Greetings Earthlings
I just got back from a 3 day trek through the jungles of Northern Thailand. We hiked up through the jungle and mountains to a hilltribe village of the ‘Karen’ people. Rode some elephants and jumped in a few waterfalls along the way. We had a group of about 5 people all from different countries. Gert from Amsterdam and his girl Ailish from Ireland. Frederique and his girl from France, and two Swedes. Our guide was a guy called Boom. He was halarious. He’d walk along and break out into “HEY MEESTAH TABOURINE MAN..” as we were walking. He’d stop and show us what plants could or couldnt be eaten, show us traps set up to catch animals, tricks with leaves and bamboo shoots. He made an air gun out of a piece of bamboo.
The first day was an elephant ride and a long hike to a waterfall, then another hike up to the Karen village. When we got there they had food for us and it was incredible. Some kind of rice, chicken, and pumpkin curry thing..
At night we sat around the fire and our guide played guitar. He played John Denver, which was halarious. Then he gave me the guitar and I rocked out a couple songs. Fucking Right! I think I played Sweet Home Alabama, some Nirvana, and Say it Aint So. International crowd, gotta play crap that they all can sing along too.
The last day was another 2 hour hike through pretty thick jungle. We ran into water buffalo along the path and our guide had to throw rocks and shit at them to get them to get along. We stayed another night on the top of a mountain where only like 12 peole live, overlooking the entire valley and surrounding mountains. Never EVER seen so many stars. and all the constellations were outta whack, it was weird. The next day we finished up the trek going downriver on bamboo rafts.
Right now I am in town called Chiang Mai. It is about 1000x better than Bangkok. Smaller, more easy going. There are alot of chill bars around the place I’m staying, a couple named after Bob Marley songs, another called The Wall. ( written in Pink Floyd script). The place I’m staying at costs like $4.50 a nite and meals are about $2-3.
I might possibly head into Laos then down through Cambodia after this.
Missing all my friends from back home. Hope everythings going good. Keep America in one piece for me while I’m gone.
PACE.
Tags: Chiang Mai, Travel, waterfall, Tag Index
J
November 29th, 2005 at 10:16 am
the wandering american/canadian prophet of asia…
except your a 21st century prophet, equipped with a camera and blog
dominate new cultures… ride more elephants/aliens
pace
November 29th, 2005 at 11:28 am
WE MISS YOU!!! I am so excited that your’re doing what you’ve been talking about for what seems like forever!!! I’ll send you pictures of the wedding!
November 30th, 2005 at 10:19 pm
classic waterfall picture… beautiful. please get better soon, im worried (a little bit.)
December 1st, 2005 at 10:28 pm
great to see your havin the time of your life bro! i’m sure you know this, but man i wish i was right there with you! live it up man, and bring home some crazy stories!
much love man!