Rice fields in Northern Thailand!
Cow came by to wish us luck on our journey!
Our first village!
Standing in the road!
How cute is this little lamb?
Villager boys playing with a bug on a string as a toy.
Villagers.
Tyler and I wearing some of the local tribal hats.
I caught a baby chick!
Tyler hanging with a few villager boys.
After lunch, we headed out of the first village.
Next stop – Huay Mae Sai Waterfall!
We jumped in for a quick swim. All refreshed.
Then continued on the journey!
We came upon our second village where we stayed the night.
The village of Banyafu.
This little guy followed us from the first village to the second village. We named him Dave. He is tired.
Showered, changed and Prepping dinner.
Eating our Thai dinner!
Where our meal was cooked.
Feed our mascot, Dave, with some left overs (with villagers laughter and approval).
Our group. We stayed in the hut behind us and slept on floor mats.
Saying goodbye to mama pig!
Ready for day 2!
Found another waterfall.
Took a dip… now ready for more trekking.
Our tour guide found this bug. He said they are good to eat. He cooked it at the next village and ate it.
My foot in an elephant track on the trail!
Elephant on the trail. That explains the footprint.
Finally!!! We made it! Showered after a long day of trekking! Those are the bathroom facilities behind me.
Hanging with the local farm animals.
Our tour guide, Sit, sang us a Thai song before dinner.
Woke up to elephant noises. Our elephants arrived to take us back to Chiang Rai.
Tyler feeding the elephants.
On our elephant!
Riding on the elephants soulders.
It’s nice up here.
Trunk up is always good luck.
We journeyed back to civilization. Saying goodbye to our ride.
Now for a boat ride back to Chiang Rai.
Our adventures in Thailand continued with our Hillside Trek of Northern Thailand. Over the course of three days, we visited three villages and hiked a total of 10 hours. We saw some fantastic sights, slept on mats under mosquito netting, showered under hoses and lived as the villagers live. On the third day we left the third village and road an elephant back to civilization. This journey was seriously amazing and an adventure of a lifetime.
If you ever take this adventure, here are a few tips:
- Bring a bathing suit, you never know when you will find an amazing pool or waterfall you want to jump into.
- Bring electrolyte powder to add to your water. It is humid and water alone will may not hydrate you. I should know, I did not bring electrolytes and by the end of this journey I was hospitalized for dehydration. Now I know and I am sharing my wisdom. 🙂
- Pack light, you will need to carry everything you need along your journey.
- Wear breathable (possibility waterproof) shoes.
- Bring snacks. I always had a bag of local fruit (dragon fruit, mangosteen, rambutan) tied to my back pack for easy access snacking! Man… I miss that fruit!
More Thailand adventures to come!
JESSETTERS 
It looked pretty rustic in the villages, so I’m assuming there was no indoor plumbing, no electricity. Am I right? Would you do this trip again?
They were very rustic! I believe there was one electric outlet in the villages and they had a hose for a shower. And YES I’d do it again! In a heartbeat! I’d stay longer too!
~oh man I love Thailand! 😀 Have you been to Malaysia? It`s where I come from 😀
Sadly, we have never been to Malaysia. It is on our list. What would be some recommendations for when we do visit?