The Trek (cont'd)

The next day we got up, and after a lovely breakfast, we hit the road again. Fortunately, this portion of the trip was all downhill. Very easy and leisurely. Of course, being the spaz I am, I fell over a few times and busted my butt. That shouldn't surprise anyone. :)

We chilled out at a very lovely waterfall for a while, where we had lunch. (From there we split into the 'hard and 'easy' group. There were only two people out of ten who opted for the more punishing route.) We chilled out at another waterfall before rolling into a second small village.

The next day was crammed full of stuff. First on the agenda was an elephant ride. That was pretty tight, but I did feel sorry for the elephants, who mostly walked in circles all day long. I got to sit on the elephant's head, which was very exciting yet very unstable. The elephant's bristly hair kept poking me in the butt. That didn't feel too great, but I didn't want to shift my weight and risk falling off the elephant. I've already visited a hospital and do not care to visit another one, thank you very much.

After our elephant ride, we went on a "white-water" rafting trip, which was pretty comical. The river was low, so our raft got stuck every few yards. (In all fairness there was about 25 yards of pretty quickly moving water, but not enough to be place in the "rapids" category.) We wore some silly looking helmets. All in all, it was an enormously good time.

After we finished our "white-water" rafting, we got on a bamboo raft for the rest of the trip down the river. Our bamboo raft was submerged in a few inches of water, so it was a bit of a damp ride. (We were basically sitting in the river.)

When our bamboo raft ride was finished, we grabbed lunch before heading back to Chiang Mai. Our tour group had agreed to meet up for dinner. Though we did meet up, we never made it to dinner. (We had dropped in at a bar for a drink. One drink turned into two, and so the night went.) During the night, a club owner refused to let our guide, T-Bone, in the club unless we forked over an extra 400 Baht (10 dollars). One of the guys shoved 40 Baht (1 dollar) at him and said emphatically, "Enough" as he dragged T-Bone in the club. We bar/club hopped a bit more before finally heading home at five. Good times were had by all.

When I got home, I discovered I had two roommates, who had both climbed in my bed. They were sitting there patiently, as if they were awaiting my return. Mr. Gecko was quite cute, and I liked him very much, just not in my bed. I thought Mrs. Roach was revolting and tried to kill her with my shoe. Unfortunately, she escaped my murderous rampage. In addition, I hosted a few more visitors, the Mosquito Family, who dropped by to say 'hello' to my legs about twenty times during the night. It goes without saying that I changed hostels the very next day.

I'm sick right now, which is not surprising because I'm ill every March. It's an annual occurrence. I either have a sinus infection or a cold. Whatever it is, I'm running a fever (low grade). I wasn't sure whether to starve the cold or feed the fever, so I just ate ice cream. That always makes everything better.

I just finished sleeping for approximately 17 hours, and I'm starting to feel more like myself. :)