We almost didn't get a seat on the train. It was completely full of people standing and extremely hot and noisy. We started on our way. The noise and commotion gave me an anxiety attack. After an hour, I wanted off, but I stuck to it. I couldn't sleep on the wooden benches. After 16 hours of slow going we arrived to Chiang Mai. A nice couple took us to their guest house and tried selling us on their trek. We ate at the hard rock cafe, went for a walk to the tourist office but were 5 minutes too late. We met a lady at Jakawan and decided to go on her trek. But it cost 1500 baht. We went to the night Bazaar that evening and saw some Thai dancing as we ate. I bought some pants and a milkshake.
Got up early at 7:30 for the trek. We checked out of our room, and rode a tuk tuk to the Jakawan guest house and packed our bags for the trek. Got irritated because their packs were junk and they didn't seem prepared. There were nine in our group. We rode in back of a truck to a Shan village, got a porter, took a photo of a pig then we set off on the hike.
We saw water buffalo, bamboo forests, potato fields, and tribal huts. We stopped at a Karen village. A cute girl showed me the shower at the rice terraces. A lady was washing clothes there. There was also a young lady holding a baby in colorful traditional clothing. She had a beautiful smile. I saw many pigs and chickens (some chicks with yarn in their head). They pounded rice with a wooden machine. Everyone slept in a a family's hut. I showered at the school house and played a kickball game with some of the village children.
The Karen live in villages of around 25 houses raised on stilts. The villages tend to cluster. Each household consists of the parents and their unmarried children. Married daughters and their families may also live in the same house. The highest authority is the village priest who runs the village along with the elders.
The Karen have rituals to live harmoniously with the "Lord of the Land and Water", as well as with nature spirits in the rocks, trees, water and mountains that surround them. They also have guardian spirits and believe in the soul. 
Their desire for harmony with nature may partly account for why the Karen have evolved the most ecologically sound system of swidden agriculture.They use a system of rotation over a large area of land and do not cut all the large trees down when they clear a plot. They are also the only group to have built terraces to grow wet-rice.
Karen cloth is hand-woven on back-strap looms and is predominantly red with white, blue or brown vertical stripes. Stitching is clear and decorative. The men may wear simple forms of this material in a sleeveless tunic (or northern Thai clothing), while the women wear more elaborate styles on their sarongs. The women's blouses are made of dark homespun cotton with horizontal embroidered patterns decorated with seeds woven onto the lower half. Unmarried girls of the Skaw group wear plain white shifts.
I didn't sleep well because of noise of someone coughing and smoke from a fire so I went outside and slept on the picnic table. I saw a great shooting star. We had egg sandwiches for breakfast. Then set off for a long hike to a waterfall. I saw good views of a mountain. Got a little lost at the waterfall. It felt great to get wet standing in the waterfall after lunch. The whole group was running low on water. We saw a wildfire on the way to the village. The guides were acting lost and I got upset for being blamed and called slow. I even got water
out of a stream in case we ran out of water. We did make it but there was no water to drink at the village. I made some iodine water with tablets I had. I carved a bamboo cup while hanging around. I took a photo of a villager holding her child with ducklings running around them. There was also one of those wooden rice pounding machines. I saw a small small male pig mating with a huge hog. I had to walk really far to take a shower. We had Thai curry for dinner. A few fellow trekkers tried the opium that the villagers offered them.
We got up late and I had a bug bites on my hand and arm. We ate hard boiled eggs and toast before we set off down hill. It was a very hot walk and the trail kept going downhill. We stopped at a river. I took a photo of a fly 
nest. We ate lunch in a village where we saw 3 boys going through a ritual of manhood. They were all dressed up nice with make-up on. They played music outside as they boys were carried to each house for gifts. Umbrellas were held above them and a gun was fired too.
Then we went on a bamboo raft ride. I stood in back and steered. My foot got wet and the Aussie guy fell in the water. He couldn't bend his knee when he got 
out. Our raft ride took us down a river surrounded by jungle. We stopped along the riverside next to an elephant staging area.
We rode elephants down a trail and crossed the river often. The elephants eat as they walked. They were able to climb steep hills and spray with their trunks using water from the rivers.
I was sure glad to get back to town that evening for a good nights rest in a comfortable bed.
I slept in and went to the Indian consulate and train station that morning. It took a long time to get a visa for Nepal. We got tickets for the sleeper car on the express train to Bangkok. It was more expensive (600 baht). We took a tuk tuk back to the room and then walked around town. I withdrew money and ate at Pizza Hut. We walked around the night markets and stores. I got a small backpack, 2 wooden elephants, an antique bamboo container, and a weight used for opium sales that looked like a Singha lion. I also got a cassette of Thai dance music and ate pad thai wile watching the dance show in the night bazaar. I met up with Donna, had a Me shake and rode a tuk tuk to our room.
We rented a motorcycle and drove to the Mae Sa Elephant Training Centre. We were 20 minutes late but saw most of the show. The elephant shows themselves are refreshingly un-circus like. The emphasis is placed on the skills that elephants have traditionally been taught to aid with the logging of trees. The strength of the elephant & mahout relationship is also highlighted. 
I got a good photo of me with an elephant bathing. The elephants could kick soccer balls, sit, drag logs, and pile them up. There were some Gibbons there too. We went to the 
Mae Sa Falls, but the water was low and muddy. Donna followed me on her motorbike to Bo Sang. We saw the Sa-paper and umbrella handicraft centre. The leaves of trees are soaked and pounded into paper that goes onto a bamboo umbrella frame and then painted. 
I bought a couple umbrellas, fans, and a tall elephant wood carving that I didn't really mean to buy. I made a low offer to the seller without the intent of getting it and after a bunch of badgering, the seller agreed to it and I got a great deal.
We went back to the room and I drove around Chiang Mai. I saw the Three Kings Monument, the old city of Chiang Mai surrounded completely by a moat. We boarded the train at 9pm.
