Today was definitely one of the best days yet since leaving K-town, we left for our three day trekking trip this morning. We woke up this morning around 7 am to give us enough time to pack our bags and get some breakie before leaving for the jungle. Mission: find vegan food, the hotel only had eggs and sausage so we went to check if the vegetarian restaurant was open but of course it wasn't, but thankfully across the street there was a chance for something. There was a banana lady who was grilling bananas and was selling it with the same sauce they use on mango sticky rice, which we enjoy so we got two each and it was actually quite satisfying.
After breakfast we went back to the hotel to wait for our tour truck, as always we found out some pretty important information within 15 minutes before leaving. For some reason we thought that we would be bringing all our bags and storing them somewhere on the trek but we were actually supposed to be given a list of things to bring and not to bring anything extra. The tour organizer dude told us that we should bring small bags and the least amount of things possible because if we didn't it would get super heavy while hiking in the jungle...fair enough.
We re-packed, left our bigger bags at the hotel and got picked up to head out. We stopped to pick up a girl at another hotel and she was from Montreal so we talked to whole way to the local market where we were getting our food for the next three days. This girl told us about this super sweet organization called HelpX, apparently she stayed with a family in Spain for three months where she exchanged teaching them English for a bed and food. So basically you choose the family you want on the internet, through the organization, send them a few letters of recommendation and voila you have a free place and free food while traveling.
We're thinking we might try and do this if the time and place is right or if we run out of money Ha!. Once we got to the local market, our driver loaded the truck with all kinds of food and we warned them that we can't have meat, fish, egg, milk or fish sauce(who knows if they actually understood or not, all we could do was hope for the best and that we wouldn't starve for the next three days).
After a one hour or so drive, he dropped us off at a elephant riding place, where we both opted out of participating. They mistreat these beautiful animals and force them to be human slaves for the better part of their lives, controlling them with hooks and whips. We ended up just buying each a bag of raw sugar cane and bananas to feed them as they came around to pick up more humans, apparently they eat something like 10% of their body weight every day, that's a lot of fricken food. We were told by a Californian couple in our group that there's a animal nature reserve back in Chiang Mai where they rescue elephants, water buffaloes, dogs and cats. At this reserve they feed them, take care of them, let them run free and they let you feed them and wash them, this is is a bit more up our alley so I think we will do this when we get back from our trek.
After another 30-40 minute drive we got to the trail where we hiked for 3 hours and stopped at some beautiful waterfalls. The first one we stopped at, the most amazing thing happened... The guide told us we were going to stay at this waterfall for 40 minutes, eat, swim and then continue on. We all sat down on the rocks to eat and our Tarzan of a guide climbed up some cliff and went to eat above the waterfall, we all thought he was crazy but not long after we all joined him. I was iffy about of course because just a short few days ago I could barely walk because of my back injury, and Vee is scared of heights, by cause of a 2 storey fall that could've taken her life when she was young. So after putting some thought into it and being the only ones left to climb along with one French dude, we decide to follow the pack.
Once at the top the guide tells us that the best and easiest way down is to jump off the cliff and into the waterfall... Usually I would be the first one to jump but I'll admit I had a good amount of fear in me especially for my back. But everyone was doing it and there was no way I would be the only one not to, so I did and even though I irritated my back it was sooooo worth it. I was already surprised that Vee had climbed up I thought to myself, there's no way she will jump, but SHE FUCKIN DID like a champ! It was such a proud moment for the both of us.
Following the historical moment we continued the trek where along the way our guide killed two animals and lead us to our sleeping hut. Liber(guide) caught and killed a tarantula and a fish for him to BBQ and eat later that night at the camp fire. Not ideal for two vegans but I guess this is what he knows so there wasn't much we could do other than opt out of tasting his grilled animals when he offered it to the group. After a wonderful home cooked dinner of rice, green curry & squash, we all hung around the fire pit listening to Liber play guitar then to our hut to sleep.
A bientot,
Janelle brine
No comments:
Post a Comment