When I was staying at Julie's Guest House I decided to do a 1 day trek that went around to 
surrounding areas by Chiang Mai. Julie's Guest House makes it so easy to do things around Chiang Mai, because they have a travel agency located in the guest house. They also tell you the truth on what is good to do and what you could possibly do without. There was an option between a 1 day trek and a 3 day trek, and I can guarantee you that I made the right decision...I talked to people that returned from the 3 day trek and said they wished they only did the one day! I honestly can't remember how much it cost to do the 1 day trek, but it was pretty inexpensive.
So the next day at about 8 am a van came to the guest house and picked me up along with a couple other travelers. The guides spoke English very well and were pretty funny. They put you in this little truck that they put seats and a cover in the back part. We also had to stop by a couple other 
guest house's to pick up other travelers. In all, there was 7 of us that were going on the trip together. Everybody turned out to be pretty cool. There were two people from Spain, 2 people from Germany, and then a guy from Italy.
After we had picked up everybody we headed about an hour outside of Chiang Mai. We went t
o a refugee village called Ahay Village (I think). This village was started because of people fleeing Burma (also known as Myanmar). I thought the village would have nothing...which it didn't have a lot of things, but as I was walking through the village I saw a couple of the homes with satellite dishes coming off of the houses. I couldn't believe it. Even though they don't have a lot of things they still have TV coming in their home. After walking around the village for about 45 minutes they make you walk through an area that they sell their goods, and look at you and ask you to buy everything. This is the only part of the whole day I didn't like. It is hard for me to say no, and they take you to this village so that you see it and then buy things. It was kind of messed up, but what can you do?
After leaving the refugee camp we climbed back in our truck. We next headed to a site that had about 8 elephants chillin' and just waiting for us to show up. I had never even touched an elephant so I was kind of hyped to get close to them. Before we rode the elephants they told us that the elephants love bananas. So of course, they had a lot there that we could buy...how convenient. So I bought a bundle of bananas and climbed these stairs in order to get up on this little saddle that was on the back of the elephant. They are so big and strong it is crazy. There skin is so tough to the touch, and they also have thick hair sticking off of their heads. I had to laugh because it was too funny.
Once you get on the elephants their trunk starts going back and forth constantly. It smelled so bad when they would try to touch you with their trunk. All they wanted were the bananas, so when they brought their trunk toward you all you had to do is take a whole banana and put it on their trunk and they took care of the rest! The whole ride was probably about 20 minutes which was longer than expected. It was a cool experience.
By this time it was getting close to lunch time. We had all gotten back in the truck for about a 10 minute drive. From there we trekked about 45 minutes through the jungle to this waterfall that was hidden. I trekked in my sandals which were basically the only thing that I was wearing 24/7. At the waterfall, our guide Lanna brought out a our lunch which was pad Thai wrapped in these banana leaves that kept them warm the entire morning. I love pad Thai and we ate just hanging out right by the waterfall. One guy in our group was sitting on this rock and lost his balance and fell in the pool with all his clothes on. We all laughed for about 10 minutes.
The last part of the day was rafting down a local river. The water wasn't as high as it usually was so
it wasn't the fastest river, but it was still pretty fun. The couple from Spain had a hard time understanding anything at all about rafting since their English was limited, but I translated everything for them as best as I could and I think they understood! We went down the river in two boats without too many problems. About 20 minutes down the river we switched from normal rafting boats to two bamboo boats that float down the river. It was pretty crazy to be riding down a river in bamboo, because we just sat down on the bamboo and at some times our butts were scrapping the bottom of the river.
All in all it was a very fun day. It seems like they could have cut out about 2.5 hours of the trip because of all the driving but its all good. It took about 50 minutes to get back into Chiang Mai from where we got off the bamboo boat. It was so hot humid that I was getting so car sick, but I made it back to the guest house without getting sick. I would definitely recommend the one day trek to anybody going through Chiang Mai.
When we got back into Chiang Mai we all decided to meet up for a drink later on. We met at this bar called "The Wall," which was a bar that only played Pink Floyd music located by the Tha Phae Gate. While our whole group was just hanging out there was a girl that was sitting by herself. Since I was traveling by myself I knew how it felt to be at a bar by yourself. So I invited her to join our table. It turned out this girl was from Mclean, Va and went to the same high school as my cousins. Then about 10 minutes later the two guys that were from Germany told me an American girl was coming to meet up with us for a drink. Turns out this girl lived in Des Moines, Ia and lived about 10 minutes from my parents house. It is such a small world once you start traveling!
