Through the jungle we go

We have left the streets of Bangkok for a more intimate experience with Thailand, a trek through the jungle outside Chiang Mai.



The trek started off with a pleasant visit to an Orchid farm. Where we learned, briefly, and by ourselves how orchids are started

From jars...


To beautiful flowers...









After a quick bite of our packaged pad Thai



We headed up the hill...



to get to where we were going to sleep for night number one, the Jumbo Elephant Camp



Home to, naturally, Asian Elephants


First things first was a bumpy ride upon this magnificent creatures.






It was pouring down rain, making the steep terrain slippery, but the elephants mastered the rocks and branches as gracefully as they could, when they weren't reaching for their next bite of the 200-300 kilograms they consume everyday



After such a busy day, we all had worked up an appetite, so Jackie and I offered to help cook with our guide, Yo, for the group. The menu was very appropriately green curry with rice.

First step, soak the green baby eggplants


And wash the vegetables


Cooking was a one pot process, with each piece being cooked separately with the chicken and eggplant in oil and green curry spice, just a bag of dense slightly damp spices, scooped into the bowl






And a quick wok to the vegetables with some soy sauce and oyster sauce


We finished cooking just in time to see the sun setting over the pond



Before we sat down to a lovely outdoor meal on bamboo tables



Luckily, we had some help to do the dishes afterwards too....



There may be something utterly cliche about wanting to sleep in a bamboo hut when you travel to the jungle of Asia, but it is a really cool experience, especially if your hut is perched on a hill, above a beautiful valley home to some lovely elephants



View from the top!


Day two started with one of the most fun activities we did on the trek, bathing the elephants






Plus a ride after they were done with their baths











So unbelievable, words can't really describe. We were sad to leave our new friends in the jungle, but had to move on, or I should say move up, to stay the night in the Lahou village, high up in the hillsides. Our trek for the day started out as pretty moderate, passing lush forest and a beautiful stream and waterfall



All was well until two things, one it started to pour down rain, and two, we reached a vertical incline of about 50 degrees, left with nothing to do but just climb up the slippery, muddy slope. But when we reached the top, the view was just incredible






The people in the Lahoa village were very accommodating and so friendly



Again, I helped Yo with the dinner preparations for the night. Similar concept, a one bowl cooking process, but this was different with no electricity or gas to power anything, so we cooked by firewood and candlelight



Or with the flash on to see what it was



Yo started the dinner by putting potatoes on to boil soon after we reached the village. They were just done when we started the rest of the meal-yellow pork curry with cabbage and noodles. Yo trusted me in cutting the cabbage, on a cross section of a fallen tree



And while I was doing that he mixed the coconut milk, yellow curry powder, previously cooked potatoes, and pork, and bada bing, our yellow curry was made!

We used some noodles that had been previously cooked for us by the people of the village with the cabbage, blending some mushed up garlic (smashed in bag, skin still on)



With the oil, noodles, cabbage and oyster sauce to finish the meal



While we properly finished our trek the next day, by climbing back down the mountain and white water rafting, I think culturally, we finished when the group of village came to us after dinner to sing us some if their favorite songs, dressed in all their traditional dress



Pleasantly off key, and effortlessly adorable, they stole our hearts and left us with a goodnight lullaby in the Thailand jungle.