THE BACKPACKER - DAY 1
Base Camp, Somewhere in Northern Thailand
I’m really excited about this jungle trek. It’s a completely new experience for me. I’ve always liked walking. Nearly every lunchtime I go for a walk in Hyde Park - so it seems a natural choice for me to go on this jungle adventure holiday.
There’s six in our party - that includes me. We met up for the first time last night for drinks and introductions in a little wooden shack they call a hotel. My fellow travellers seem like a friendly bunch. There are two girls in the group – Maria from Stockholm (who’s a bit of a looker) and Morag from Dundee (who’s not). The three other guys are Matt from Kent, Phil from Cambridge, and Thijs ( I think it might be pronounced ‘Teesh’ – either that or he sneezed when he introduced himself) and he’s from Eindhoven. Everyone can speak English – well, apart from Morag – so that will help. Our two guides are rather amusingly called Hy and Lo - and wait for it – they come from a village called Phuk Me. Honest, that's what they told me.
Everyone drank beer at the get-together last night except me – I didn’t want to get too bagged up the night before we set off. The bottle of wine I was drinking - which I’d bought at a nearby general store - tasted awful, but I managed to drink three glasses of it. It was only after I started vomiting and had temporary blindness that one of the guides laughingly told me in his pidgin English that it was bleach. Still, in some ways I think my retching may have helped the group to bond quicker.
It’s been a three hour journey in a rickety old army truck to get us to our starting point proper. All the while the undergrowth has got denser and more luxuriant, and the air has got hotter and more humid. I wish I had brought looser fitting underpants.
We’re going to have to cover about 15-20km per day to complete our round trip in the allocated eight days – so that should be quite a challenge - especially as we have to carry all our supplies with us - and we have to cut a path through the jungle. Everyone's rucksack looks better than mine. I should have bought a new one instead of borrowing Dave from the office's. The Isle of Wight Festival badge on it should have been the giveaway.
Before we depart, Hy gathers us round and he says a Buddhist prayer for eternal good luck. But no sooner had we set off, and Lo cut the first frond off a giant fern to begin a path for us, than the heavens open up and we are deluged by an equatorial rainstorm.
We've had to abandon our plans for the day as it is still bucketing down and nightfall is coming. We are currently huddled together in the back of the truck listening to Thijs playing U2 songs on his mouth organ. Lo says he will say the prayer tomorrow.
I’m really excited about this jungle trek. It’s a completely new experience for me. I’ve always liked walking. Nearly every lunchtime I go for a walk in Hyde Park - so it seems a natural choice for me to go on this jungle adventure holiday.
There’s six in our party - that includes me. We met up for the first time last night for drinks and introductions in a little wooden shack they call a hotel. My fellow travellers seem like a friendly bunch. There are two girls in the group – Maria from Stockholm (who’s a bit of a looker) and Morag from Dundee (who’s not). The three other guys are Matt from Kent, Phil from Cambridge, and Thijs ( I think it might be pronounced ‘Teesh’ – either that or he sneezed when he introduced himself) and he’s from Eindhoven. Everyone can speak English – well, apart from Morag – so that will help. Our two guides are rather amusingly called Hy and Lo - and wait for it – they come from a village called Phuk Me. Honest, that's what they told me.
Everyone drank beer at the get-together last night except me – I didn’t want to get too bagged up the night before we set off. The bottle of wine I was drinking - which I’d bought at a nearby general store - tasted awful, but I managed to drink three glasses of it. It was only after I started vomiting and had temporary blindness that one of the guides laughingly told me in his pidgin English that it was bleach. Still, in some ways I think my retching may have helped the group to bond quicker.
It’s been a three hour journey in a rickety old army truck to get us to our starting point proper. All the while the undergrowth has got denser and more luxuriant, and the air has got hotter and more humid. I wish I had brought looser fitting underpants.
We’re going to have to cover about 15-20km per day to complete our round trip in the allocated eight days – so that should be quite a challenge - especially as we have to carry all our supplies with us - and we have to cut a path through the jungle. Everyone's rucksack looks better than mine. I should have bought a new one instead of borrowing Dave from the office's. The Isle of Wight Festival badge on it should have been the giveaway.
Before we depart, Hy gathers us round and he says a Buddhist prayer for eternal good luck. But no sooner had we set off, and Lo cut the first frond off a giant fern to begin a path for us, than the heavens open up and we are deluged by an equatorial rainstorm.
We've had to abandon our plans for the day as it is still bucketing down and nightfall is coming. We are currently huddled together in the back of the truck listening to Thijs playing U2 songs on his mouth organ. Lo says he will say the prayer tomorrow.
posted by wardperfect at 11:00 pm
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