Trek Packs and Pachyderms

Any trip to southeast Asia is not complete without some from of trekking. Unless you stuck only to the party towns you would be hard pressed to avoid it. With that in mind I jumped in the back of a truck with 9 strangers, bound for the hills about 3 hours from chiang mai.
What I learned about trekking:
1) Do not book until you arrive in town. I paid three times as much booking it from home and it was less straightforward.
2) Pack light. The company provided me with a fairly large pack which I (naturally) filled. Everyone else had been given nice, modest sized bags. So the company screwed over my wallet and my back. Thanks. The thought I was burning note calories had a very limited comfort value.
3) Everyone I have spoken to had a slightly different trek route and experience. If you are trekking near chiang mai don't expect it to be really challenging hiking, and don't expect to walk the entire day. For us, the first day began with a trip to a waterfall and weekend start walking until after lunch, the second was broken up by an elephant ride ad the their was spent entirely on the bamboo raft. (If you go in dry season you won't be able to white water raft, at least not particularly well).
4) Night time is very very cold. Take warm clothes and expect to use them.
5) Lastly, embrace the group you are with, I met some good people and they definitely made the experience a lot more fun!

Although I had a really good time on my trek and would definitely recommend the experience, I did have some reservations about the elephant riding. When we arrived at he elephant camp, from a distance it looked like the elephants were chilling by the river, fairly free to do as they pleased. However, on closer inspection we discovered they were chained up. During our ride the mahouts (trainers) who accompanied us would sometimes kick the elephants, either to make them go faster or just for sport. From what I have heard this isn't typical, but it did not make for an entirely pleasant experience. Despite this, in Thailand elephants are traditionally working animals, and since the government
banned logging (for teak) tourism offers the people an income, and therefore the elephants some protection. There a re also organisations with a more highly tuned code of ethics, where travellers can go and witness the ellies in a more natural setting.

(One more tip: before you go bamboo rafting ensure your guide has a firm grasp on left and right. Ours either did not, or he did not explain that he would be steering the raft one direction while instructing the group to steer another. We crashed a few times, the first of which resulted in me spectacularly consigning my first pair of fake ray band to the scrap rap having fallen headlong in to the ass of the girl in front of me. When recovering from our crashes, or going through rougher water out guide also seemed to adopt a rather Victorian attitude - 'ladies get out and walk, only gentlemen now' - this was more than a little infuriating ad it felt we missed out on some of the fun.)

Overall trekking was a good experience I would definitely repeat and an excellent way of meeting people if you are travelling solo. I would give it a solid 6/10.

After trekking: on to Pai then a slow boat through to Laos!