Not So Hardcore?

We have been so excited to go 'trekking' through the jungle of northern Thailand. Trying to explain this experience would require writing skills like my mom, which I don't have. It was one of those experiences that I wouldn't give up, and I'm glad I did it, but I'm not so sure I would do it again...it made me realize I may not be as hardcore as I would have previously claimed. What can I say? Let me just say though, that before I left UT, I went to trusty REI and bought these rockin' awesome shoes which seriously saved the day. Waterproof, sturdy, fabulous.

We were in a group of 12, 6 girls from England (fabulously funny who enjoyed making fun of our American accent--and I'm not sure, but somehow Mallorie picked up a British accent?), a guy from Canada and two guys from Singapore. They piled us in the back of a truck and we took of driving for several hours until we reached "the jungle." Then they piled us into the back of another truck, this one being a 4x4 to get us up the steep, muddy, hill. I really thought I might die at this point. All 12 of us were screaming and laughing...until the truck got stuck. We all got out, the hooked a rope up to the front and asked the 3 boys to go up and start pulling. It didn't take them long before they realized that the real muscles were with the women, so we all grabbed onto the rope, got totally muddy and pulled the truck out of its muddy demise.

We then hiked through the jungle surrounded by shades of green that you forget exist until you surround yourself in it. Although surrounding yourself with these shades of green also meant that we were surrounding our feet by blood sucking creatures we like to call...leeches. That's when my hardcore-ness started to slip. I just about lost my mind. We each armed ourselves with a leech stick and our eyes were glued to our feet because they can go from shoe to skin in seconds and the thought of that really just made me want to die. We frequently screamed and flung leeches from our own and from our hiking neighbors' shoes. For the most part we were successful, but several of the creatures slyly conquered our determined effort and got what they were looking for--blood.

Both nights we slept in hill-tribe villages where several families had established dwellings. It was so neat to see how they lived. We all bunked up in one big room with mosquito nets and thin pads. This was another part of the trip where the "girly" side of me was exposed. Sleeping in the jungle exposes one to lots of big and foreign bugs and that knowledge doesn't lend itself to the sound night of sleep I am used to. The first night it started raining around 7 o'clock so we were stuck inside from 7pm-morning. Nanette had packed a pack of cards and the 3 of us started playing some games and then we realized we involve the entire gang with a good old-fashioned game of Mafia. Nobody had heard of the game and they loved it. It was amazing. We played for hours.

The trek ended with elephant rides and white water rafting down a jungle river. It was a fabulous ending to a fabulous trip. Then back in the truck, but by this time it was like hanging out with 11 of my best friends, jungle trips will do that to a group.