Slept remarkably well last night. We both awoke at 7:30am and spent the morning having breakfast and packing for our tour with Chok Chai tours.
We were picked up at 10:30am and joined a group of six girls in the back of a truck with open sides. It was lovely and hot, so the open sides of the truck were a real bonus.
Our first stop was the nearby orchid and butterfly farm. The orchids were stunning and the way they grow them all in long rows hanging on wires is fascinating. I couldn't believe the colour and size of the flowers. Mum would have been in her element, as a self-confessed orchid fanatic.
Clearly Amber wasn't going to join me in the butterfly flight area, what with being terrified of them, but to be honest she didn't miss much. They had a few recently emerged Atlas moths - bigger than my hand - but all the other species were brown or white and deeply uninspiring.
After the farm we visited a long-neck tribe. The village was just off the main road leading out of Chiang Mai and as far as I could tell appeared to have been constructed purely so tourists could gawp at the women with all the rings around their necks and take photos. It felt really wrong to be taking any photos because the villagers seemed to be on show like animals at a zoo. I still took photos, because some of them had really long necks and it was a privilege to meet them, but the whole thing left the taste of exploitation in my mouth.
Next on the agenda was buying provisions and then driving to the starting point for our trek. Here we had a delicious fried rice lunch.
The first part of the trek was largely downhill through bamboo forest. We stopped at a cave containing a handful of bats and then walked on to the Lahu village, where we stopped for what turned out to be the first of far too many rests today. The village was great. Lovely bamboo houses up on stilts, dusty dogs, proud chickens and really sweet kids running amok. Plus I got some great shots of tree dragons of various species.
At this point I should discuss Anna. No, not the famous pop group, but our guide for these two days. Firstly, he has a young tree squirrel on a cord, which he fastens to his shirt collar with a carabena. This in itself is fine. The squirrel is adorable. However he spends most of his time talking to the squirrel instead of telling the group about the forest and wildlife!
To give him his due, he does know what he's talking about whenever he does get around to spotting something of interest. His knowledge of fruit trees has been excellent and he did show us a pod from a dried out vine that turned out to be a loofah!
No, the only real problem with today has been the pace. Some of our fellow travellers don't seem very cut out for trekking and it has been seriously slow going. Fine earlier in the day when I could entertain myself with lizard photography, but not so great when we were really close to the Pradong village and we kept having to stop when all I wanted to do was get to the village and soak in the stream. Amber found it fairly frustrating too. I guess were used to having to work harder on treks in Costa Rica.
Anyway, we got to the village in the end and it has been great fun. The young girl in the family befriended me and we had a good laugh chucking water around whilst soaking in their man made bathing pool. This was simply a dammed up section of the stream and just what I needed after a day in such hot weather.
After washing in the stream we had a delicious meal of chicken curry with rice and salad and then braved the hideous squat toilets before retiring to our communal raised bamboo dorm. Currently the entire group is sleeping on straw mats on the raised floor of a bamboo hut. All I can hear is the sound if cicadas and Amber breathing in my ear. The forest sounds so busy, but all the droning is making me feel calm and sleepy.
Looking forward to tomorrow and the next stage of our adventure.
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