Music: Jose Gonzales
As one of our last adventures, Nat and I decided (for Leah) that the three of us would go on a three day trek in the outskirts of Chiang Mai. After our first meeting, buddy at Chiangmai inn had us convinced that this would be well worth the bling. While it wasn’t that expensive, it was expensive for south east asia. Since we were staying at that hotel, and three others would be joining, we got a slight discount. After hearing the details of the trip, Nat, Tom, Rich and I were all willing to spend the money on what sounded like a fabulous time.
Fabulous it was! The morning we were meant to leave, also happened to be the morning of Leahs arrival. I was bursting at the seams full of excitement! I felt like going to the airport might pose danger to myself and others being around any guards, but I took the chance, and Natalie and I headed out in the early morning traffic, in a TukTuk to go pick up Leah from the airport.
Sure enough, as soon as I spotted Leah, I let out a uncontrollable squeal, and shocked the people around me, as well as a heavily armed guard…. I couldn’t help myself, the damage was done and I raced into my long lost Leahs arms. HUUUUUGS!!!!
After a year of seeing Leah every single day, the three months apart were extremely difficult. I missed every single thing about her. When you feel completly comfortable around someone so quickly after initially meeting, you don’t want to lose that close relationship. Reuniting with Leah was like getting my missing right arm back. Phew!
We scrambled quickly to get ready and to head out into the jungle!!! Back home we’d just call it the forest or the bush… but here, its the jungle. Sounds cooler ne?
The first day was slow, steady and easy. We went shopping for supplies, since (unlike Japan) there would be no convinis or vending machines anywhere and we’d have to fend for ourselves (with our trusty leader, Wood, of course) for the next three days. We then drove to a small village to chill with some cute kids in a day care (aka, fill em up with sugar, chase em around, and get out!) and made our way deep into the bush before our bumby jeep ride kicked us out to begin our trek.
Day one was just two hours of walking to our camp. On the way, our cheeky trek leader, Wood, taught us which plants we could eat and how to test wether or not something is poisonous. We also spotted some minority people who gave us some freshly picked nuts. We gazed at peculiar flowers and Leah and I chatted the whole way, briefly causeing us to fall behind.
We got to the camp right before dark. We camped at a little shack that a few jungle people ( I have no other way of describing them, they lived in the jungle.. and they were people…) lived at and had the classic campfire. We ate delicious Wood specialty (even vegetarian for the vegetarians! <3) , sang campfire songs and star gazed. Wood even took us on a little night time trek were he caught, and later roasted for us, some big, huge, juicy grasshoppers. Yes i had a bite. As one of the boys put it, it tasted like the shell of a shrimp. Crunchy, burnt, no taste, just the knowledge that you’ve just munched on a grasshopper.
That night I’d never seen so many stars so bright and so plentifull in my life. Grumpy’s place in North Bay might be a close second; but these stars were so big and bright you could reach up and grab that diamond in the sky. A handful of them if you wanted.
This is definitely where we all (especially Tom!) fell in love with Wood. He was such a happy little camper, teaching us crazy cute songs, giggle envoking card games and hand games and when we wanted to go to bed, he forced us to stay in his room to have a sleepover with him. Kawaii ne?! We were instantly one big happy family.
Though we may have had a little too much whisky the previous night, I was up early and drinking numerous cups of tea and coffee, waiting for the other sleepy heads to get up. Once everyone was up, we enjoyed a wonderful Woody breakfast, and set out for Day 2: The Big One.
This day included a six hour hike across a few different mountains. Everything was going peachy good untill the rope and cliff came out.
No worries, Wood was just gonna tie this rope to a nearby tree, and the rest of us would just scale our way down the side of the cliff, spiderman style. Except that we arn’t super heroes… and we didn’t have gloves… or spiderwebs… though there were spider webs in the woods.
Nat got down safe, and I made it down with a little shaking in my booties with fear. Nat and I were looking up and watching Tom come down, when suddenly Tom was coming down a little too fast… and the rope was no longer attached to the tree. His head and shoulder, smashed into a tree breaking his fall… which isn’t exactly what one is looking for when falling ten feet.
Seeing his eyes closed and his body all twisted up, I felt like vomiting. I didn’t want to touch him because of what you hear about not moving someone who’s been injured. Luckily, like Superman (as Rich put it), Wood came flying down the cliff to help Tom out. With a goose egg forming on his scull, a filthy shirt and some scrapes and bruises, he was going to be ok. Phew #2! We were all a little shaken’, but I offered him a hug and i’m pretty sure (though not 100% positive) that this made everything better.
We moved on quickly (not literally, just to say that once Tom was better, we put the incident out of our minds.. though i’m sure we all secretly took Tom aside and asked him if he was really ok, quietly, so as not to keep drawing attention to the situation.) He was alright though.
The trek that day (other than the former) was amazing. It was beautiful and peaceful, and smelt like Canada.
Wood: Here, smell this bark.
We all take a whiff.
Lindzy: Now that, smells like Canada.
Tom: Really?
Lindzy: Yep!
Tom: Well good! Cause now when people ask me if i’ve ever been, I can say no, but I do know what it smells like!
Haha. Again, we made to our camp by dark. Unfortunately, after the sun goes down, the warmth goes away. Shower time.
Tom:” Now girls, I don’t wanna say that that shower was cold… but my testicals are up to here. ” *Hand beside head*.
The three of us decided to tackle this shower on, Japanese style… all together now. I’m sure the villagers were all wondering what the screaming and squealing and “Your turn! Your turn!” was all about…
Another one of Woods amazing meals and card games. Also, one of the locals started singing classic Christmas songs to us, in Thai. They were Christian. Amazing were Christianity finds itself…(amazing…??… )
Day Three: The campers head out for their last day of trekking… just eight mountains to go, Wood informs us. Afterwards, a friendly little rafting competition between Europe (the sixth trekker was from Norway) and The New World. Guess who won? Duh! Its in our blood to sail places and discover! Europe, that’s why you never made it to the new world and stuck to Football and Jumpers and Knobheads. Sorry Love 
.
We finished off the trek with a waterfall and a swim. Is there any other way to finish things off in SE Asia? Nope.
I will never forget this trip. This trek was the perfect ending to my backpacking with Natalie. Everyone made it amazing and if I could have one more day anywhere, that trip would be it.
Peace out Team Wood! *Tudaloo!
(Note: We actually still spend the next few days together, minus Wood and Evelyn from Norway)
*Tudaloo comes from a hand game Wood taught us.. .i’ll teach you one day, and dare you not to laugh.
) 