i have just returned from my 2 day trek into the jungles of the pai region of northern thailand. pai is about 50 km from the border to burma. this trek was awesome, probably the coolest thing i have done so far on my trip. we hiked about 3.5 hrs (most of it uphill - i turned out to be in better shape than i thought ) to a waterfall for a swim - then hiked about an hour to our base camp in a hill tribe village to have dinner (food was excellent) and camp for the evening. we slept on sleep mats in a hut and had an old school campfire. the next morning, we came back down the mountain on an elephant - i sat in the front, and considering all the mental things i have done in my life, this might have been once of the dumbest. the elephants are trained but i would use the word trained lightly - they don't always respond to direction and of course my group's elephant was definitely the most non-cooperative of the elephants. while i was on it, it head butt another elephant, and then once smooshed its head into the backside of the other elephant with my leg stuck in the middle - painful. nonetheless, the ride was super cool.

after the ride, we had lunch then got on bamboo rafts and floated down a small river that took us back to our truck for the ride home.

i am off to an authentic thai cooking class today so details on that later!