Since the last time I’ve posted we have been at home stays in villages outside Mae Rim and most recently we have finished trekking into the Hill tribes of northern Thailand.
Home stay for me was an incredible experience, although Chiang Mai was great i was ready to get out of the big city. I stayed with the family of a rice farmer by the name of Por Duang. He was an incredibly smiley man, and although the first two days may have been the most uncomfortable and embarrassing days of my life, by the end of our stay I was wishing I could stay for another week. We spent our days going to Thai class and miss pronouncing everything. At night I would work with my host dad, working with bamboo to make into baskets and other crafts. The food my host mom made was amazing, it was almost all vegetable dishes, which was a nice break from the never ending flow of grilled and fried meats. I ate meal worms… yeah, it was actually my favorite thing I have eaten here. No Joke.
Trekking was equally fun, the first day was pretty intense, we walked for 5 hours the first day, and with the weight of our packs by the time we were finished everyone sluggishly fell into their beds. We tried our best to ignore the rooster that was sent from hell to torture us by announcing his presence every hour starting at 3 AM. After a restless night we made our way to an elephant camp, where i met the love of my life, a beautiful 40 year old elephant that I named Bonnie. It was love at first sight, we were an unstoppable team, with me as the rider we had the most over takes of any of the any elephants despite her being the oldest and smallest. I showered her with my love in the form of bananas and a bath. After one of the happiest mornings of my life I had to say good bye to my love, but i will never forget the sweet and amazing creature that was Bonnie the elephant. We then split up, some rafted to the next village and the rest of us went through the jungle, swinging from vines and eating passion fruit. We spent the evening stuffing our faces with curry and sitting around a camp fire as Topher and our guide Susin serenaded us with songs. We left yesterday morning on bamboo rafts floating the river for two hours making it out wet but intact, we had lunch and then hopped into the back of a truck for the final part of our journey back to our hostel where many of us now consider home.
Today we slept in celebrating Dillon’s birthday, my lovely gift was buying him breakfast, which happened to be frosted flakes in a 7/11 coffee cup with no spoons. I know that sounds like a shitty gift but never underestimate the power of Tony the Tiger. I said hello to my mommy and sissy on skype and will hopefully get a haircut from my wonder twin Amby.
We leave for Pun Pun tomorrow and I shant be able to contact until next week.
Farewell my friends and to all a good night.
Love Cole, and kind of Amby