The first day was a bit of a let down; lunch at a hill village equipped with satellite TV and a walk around the village that made me feel like a peeping tom with the added bonus of a local "naughty boy" shooting his pee shooter at us, nice start!!!
We then hiked, passing the local witch doctor's hut (he wasn't in, which was a shame), for all of an hour to the next hill tribe. They, at least, seemed to not have discovered the delights of satellite tv or at least were still waiting for it to be installed. We showered in the local stream next to a cool device that used the river water to crush rice.
That night we got stuck into the Sangsom rum and coke and watched the "traditional dance" which may be because of the rum, but I really enjoyed it. The guide called "D" made us clap along which some how made it more fun. We then had to sing them a song and do a dance. Eleanor suggested the hokey pokey for the group, and the last thing that we "put in" was our bum cheeks, juvenile but fun and they seemed to enjoy us make fools of ourselves. D then took out his guitar and we all sang traditional Thai song like "Stairway to Heaven" and "Yesterday" by The Beetles and some of the guys in the village who joined the party with some extremely strong home-brewed Thai rice whiskey (known locally as "moonshine") showed us some magic tricks, well at least he tried to. I think the whiskey was going to his head as he had to keep on repeating the trick, "Are you sure it was the Ace of hearts? Really? Damn let me try again."
Day 2 was fantastic: we had a lovely walk through the hills, D told us a story of a trek he was leading where a boa constrictor fell on one of his customers and tried to bite his head off. The girls went very quite for a while and I could not help hissing now and again to keep the tension up!!!
To liven up the walk I suggested I spy, which went down a treat, even if Team Canada (Denee, Sue and Carl) won hands down. At lunch we made it to a small village made out of one family that had ten times as many animals as humans, including a begging piglet that all the girls went slushy over, "oh look at his nose, isn't it cute".
The village's main highlight was its waterfall which after a 2-hour hike was very refreshing, team Sweden even had soap for us all.
After that we walked to the elephant camp and got an hour's ride on elephants: we all took turns to ride on their necks which was a fantastic experience. I rode with Team Sweden (Johnny King of the jungle and Therese) and Johnny's wannabe lover Georgina (the Elephant)and had a great laugh when the first time she called for her young baby we thought that she was farting. The young baby also kept on trying to climb the side of the path and ended up falling up on her arse and headbutting a tree trunk.
The day ended in a hut outside the Karen village that was a lovely spot and we all bought some ethnic tat from a woman who just happened to be selling bracelets and bags and settled in for some more rum and card games.
I was lucky to get a leech while walking which was ironic because I joked with everyone that if any one got one they would have to buy a round, luckily they let me off.
Day 3 was another nice walk though some different types of forest and ended up with a raft race in which Team Sweden won through bad sportsman ship by tripping up our Captain, Denee, and throwing her into the river.
All in all a really good few days and we thank everyone on the trek for making it such a laugh, Thanks Denee, Sue, Carl, Johnny, Therese, Nicole and Natasha, and of course our guide, Dyo.
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