Oh my Budda!!!

I have not long returned from a 3 day "trek" in the mountains of northern Thailand.

We set of with a small group of seven plus our guide, Aekki to walk through the mountains and visit some of the hill tribes in the Pai area. We took a 2 hour drive from Chang Mai up into the mountians. On the way we stopped at a regional market to purchase the food needed for the trip.

As always I find the markets the most interesting of places. From pork crackling to fried grasshoppers, we tried it all. If it looked strange and wonderful, I sampled it, much to the delight of the locals.

We began our trek from the village of Karen, where we had a hearty lunch of Pad Thai and played with the local children before setting off.

The first night was spent in the village of Lahu, which is scattered accross the side of a mountain. Our bamboo hut had wonderful jungle view. While the day had been hot, th night was cold, but we were entertained by the local children and sampled the local "firewater" in an effort to stay warm.

The second day involved some serious walking up and down the magnificant mountains, to their scrubby tops and into their jungle valleys. We washed in a freezing waterfall and then rode elephants to our final resting place that evening in the village of the Lisu tribe.

The final day day of the tour included some more waling to spectacular peaks followed by a leisurely float down the rive on a bamboo raft to where our driver was waiting to drive us back to Chang Mai.

We had an excellent group with myself, Selim, James from Brisbane, Mark, Chloe and Brad from England and Anni from Sweden.

But our guide, Aekki, was exceptional. His favourite phrase was "Oh my Buddah" and he had a song for every occasion. His cooking was the best I've had so far in Thailand. We enjoyed some wonderful curries. But he really made the trip.