Thibaud en Nouvelle Zélande

3rd of June

Last day of the trekking

During the trek we've seen heaps of small Karen village but now we are in a pretty big one

I don't know which kind of fruit it is but I do like the picture

In this village, all the house are built with wood and bamboo and underneath, there is always pork and chicken hanging around!

This tourist Karen women is sewing for all the day long some hand made piece of art.

With all our tourist crew I guess it was a good day for her

After the Karen village, we met 2 Thai people who borow us this hand made weapon you can only find it here

Time to enjoy the last waterfallof the trek before the bamboo boat riding

Then after eating during a very heavy rain we went to the banboo boat ride.

It's some 8m long bamboo attached together. You have a bamboo driver who has a bamboo stick (bamboo again) and his pushing the bamboo boat with it.  At first you are in the river without a lot of curent and you think it's gonna be boring... But then your bamboo driver is starting to play with his bamboo, making you wet, running on the bamboo boat, pushing you in the waterand it's getting funny. then the current river is getting tougher and you can ry to take the bamboo ofyour driver and try to stir... but alone it's really not easy, if you don't push in the right moment, your boat is just not going in the good direction and you smash the rock... as you are standing for pushing with your bamboo stick, the shock is tricky...

After an hour playing as child on the bamboo boat, it's over... Now it's time to go back to Chiang Mai and I'm getting really tired!!!

David was the eldest but you should have seen him on the bamboo boat... He really played like a kid... He is a really cool guy and he slept like a baby till Chiang Mai

Back in the hotel, I can take a quick shower, pack my backpack again and then it's time to take the train for Ayutthaya a 5.30PM for an other train night...

1st of June

Today is time to go for the jungle trekking.

First meeting all the team: 4 english girls about 19 - 20 years old. An american couple from San Fransisco 21 and 25. An other American from Alaska living Utah 32 and an Australian girl 20 and of course a French guy who is going to be in deep shit with all those different english accent!  First our guide, Birdy with dread lock and 2 other one stoped at a market to get some vege they will cook for us tonight in a hut....

Normal Thai picture from the trunk of our car

Ok, here we go for the first part of the trek, elephant riding!

First you have to buy some banana in order to feed your elephant. it's more natural than fuel... and really funny to give! I had to sit on the head of the elephant because there were no more place on the bench on the back... I don't care, that was even funnier! You have to put your leg just behind his ear. In the beginning you don't really feel very stable but then you're getting use to it... After a few minutes he is starting to get hot so he keep on shaking his ear... It's a bit annoying for your leg but the poor animal is working for you so I'm not gonna complain. I had a big bag of banana and after 10 minutes I gave him everything... He put his trunk on his head. you put to banana. He put the 2 banana in his mouth and 2 sec later his trunk is going up again to have more... Of course he really don't care about the banana skin... Anyway, allmy banana didn't last long...

Siting on his head is quite funny, he has hair on his head and it's really hard hair, like a door matress....

The elephant of the american couple is asking for more banana

This Thai guy was sleeping on the elephant, Im not kiding... Once he jump of the head and went back on his head lying in the other side. He must be use to it...

The Australian girl and David the american guy are taking a steep short cut... Or maybe the elephant feel free with his sleepy driver!

Even if you are not walking, on the head you have to be stable and the weather is so hot that it's almost more tiring than walking...

This big pot full of water is the shower of the elephant... He is taking water in his trunk and then free shower...

Ok aftter one hour riding the elephant it's the end. I thought it would be all the 3 days like this! But after one hour, you understood what is elephant riding... I mean tiring... Just an hour is more than enough...

After a rice and vege lunch let's start the jungle trekking by walking an hour till this water fall. Birdy already has to wash his dread lock

Weird track!

Rice field waiting for the rainy season... Might be starting in 2 weeks. They can do the trekking in the rainy season too... I think it's a totally different experience... With blue sky it's hot but the colour are amazing

Can you see the buffalo?

A banana field

That's a stop in a Karen Village. Those people are from Burma. Chiang Mai is really close to Burma... A lot of diferent war with them a long time ago. Now Burma is a poor country and lot of them moved to Thailand but in the beginning they were ilegal. But few years ago, the king gave them ID.... Anyway, if you see where they are leaving, you can imagine that they don't really care ta have ID or not... Their house are just built with bamboo and piece of wood... They are in the middle of nowhere living in harmony with nature... As usual there is some baby dog... SO cute again...

The Karen family is staring at us hiden in the shadow. The little girl is shy but her mother push her to sell us some necklace... You can also see on this picture that the roof is built with special hydrophobe leaf.... Normally they have to change it every 3 years... here I guess they are a bit late... Or maybe they are waiting 1 or 2 week for changing it just before the start of the rainy season...

The track is going deeper and deeper in the jungle...

This bridge is made with one tree and is maybe 20 m long and very thick... I wonder how they moved it...

This is a special ladder in the way that there is only one stick... I tried it and after 2 or 3 m you really don't feel confortable because the cracking noise of the wood... They use it to harvest honey on the top of the tree... And it's maybe 50 m high... I wonder how they can climb on the top without any security...

Here we are! That's gonna be our camp for tonight. maybe 4 hut in this "village". And I guess there is more dog than human here... At least 10 dogs...

That's the toursit hut, full of colour!

Here there is no shower, you have to wash in the river which is 15m far away from the camp...

Our guides are coming back from the shower and are going to cook us such a delicious real Thai meal

Old Thai method to fish

While they are cooking, they give us some Thai whisky. Actually, they put some tasty piece of tree bark (écorce) in the whisky and let it ferment for 3 months. When you are walking in the jungle, the guide have big sharp knife and they are always cutting some bambou. For exemple the glasse has been built today with a piece of bamboo. They also show you interesting nature trick that you can't discover without them... there is a plant you can fold and they you blow and it's making bubble in the air... Some wild fruit. A plant you can make up with.... But it look like you are bleeding! Some litlle insect they can grab so fast... Anyway it's really worth to discover the jungle with them because they know a lot about it!

Music and whisky for waiting the dinner

And finally the dinner is ready in the "kitchen". They just have to move it to our table....

That was so good! A lot of diferent vege, coconut sauce rice and meat

Then cool evening with thai reggae guitar.... and fire jungling

After 1 hour on a small boat I arrived in Koh Phi Phi totally wet. This Island really look beatutifull. A lot different than Koh Lanta

I start with an other extract of a mail to my father in French...

Ici c'est vraiment plus petit et ya pas de scooter a louer. Surment parce que tu peux faire le tour de l'ile assez rapidement. Ya un point de vue ou il faut que jaille mais avec cette chaleur ecrasante le moindre effort te fait suer a grosse goutte. C'est vraiment sympa la thailand, dans la rue il ya tjrs des brochettes, des fruits des soupes de nouille et l'odeur te donne variment envie...  La je viens  desseyer une brochettes avec des ananas de la viande oignon et piments... Mais la prochaine fois je vais me mefier car j'ai du garder le piment 5sec ds ma bouche avant de le recracher tt entier et mes levres s'en souviennent encore... Ca arche un max leur truc!
 
Je suis vraiment pas decu de visiter la Thailand. C'est presque mieux que la NZ et l'australie reuni... C'est vraiment cool de pouvoir finir mon periple par ici.
 
Ici les gens t'accoste moins qu'a Bangkok et les principaux magasins sont bien sur les pti resto ds la rue mais beaucoup de plongee sous marine et tour en masque et tuba... je pense que demain je vais faire un tour de tuba. Le scuba diving c'est un peu cher et avec ces histoires de niveau, si tu veux te faire plaisir il doit faloir y passer une dizaine de jour. Bref, j'ai 3 jours ici donc je pense faire que du snorkeling. hier mon pote toulousain que j'ai laisse a Koh Lanta est partis en faire et il m'a dit que les couleurs etaient magnifiques. J'ai regarde et j'ai baisse le prix a 450 BAT pour laprem jusquau couche du soleil. Je suis bien content de pas avoir fait ca a la grande barriere de corail en Australie car j'aurai paye au moins 5 fois plus cher... C'est vraiment top la Thailand. Je sens que ca va me donner envie dy retourner plus tard! Va faloir que j'economise des sous avant de pouvoir y retourner et surtout te rembourser. Mais ca donne vraiment envie de faire le periple Viet nam laos cambodge et apres prk pas l'inde le nepal et autre... Je crois que je vais finir accro au voyage maintenant...

So I went to this view point after a hot noodle soup. I just went there by wearing a short and nothing else... This island just give you this spirit that you feel relax and so free to do whatever you want

The view point is high enough to make you sweat all your noodle soup. A big stair is going to the first view point

Then a tourist track is going to the higher lookout and it let you imagine how the view is gonna be awesome on the top

Thailand is just full of what I like the most : amazing beach view and cat

And here I'm, on the top of this hill with one of the best view I've ever seen... it's just so beautifull. I could stay for ages on this piece of rock waiting for the sun seting and even rising...

What a good view for a restaurent... Hard to beat

  I'll always remember this view from this piece of rock

Then I saw this sign snorkeling who was leading to the other side of the hill. But that was not the same track to get there... Overall when you are barefoot... But after 30min I get on this beach with nobody on...

The sign was right: you can rent mask snorkel and fin for 100 BAT (2.5€)... And in the water, surprise.... first it's warm but not too hot... Actually it was the first time I went in the water because in Koh Lanta, the beach were very rocky and it was not really possible to get in by low tide... The second surprise is when you put your mask and have the first look to the water... it's so clear and so colourfull! In the beginning there is those fish who are curious and just swim fast in front of your mask as to wish you welcome in this beautifull water... Then you are going further and you can see heaps of colourfull reef and so many different kind of fish... Anyway it's not possible to describe it, you have to experience it!

here is the kind of fish you can see around Koh Phi Phi. A french guy show me that in the evening, he was a scuba diver teacher and was travelling for 4 years now and always going somewhere else and finding a job everywhere he went... that's a good job...

Then I met 2 french guy woh fall in love with Thailand and with Thai girls... Actually they met their Thai girl 2 years ago and they are working in France and taking all their holiday in Thailand... Their goal now is to open a restaurant in Thailand like one of their friend did.... Anyway we had a good conversation with beer till it was dark...

And I realised that I had to go back by the jungle bare foot without any light...

So they gave me a candle and 2 beers to give me strengh in the jungle

Time to sweat beer in the steep track in the jungle

After 20 min going uphill, on the top of the hill, there is a family with a guy from the netherland. he is working for them since 3 or 4 month and just get accomodation and food for free... And that's all he need... I can understand him, That's so nice on the top of the hill here... While we were speaking, the family said it was dinner time and I was invited... Cool, a real meal from a Thai family... That was awesome, a big pot of rice, 2 fish and a plate with vegetable from thailand... I think I didn't know any vegetable on this plate but I tried it all. SOme were like asperge, other like brocoli, some vege were spicy, some not, some like pea but each time not exactly the same than in Europe... And you could pick everything in the same big wooden plate. And the way it was cook was so good... I really like Thai food, I was really lucky to meet this familly.! After dinner they showed me their young family cat... that was so cute... I played a long time with like a child!!! That was such a good day again...

Then at 10 they all went to bed, so I had to go back to the other side of the hill with my candle again

Then I went to the beach where the atmosphere is a lot diferent than on the top of the hill with the Thai family... I met an english couple and stayed with them watching the people jongling with fire

First stop: a kind of a pirate cave

That was looking like the Milford sound in New Zealand. The steep rock faling in the water... A lot smaller than New zealand but that was beautifull too and we could swim in...

Each time the boat is stopping you can put you mask snorkel and fin on and swim in the beautifull water... Once Vincent the french guy from grenoble let his fin fallen in the 7m deep water... But that the kind of stuff I like so much to dive deep and get the fin back... Then I challenge Romane to jumpr from a boat who was standing close to us and who was a lot higher than our... Maybe 6m high... She was afraid to jumpr from the top level because there were a jump to do over the fence in the lower level... But she made it!

And then it's time to arrive on maya bay

The most beautifull beach I've ever seen

I though it was not worth to go in the Island in Thailand after New Zealand and Australia. but then when you are there you really understand why everybody say it's even more beautifull than New Zealand...

We hqd our meql on this beach

Time to leave this wonderfull spot and see the other side of maya island. This piece of rock was looking really weird because it was really high and looking very thin, like a wall. But then again it's something you have to see in reality

Leaving Maya island

Time to go back on Koh Phi Phi at Monkey point

It's easy to be a monkey there... a lot of boat full of tourist are coming everyday with heaps of banana... What a good life, Rocks and tree to climb and play just over the beautifull sandy beach

Romane was taking a picture of the monkey and 5 second later he scratch her on her belly... But no too bad. Anyway it's better not to go to close to them

Mister monkey prefer salty banana

I really like this picture

Time to show us your acrobat skill mister monkey