The Full Rainforest Experience
"Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall"
That should have told me exactly what was in store for me over the 2 day hike I just finished. I am after all in Thailand during the "rain season". So having suffered through a cold and not really kicked things into gear, I had signed up for a 2 day hike in the mountains north of Chiang Mai. This is rain forest country. Close to the Myanmar border, home of the hill tribes.
In my last entry I was talking about how it had hardly rained at all. Well let me tell you what happened next. So we start out from Chiang Mai. I have my hiking boots on, white t-shirt, shorts and all the stuff I need for the journey in my backpack. So far so good. I'm feeling much better than before. Actually feel awake. We set out from Chiang Mai around 10 in the morning and started with a visit to an orchid farm. Then we headed to a local market to stock up for the journey. The agenda included riding on elephants, a 3 hour hike up a mountain to a hill tribe village where we would stay overnight and then the following day the plan included another hike to a waterfall, then going downstream white water rafting and end with trying out a bamboo raft. Sounded great when I was reading about it and it was.
There was just this slight rain thing that made this into a slightly different adventure from the one I set out on. Or things got wet, awash, bathed, doused, drenched, dripping, saturated, soaked, soaking, sodden, soggy, soppy, soused, washed, watered, waterlogged and watery for the rest of the journey. The thing was that our first stop was a ride on elephants. No sooner, or maybe 2 minutes after I was put on to the back of the thing. It started to rain. Rainforest rain. I got wet from A to Z. Elephant rides sound good on paper. But in pouring rain it lacked something in the "I'm so amazed this is happening to me" category. So from there we were transported to be start of the hike. It was no longer raining. Didn't last.
It rained so hard that our guides decided to take us away from the hiking path. Instead we went up the country road. Was a serious hike up 600 meters, till we hit a village in 1050 meters above sea level. This may very well have been all a tourist setup. I certainly have a feeling it was. But it was nice enough after all the rain. Everything I had on was wet. At least I had packed my clothes into a plastic bag inside the backpack so that was dry. After buying trinkets, beer, and having dinner, I went for the full body massage. Delivered by 3 locals this ended up not being enough to give me a great night sleep, but at least I survived the night without getting any new bites.
Next day was damp. Another great hike down the mountain to a river. This was an amazing setting. But the weather was so damp, that my dry t-shirt quickly became wet. I did however manage the whitewater rafting without a hitch. So now I'm back in Chiang Mai. Time to find out if there's a decent bar in this town. It's another Friday after all.
That should have told me exactly what was in store for me over the 2 day hike I just finished. I am after all in Thailand during the "rain season". So having suffered through a cold and not really kicked things into gear, I had signed up for a 2 day hike in the mountains north of Chiang Mai. This is rain forest country. Close to the Myanmar border, home of the hill tribes.
In my last entry I was talking about how it had hardly rained at all. Well let me tell you what happened next. So we start out from Chiang Mai. I have my hiking boots on, white t-shirt, shorts and all the stuff I need for the journey in my backpack. So far so good. I'm feeling much better than before. Actually feel awake. We set out from Chiang Mai around 10 in the morning and started with a visit to an orchid farm. Then we headed to a local market to stock up for the journey. The agenda included riding on elephants, a 3 hour hike up a mountain to a hill tribe village where we would stay overnight and then the following day the plan included another hike to a waterfall, then going downstream white water rafting and end with trying out a bamboo raft. Sounded great when I was reading about it and it was.
There was just this slight rain thing that made this into a slightly different adventure from the one I set out on. Or things got wet, awash, bathed, doused, drenched, dripping, saturated, soaked, soaking, sodden, soggy, soppy, soused, washed, watered, waterlogged and watery for the rest of the journey. The thing was that our first stop was a ride on elephants. No sooner, or maybe 2 minutes after I was put on to the back of the thing. It started to rain. Rainforest rain. I got wet from A to Z. Elephant rides sound good on paper. But in pouring rain it lacked something in the "I'm so amazed this is happening to me" category. So from there we were transported to be start of the hike. It was no longer raining. Didn't last.
It rained so hard that our guides decided to take us away from the hiking path. Instead we went up the country road. Was a serious hike up 600 meters, till we hit a village in 1050 meters above sea level. This may very well have been all a tourist setup. I certainly have a feeling it was. But it was nice enough after all the rain. Everything I had on was wet. At least I had packed my clothes into a plastic bag inside the backpack so that was dry. After buying trinkets, beer, and having dinner, I went for the full body massage. Delivered by 3 locals this ended up not being enough to give me a great night sleep, but at least I survived the night without getting any new bites.
Next day was damp. Another great hike down the mountain to a river. This was an amazing setting. But the weather was so damp, that my dry t-shirt quickly became wet. I did however manage the whitewater rafting without a hitch. So now I'm back in Chiang Mai. Time to find out if there's a decent bar in this town. It's another Friday after all.
Ummæli