One day trek (elephants!!)

Wednesday morning - elephant trekking. Yes! We scarfed down some granola with yogurt and fruit before our songthaew came and picked us up for our big day.  We spent about 2 hours in the back of this smelly cramped truck picking everyone else up and heading to the elephant park.  The camp sold bunches of bananas for 20 baht each ($0.66) so we bought one bunch.

Our first event was an hour long trek on the back of an elephant.  Each elephant had a chair set up for 2 people to sit in while the Mahout sat on the elephant's head.  Our elephant had an extra passenger, Tim, due to the odd number of people in our group.  He had to sit on the elephantss neck and spent the entire time trying really hard not to fall off.  For an hour we walked in a giant loop, down to the water, up a big hill, and back to the camp.  Elephants are not as smooth to ride on as horses; they shift a lot from side to side and up and down.

Lunch was waiting for us after our elephant ride, fried rice and fresh pineapple (not very sweet).  Next up: waterfall trek.  After driving half an hour to the start of the trail, we spent an hour hiking along a river through the jungle and over some precarious bamboo "bridges."  We passed huts which are where we could have stayed if doing a multiple day trip through the jungle.  At the waterfall we all changed into bathing suits and jumped in (well, we walked in).  The water was COLD!  It was so refreshing since the jungle was hot and humid.  After an hour or so at the waterfall we had to walk back through the jungle to get back to the songthaew.

Our next activity: white water rafting.  This was by far the event I was least looking forward too.  I have fallen out several times before while white water rafting and is just not my favorite thing to do.  While the guides were going over commands and how to paddle they told us we were going to be going over a five meter waterfall.  I was not excited to say the least.

It turns out that it was really fun!  The "waterfall" was nothing more than rapids which I guess dropped 5m but at a very slow decline.  I was imagining free falling for 5m in the boat.  Our guides were really fun and we splashed water at the other boats during the slow periods.  At the end of the trip we got onto bamboo rafts which were the dumbest things ever.  It was supposed to be some sort of authentic experience but it was just dumb and touristy.  For all of ten minutes we sat half submerged in the river trying not to tip over.  The raft guide said we weren't bamboo rafting but bamboo sinking!  Bamboo submarine!

The last event of the day was "visiting" a hilltop tribe.  Although this could have been a really neat experience, it was just dumb and touristy.  We were in the middle of the hilltop village on the only road surrounded by a couple of villagers who were just selling touristy things that had obviously been mass made somewhere else in Thailand (and we had seen at other markets in Thailand).

But after a full day of trekking and another two hour songthaew ride back to our respective hostels, we made friends with some of the other people on the trip.  We all met up for drinks later that night (after everyone showered and ate) and just had fun relaxing.  Andy and I almost didn't make it because we couldn't find the stupid place and wandered around for an hour and fifteen minutes before getting there.  It was a great ending to our trip in Chang Mai and ultimately Thailand.

In the morning we did a little shopping at the local market before getting on a plane headed to Siem Reap, Cambodia through Bangkok.