Ban Sop Kai

Today didn't involve any trekking, but instead some Bamboo rafting down the river! That was a super neat experience. The men built the rafts while we ate breakfast, and each raft carried 5 people, 4 of us and one guide per raft. The rafts were literally just Bamboo poles tied together with more strips of Bamboo. There were a couple sticks at the front that we hung our bags from so our stuff didn't get wet because the water came through the spaces. At one point we almost tipped the damn thing because of uneven weight distribution. The trip took about 3 hours and was about 12.5km distance. The guide at the front did the majority of the work when it came to steering and actually moving the raft when the current wasn't strong enough, and the person in the back helped with maybe 20% of the steering and pushing. In the beginning Josh was pushing our raft and at some point we traded and I stood for the rest of the trip down the river. I was more than happy to do that! I was kind of bored just sitting on the raft baking in the sun and was happy to be doing something active. It wasn't too too difficult either! There were some moments that were kind of sketchy. Like when everyone but the two people with poles got off the raft and we navigated through some rapids. Super fun though! I really enjoyed it. Along the way we also saw random Elephants, a mamma pig and her babies, tons of water buffalo, and a few random men sitting by the river. It was cool :) When we reached the end we had a lunch of pad Thai and returned to the hotel!

When we got back to the hotel we had some down time before going off to a "tattoo party" and art market. The whole group went to the tattoo parlour and hung out while a few people got some work done. I personally went because of the nearby art market that the leaders were raving about. Some of us did go and eat at the International Food Market first though because we were all hungry! I had a pulled pork sandwich and cheese fries, not exactly what I thought I'd get but it was good. I wanted Thai food again but couldn't find it. Have to say though that the western food is actually on point here... I think that I've had a good balance of the two food types so far. I've been eating a ton of noodle soup! Good thing I don't think I can ever get sick of that since I'll be in Vietnam soon enough. Anyway, the art market was also really neat! There were so many things I wanted to buy but of course have no money and no where to hang any of it... My favourite pieces were of Elephants and were done in an abstract style with lots of spotted brush strokes instead of continuous, life like pieces. It was definitely a neat experience! Just wandering through looking at art with a beer in hand, watching all the shop keepers also drinking. Fun times.Read more