Day 42 - Trek Day 3

It poured all night. I was awakened by rain leaking through the roof and dripping on my face. I was too tired to move so I just covered my face with my rain jacket and went back to sleep. Morning came quickly when the roosters decided to hangout underneath the hut and scream at 5 am. I woke up feeling like crap. The pillow was like a cubed brick.

After breakfast we trekked about an hour to the cave to do some caving. I've never been in a cave like this before. It was huge and because it rained all night, the cave was flooded. There were mini rivers in the cave with some pretty big waterfalls. Water was everywhere. There was a very steep staircase we needed to climb down and into the cave. The water was very fast and thigh high. We needed to climb things I never thought were possible to climb, especially with absolutely no equipment except for a headlamp and walking stick. It was the biggest rush I've felt here so far. It was ridiculous! I'm pretty sure I'm an adrenaline junkie. The cave was full of bats, snakes and spiders. It took about an hour to get through the cave and was one of the best experiences I've ever had.

From here we drove to the area where we rode elephants that was about 2 hours away. Riding elephants turned out to be really cool. The elephant's trainer was sitting on the elephant's head and controlling the direction of the elephant by word commands or by moving the elephant's ears with his feet. The elephants were really big. The trainer allowed me to ride on the elephants head which is a pretty amazing experience. I never would have known that an elephant's head was covered in bristles! It was a wonderful! The elephant's kept eating the entire ride, randomly picking leaves off of trees and off the ground. One elephant actually put his trunk in a bush and pulled out a pumpkin and ate it in a single bite. These animals are very fascinating.

After this we drove to a long neck village for 400B and went in to see the village. These people originate in Burma and this village was relatively new so many people still did not speak any Thai. They made the most beautiful scarves. Apparently the girls begin to stretch their necks at the age of 5 and continue to make the metal coil longer as they get older. It's one piece of coiled metal that is wound around the neck and it is extremely heavy.

Today's trek was quite easy compared to the last 2 days. However I was bitten by everything known to man today. My legs are covered in bites from mosquitoes, flies, spiders and leeches. To top it off, I was bitten by a few fire ants. Holy Hell! I had no idea what pain was until then. Only about 3 bites but they burn for ages, you seriously feel like you're on fire.

Back at the Guesthouse, we went for dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Miguel's owned by a Canadian from Vancouver B.C. I just needed food that didn't make me feel raw and had some fries as carbs. I've been eating more here than anywhere else I've been because there aren't very many starchy carbs so i get hungry way more often. Trekking is a great experience. I would totally do it all over again.