Jungle Trek...

My last day in Thailand was spent on a jungle trek. The day started when I was picked up and loaded (squished) into the back of a truck with 11 other tourists to be driven to the mountains.

The drive was crazy as always in Thailand and I held on for dear life and prayed that we would not come to any sudden stops as there was literally nothing to keep me from flying out the back. An hour later we were in the mountains and being fed fried rice that I was too scared to eat because I didn't want food poisoning. I was a little paranoid after having gotten sick.



The other tourists were mostly from Europe and really nice. We all bonded as we tried to keep up with our tour guide in the 98 degree and extremely humid weather . We were soaked in sweat head to toe with bright red faces and reminding ourselves that we chose and paid (only $30) to be on this trip... so darn it we were gonna have a good time even if we were about to pass out from heat exhaustion.

The photo at the top is of my tour guide. He mostly just walked really fast and we followed so that we wouldn't get lost. He spoke decent English and when he found out I was from CA he started singing "welcome to the hotel California." A favorite Thai song which I heard countless times during my two week stay.

Overall the trek was a great adventure. I got to see rice paddies, small coffee plantations and visit two villages. All but one other tourist and me were on a two day trek and I have to say that at the end of the day it brought me great pleasure to know that I got to hike out of the jungle to take a refreshing shower and leave the rest to sleep on moldy blankets in a jungle village.

Merry Christmas with a dash of Thailand...

Yes, I still have some Thailand blogs up my sleeve that need to be posted. I have not forgotten. So this one is a Merry Christmas with a photo from my jungle trek and some from Chico.

I was amazed when I came across this huge poinsettia in the middle of the jungle outside of Chiang Mai. I did a little research and found that poinsettias are native to Mexico and South America. So technically it is an introduced species in Thailand but it didn't appear to be invasive as I only saw two plants while there.

It's a sunny and not so cold Christmas day in Chico, CA. Awoke at 6am when my cell phone alarm clock came on because I forgot to turn it off (oops) and thus was up early to open presents from Santa. But that worked out well as my Bro called from Thailand a little after 7am to wish us a Merry Christmas as his was ending and he was about to go to bed.

After the presents were unwrapped we watched The Christmas Story, which has become tradition thanks to me. That was followed by a rare breakfast prepared by Dad. Once the frost melted Dad and I adventured outdoors, first stopping at the Naked Lounge Cafe downtown for warm coffee before heading to the Sacramento River. There we saw 2 blue herons and 3 river otters and many more hawks and smaller birds. It has been a great Christmas thus far but next year my Bro will be here to be mean to me and say, "bah humbug" and everything will feel perfect.

Happy Holidays to All!