We made it out of the Jungle!!!!!!!!

Leigh Anne and I made it through our 4 day trek (well actually we changed it to a 3 day trek after the first day). This wasn't quite what we were expecting. I had exchanged quite a few emails with our guide named Sam and he described the trek, where we would be staying, what to bring, etc. Sounded like an easy enough jolly ole time in the forest, seeing new and great things. Which it was!! However, Sam omitted a few details which would have been really good to know prior.

First and foremost is that he didn't seem to know exactly where he was going. The first day we were picked up in Chiang Mai and went on about a 4 hour drive north to Sappong which is about 40 kilometers away from the border of Thailand and Burma. We then started our trek which was gorgeous. Walking past rice fields with stunning views of the mountains, etc. It was really nice. After a few hours, Sam decided that it was a wise idea to take a shortcut to the village. Before long out comes his machete and we were in extremely thick jungle just following this guy through 'who knows where'?! As it started to get dark my worst nightmare started occurring to me that we may be lost in the SE Asian jungle! This nightmare became a reality when about 10 minutes before dark Sam turned to us and asked if we knew which direction east was or if we had a compass. NO!, we didn't I thought that was your job!!!

By the grace of God the dense jungle gave way to an opening and we actually found a small hut to sleep in. No food, no water, no blankets, nothing but us in this little hut. Basically, it was a frightful night and I think we both slept about 15 minutes. We go to sleep and wake up to Sam saying "Sam give you real jungle experience. This is real highlight!" Wanting to stay on good terms with our guide til we were out of the jungle all we could do is smile and say "You sure do!!!"


We mumbled too each other about how much laying on the wooden boards hurt our bodies, put back on our muddy tennis shoes and continue our trek. Sam was still confident he knew where 'this village' we were looking for was, and our prayer was simply that we'd find water by noon.-crazy! Entering the deep jungle again and after about 2 hours of walking we make it to the village we were suppose to stay in the night before. This was actually really neat to see. This people live in the jungle and are hill tribes who live off of the land. They have no electricity or any of the comforts we are accustomed. They farm their fields and live off of the land. It's really neat to see and we loved this part of it.

We were reunited with our food and had breakfast of pineapple and bread. Never thought a simple meal could taste so good. Also, we were joined here with a porter to carry the food who actually knew his way around the mountains and that was comforting.

After breakfast and seeing how tired and hard the trek was we decided to switch to 3 days instead of 4. This changed the route a little bit so we got to see a few more villages. The day pretty much consisted of climbing some huge hills or small mountains and walking through the beautiful northern Thailand jungle which was really nice.



The second night we made it to a hut in the jungle. This night we actually were treated with food, which was really good (especially the red curry). Since we had food from the night before that we didn't get to eat there was as much food as we wanted. And the views from the hut were amazing. It was right on the edge of deep jungle and a rice paddy with views of the mountains jutting out of the jungle. We loved that. Sitting by the fire in the hut and just looking at how amazingly beautiful this place is. But again our nights sleep consisted of sleeping on a hard wooden floor with no blankets or pillows. The fire kept us warm for a while but it didn't last all night.

The third day we were greeted with some delicious eggs and toast for breakfast, along with some really good coffee. The day was off to a great start!! It was raining but we didn't really mind that. The day consisted of a nice walk out of the jungle stopping by one more village on the way out. We also saw our first snake of the trip (thankfully dead). We passed some hunters who said they just killed a 9 foot King Cobra about 10 minutes before we made it through. Sure enough it was hanging in a tree with its head blown off!! Our guides decided to play with it for about 10 minutes while we stood back and watched from a distance. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful (other than a few leeches on my feet).



After we made it out of the jungle I shared a few Changs with the non english speaking porter who was an amazing guide. We felt really safe with him. Leigh Anne had a couple of mango smoothies and we then checked into a guesthouse for the 4th night of our trek. Had some fried chicken for dinner and a great night sleep.



Anyways, to sum it up "Sam gave us real jungle experience. A real highlight"!!!

And I have an amazing wife!! No matter what happened Leigh Anne just kept trucking along and never complained once. She was really impressive!!!