We were all set to go for a trek in the jungles surrounding Chiang Mai (to read: we bought a flashlight, mosquito repellent and few boxes of biscuits.) The tranquil and peaceful province was hidden deep in the mountainous region of Northern Thailand and we imagined how we would take action in the ordinary stuff that someone should do when staying in the jungle: crawling in the mud, drawing on our faces, putting bad-ass camouflage headbands, surviving by finding our own food and having to build a fire.
The trek was pre-booked and organized via a government tourist company and it was a little melting pot with participants from all over the world. On the first day we put the beige shorts on and rocked the whole RAMBO the explorer look. A minivan took us from our hotel in the city and we went for a long drive beyond the outskirts of the city. Soon we reached a flat wetland surrounded by deep bushes and tall trees. This was our drop-off point.
As we were making our way through the inhabited jungle (which if you ask us, was a completely ordinary forest) and were mainly rolling downhill in the mud (lets say it was on purpose) we reached a small village. We decided to set our camp for the night and were warmly welcomed by the local villagers who didn’t mind to share their meal with us. Our dinner included few leaves and possibly branches from the jungle, mixed with rice. It was the most delicious meal we had in a while. As we ate our dinner we looked up in the sky and realized that we forgot how many stars there were.
Our accommodation included few wooden planks, a sleeping bag a mosquito net and a customized wake-up call, delivered by one extremely hairy spider. At sunrise we woke up to find that the fluffy toy Dilyan was hugging was in fact a huge night butterfly.
As the group had its breakfast we prepared to head deeper into the jungle as we had to reach the second village (unless we wanted to REALLY give it a try to the whole LET’S BUILD OUR OWN FIRE thing.)
