We started our 3 day 2 night trek into the Thai jungle by being picked up at our guest house in the old city of Chiang Mai. We were staying at the Gap’s Guest House which is a great little spot. Lots of individual teak style cabins surrounded by green gardens. Breakfast included for 650 Bhat.
We we headed to a small village to buy some supplies and our guide picked up our lunches and some supplies for the first nights dinner as well. Afterwards we went to an elephant ride park for a short while. The baby that was there put on quite the show for us and I was able to get some nice photos.
The ride was a just a short thrip through some of the woods before we continued on by truck to our first drop off spot to start our hike.
We entered the Doi Indhanon National Park and within a half hour hike we arrived at our first waterfall. Water was crystal clear and very cold and refreshing.
Hiking through some of the rice paddie areas – most of the rice fields in the mountain areas were dry at this time.
Our first stay was at the village of Hmong which happened to be where our guide’s family lived. Chai, our guide lived with his parents, his son, sister and her husband and children. Pigs and cattle were tied up to the houses that were built on stilts, while chickens and dogs ran freely throughout the village.
Another beautiful waterfall on our second day of hiking. Throughout the three days of hiking we swam at four waterfalls all within the park boundary.
This was our sleeping arrangements – very hard mattresses with bug nets above us and blankets. It would get fairly cold at night so some nights we would need three blankets each to keep warm.
Our last waterfall – a great spot for jumping and swimming to cool off.
Our trek ended with a bamboo river raft to get us out of the jungle and back to where the truck would pick us up to take us back to our Guest House.