We dr
ive out into the countryside stopping at a market briefly for supplies. First activity is the longneck village. The longnecks are one of the local hill tribes who wear rings around their necks to stretch them. I'm the only one of our tour group who has a package to see them so I go alone with our guide Cha. We climb some steps to the 'village' where actually people from several different tribes live. They all wear traditional garments and stand outside their homes selling handmade purses, scarves, bookmarks and souvenirs. In reality this is not a village but another tourist souvenir market where hill tribe villagers have congregated somewhere easily accessible to tour groups. I am presently the only member of any such tour group here and am therefore feeling terribly awkward, especially taking photographs and feel very pressurized into buying things from them. For the first time I wish I wasn't the only tourist somewhere!! Even though technically the price for coming here was an additional 300 baht, of course this is not what I actually paid and when the others remark later how they're glad I paid and not them I chose to neglect to mention that I actually paid hundreds less than them! work on your haggling guys. From the disappointing 'village' we go to somewhere which is supposed to be another hill tribe village and it is a village of sorts but not a hill tribe; it actually appears to be a relation or friend of Cha's home where we have our Pad Thai. It's a scenic spot nonetheless. We walk from here 10 minutes to the elephant camp where take an hour (ish) long ride on an elephant. There's two people on the seat and one can sit on the neck so we switch round and all get a turn. Our elephant is called Sawasdee (hello) and sitting on the neck is really much more difficult than it looks, especially when the mahout is sitting right in front of you on the elephant's head! As his huge legs swing back and forward his shoulder blades sway an alarming amount causing my buttocks to slip considerably from side to side and am frequently almost falling off entirely! Our poor little Sawasdee doesn't seem all that keen on marching us around and stops to make whining trumpet noises until the mahout cajoles him on with shouting and a jab of his bull hook, owww. It's an experience anyway and I love the elephants.
We take a short drive from there to begin our trek across the mountain which is supposedly 3 to 4 hours long but takes us 1 hour 50 mins and we're not running, just trying to keep up with Cha. It's a pretty strenuous walk up and down hill so we're actually relieved when it's over. The scenery is nice through the forest filled with bamboo and views across some farmland. We reach our camp around 5 pm. This is another 'village', which is one Thai guy in a wooden house and some more traditional bamboo housing for us to stay in. I have to say it's not what sprung to mind when they said homestay in 
a hill tribe village but it is nice; there's lots of pigs and chickens roaming around which actually makes us a little concerned about the safety of our dinner! Cha takes us to a waterfall a few minutes away where we swim in it's refreshing and freezing waters for a short time before heading back to camp for the evening. We eat green curry and then sit around the camp fire under under the stars listening to Michelle's awesome tales of Chitty the car. She's a Canadian living in NZ and traveling the world extensively. She works as a bit of a film maker and I cant wait to watch her feature of Chitty online after hearing her tale. It's a lovely evening in the Thai forest regardless of the lack of a 'village'.
The following morning we rise around 8.30 after inevitably having been disturbed by the cockerel since about 4 am and have a slow breakfast of toast, eggs and fruit. Our single host guy has magically transformed into 3 guys, almost enough to qualify for a village. After brekky we walk to an actual village where a few people actually live! hurrah! There's not much there but some pigs and chickens but I suppose that's because it's not a tourist attraction. From here we walk to cave where only a couple of us dares venture inside to seek out bats and spiders in its darkness.
Then it's more trekking through beautiful farmland, across the mountain and eventually to a house where we have lunch. After filling our hungry tums we drive to a river where we do some white water rafting. The white water section isn't very long but it's bloody exciting and then we paddle gently along the calm river past majestic elephants giving rides through the water. Rafting is the last activity and so with mixed emotions about the tour we head for home, Chiang Mai. On returning I find that Ping Pong doesn't have space for me at Mojito Garden anymore, oh yeah now I've done my tours I think, but actually he does give me a ride and get me a bed at the affiliated Mojito House which turns out to be more to my liking anyway!
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