Day 4 Thailand

Beginning of trek into hills. 2 more gals have joined us in Chang Mai, lauren & Steph, both English. Took songthaew to ride elephants, what a neat experience! There was a baby that walked along with us. We got onto them from a platform, it was just an open seat atop their backs. As we rode along up & down hills, we realized how easy it would be to fall off. We had to really hold on as we bounced along. There were 2 of us per elephant; I rode with Penny & we laughed nearly the whole time. We were constantly getting spit on by our elephant- it was rather gross. At one point my sunglasses fell off my head, I of course assumed the elephant behind us would trample them. What a pleasant surprise when instead he reached down with his trunk & picked them up & handed (trunked?) them back to me. He then decided to kiss my arm & neck with his muddy trunk - so I guess I can't say I haven't gotten any action in Thailand!
The guides led us down to the river with them where they waded along & had fun soaking us with their trunks. Interesting big beasts, rather sweet actually. William made a comment that instead of being here getting spit on by elephants we could be back at work, none of us would've traded the experience.

After lunch we began our hike, it was hot & we were quickly very sweaty. Luckily there were several waterfalls along the way to swim in. It was beautiful & we were so happy to cool off. We got to our camp by one of the hill tribes by evening,we stayed in a big bamboo hut with partitioned rooms. Before dinner Penny & I went on a stroll to find a nearby waterfall. To our amusement we found a perfect shower like waterfall, very private, and were able to wash up with our biodegradable soap we'd been required to bring.
Several of us had brought things for the children of the hill tribes. There was an adorable little girl, so I decided to give her the Barbie I had bought. She seemed mesmerized by the blond hair.
Dinner was made in a separate hut by the locals, veggies & curry & chicken. Sek, our leader, brought out a bit of rice wine to try & we all had a singalong. Tiger, another guide, played guitar, unfortunately the only songs he could play were from a karaoke book they had, which I quickly realized was a book of love songs. Not the best for a group of 10 single women. We also quickly realized this group is sadly lacking any musical talent. Several of them kept at it for hours, never able to finish a song; half of us couldn't take any more an so walked out to have a look at the full moon & engage in more interesting conversation.

Before crawling into my hut room on the end, I peeked in to see these huge colorful cockroaches along the side of the wall. I of course had Sek immediately come to rid them & spray down the whole place. I finally crawled into my cocoon which Sek had made around my mat with mosquito netting; however I was shockingly unable to fall asleep with all the jungle sounds around. I was eager for dawn so that I could get up.. Oh how I miss the Hilton. Actually it was very fun, just not comfortable.