After our culinary adventure it was time to head north to Pai and for me to hunt down a certain Mr. Chart. I was told he offers an experience like no other so while Kate pampered herself in a spa I wandered off into the Thai jungle with a little Thai man, machetes and guns in order to learn how to survive.
We only had one night in the jungle but with the amount of rain we had to deal with that evening I'm glad we had such limited time. The first day we walked for several hours before stopping for a delicious lunch of fire cooked pork and beef accompanied with a soup made from wild mushrooms picked as we trekked.
I have never seen so many different uses for bamboo. We used it for drinking, eating, cooking, filtering, digging and many more. I did keep my cup as a souvenir but it went mouldy!
We didn't come across much wildlife but that was a blessing as I think most animals would have been on the menu. We did find a snake which I didn't manage to get a photo of (unusual I know!), thankfully Chart was not interested in it as food. Bear Grylls would have eaten it, I have no doubt.
The main use for the bamboo was building our shelter. Chart went gathering large poles of bamboo while I went off in search of palm leaves to construct the roof, for some reason I was trusted with a machete.
Once I had done my bit as Ray Mears and enough palms leaves had been gathered I set about splitting bamboo into ever decreasing strips to create a strong twine to bind our shelter together. I stopped short of fashioning a birch bark canoe.
Once the camp was complete we cooked dinner of sticky rice in bamboo leaves along with more pork, bamboo shoots and mushrooms.
It looked pretty comfortable and was, however later in the evening the heavens opened and we had to dig an emergency trench around our sleeping area to avoid getting swept away.
Before breakfast Mr. Chart went off with his rifle and returned with a small rodent. It turns out he actually shot it with his revolver as the gun powder had got wet during the night. Our morning meal was therefore red Thai curry with squirrel! (If you want pictures of the dead squirrel and the revolver - email me)
Our second day we walked even further and for the majority we trudged down a small river in search of a waterfall. We found it, although the water didn't look particularly inviting for a dip; the rain the night before had turned it very muddy.
The trip involved a lot of walking, however we probably drank more whiskey than water; it is surprising that I actually remember any of it.
We only had one night in the jungle but with the amount of rain we had to deal with that evening I'm glad we had such limited time. The first day we walked for several hours before stopping for a delicious lunch of fire cooked pork and beef accompanied with a soup made from wild mushrooms picked as we trekked.
I have never seen so many different uses for bamboo. We used it for drinking, eating, cooking, filtering, digging and many more. I did keep my cup as a souvenir but it went mouldy!We didn't come across much wildlife but that was a blessing as I think most animals would have been on the menu. We did find a snake which I didn't manage to get a photo of (unusual I know!), thankfully Chart was not interested in it as food. Bear Grylls would have eaten it, I have no doubt.
The main use for the bamboo was building our shelter. Chart went gathering large poles of bamboo while I went off in search of palm leaves to construct the roof, for some reason I was trusted with a machete.
Once I had done my bit as Ray Mears and enough palms leaves had been gathered I set about splitting bamboo into ever decreasing strips to create a strong twine to bind our shelter together. I stopped short of fashioning a birch bark canoe.
Once the camp was complete we cooked dinner of sticky rice in bamboo leaves along with more pork, bamboo shoots and mushrooms.It looked pretty comfortable and was, however later in the evening the heavens opened and we had to dig an emergency trench around our sleeping area to avoid getting swept away.
Before breakfast Mr. Chart went off with his rifle and returned with a small rodent. It turns out he actually shot it with his revolver as the gun powder had got wet during the night. Our morning meal was therefore red Thai curry with squirrel! (If you want pictures of the dead squirrel and the revolver - email me)Our second day we walked even further and for the majority we trudged down a small river in search of a waterfall. We found it, although the water didn't look particularly inviting for a dip; the rain the night before had turned it very muddy.
The trip involved a lot of walking, however we probably drank more whiskey than water; it is surprising that I actually remember any of it.
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