The Trek: The past 2 days we went on a trek, the typical tourist thing to do around Chiang Mai or in the North in General: all tours include some hiking (some more some less) to hilltribe villages, overnighting there, elephant riding, bamboo rafting. There are a ton of guest houses and other companies offering those tours. Actually we were a bit hesitant to go on a guided trip. In Vietnam, though in hinsight all trips there were great, we learned that organized tours often work differently than advertised: delays, people of 10 groups meeting in the same place etc. Anyway, we decided to do take the chance and chose a company that first of all seemed to do it more eco friendly plus they are giving a part of their income of the tours to the inhabitants of the villages. The trek was a full success. We were 9 people and a good mix of nationalities: Avi from the US, Melanie and Heike from Germany, Sebastiano, Maria, Max and Elisa from Italy. Our two guides were so funny, very entertaining and very educated on the task of hilltribes, elephants and the sourrounding nature. On the first day we first visited a waterfall, had lunch and then hiked about 4 hours to the Karen, one of this hill tribes, villages. On the way we saw a geysir and hiked through rainforest and higher, pine trees. The tour company had their own house in the Karen village. We had to shower in the river and there is only little electricity. Our guides and some other village people cooked for us and after dinner we sat around the camp fire, learned about the Karen culture, sang some songs, were thaught some thai dances. A truly great evening. Sleeping was another thing. We all shared the room and just slept on thin matresses. It got really cold at night and though we were provided with sleeping bags etc. it was freezing. And the roosters start at 3.40 am... After breakfast we hiked to the elephant camp, did an elephant ride and then the promised rafting. All was so much fun- especially as our guides really made us laugh all the time. The whole group got along great and it truly was an unexpected great experience.