scarves!

Next stop on our adventure tour was to see elephants! We arrived at the elephant park and got to go meet our elephants! There was a park that we got to ride the elephants through, so we bought some bananas and sugar cane (elephant's favorite snacks!) and went to get on our elephants! Our elephant's name was Madonna! She was a big beautiful elephant AND she was pregnant! We learned that when elephants have babies they are pregnant for around 2 years! We rode Madonna down to a river where she got a drink and also got playful spraying us with water, what a silly elephant! It was hard to balance on the elephant's back but we managed to hang on and have a ton of fun in the process! We rode around for about and hour until we had to move onto eat some lunch. The tour had made us some fried rice and sliced some pineapple for our lunch! 很好吃！"very delicious!".

Next on the agenda was hiking up to a waterfall! The hike was about a 45 minutes long through the forest and along a river! We made it to the top and we got to swim around the basin of the falls! It was freezing which, after a hot and long walk up a mountain, felt amazing! The dip in the water also got us excited for the final leg of our day trip!

We made our way down to a large river where we met our final guides of the day. We took off our shoes, put on life vests and helmets, and got in our river rafts! The river was low due to it being dry season, but even through getting stuck in some parts, managed to have an awesome time! The river rafting turned into mostly a game of splash wars with the locals! The local people of the area all hung out around the river on hot days sound when we came floating by on our rafts would come up to us and splash us! We, in turn, would splash them with our oars! It was really funny and highly amusing! For the last 5 minutes of rafting we got off our rubber inflated rafts and hopped onto a traditional bamboo raft! Charly paddled us through the river and got us back to our caravan which was waiting for us on the side of the river!

By this time it was about 5pm and after 8 hours of activities, we were worn out and ready to head back to our hostel for what we knew would be an amazing Thai dinner cooked by our hostel's chefs! The day trip was such a perfect way to end our stay in Chiang Mai and made me fall in love with the city even more! It was bittersweet leaving Chiang Mai first thing the next morning but we were off on a 36 hour journey to get down to the islands of eastern Thailand, Koh Phangan here we come!