"An Around-the-World-Ticket for Two, Please."

I think it was about an hour and a half until we arrived at a small place to have lunch and set off walking from. I had my first experience in a squat toilet here, only to find out afterwards that the 'cubicle' next door was a western toilet! Now I always check every toilet! Had a nice lunch of rice and chicken, with a strange dessert, a bit like eating a cooking apple! Our guide was called Lek, he was great!

Two more people arrived for the trek, Rhian and Patrick, a Dutch couple. We set off up a bit of a hill, here's a before photo - before the real work started! We began walking at quite a pace for my little legs up a steep hill, and I was quite out of breath. By the top I was pretty sure I should never have signed up for this, and that I wasn't going to be able to complete it! I honestly felt that I was not at the fitness level required for this, and it had been less than twenty minutes! As we went on it flatened out a bit and became much more manageable, and the guide would stop regularly for us (mostly me) to catch our breaths! There was also a guide at the back, who became my saviour as the day went on!

It was incredibly hot and humid, and very hard work. We walked for 4 and a half hours on the first day, and a LOT of that was up very very steep paths. Some bits weren't even paths, and there were lots of river crossings jumping from boulder to boulder etc, I was in a high state of stress the entire time! It really was jungle treking, with muddy, uneven tracks. I felt completely overwhelmed for most of it, and just had to keep pushing on, there was little else I could do! Ben was taking it all in his stride and loving it! However, he will also tell you that it was pretty tough and I am not exagerating! It wasn't all bad, and when it was relatively flat I was absolutely fine, and could enjoy it, but day one was mostly uphill to get to the top of the jungle to where the hill tribe live. Some of the inclines were so steep, and just pure mud, that I didn't even know how I was supposed to get up them! Throughout the day I fell more and more inlove with my walking boots! I must admit that until then I had begrudged buying them, they were so brown and ugly, but I now LOVE them and couldn't have done it without them! Me and Lara both took it a bit slower with the guide at the back, who was fab and let us rest every so often! We arrived at a small waterfall to jump in if we wanted, but no sooner than Lara and Mark had got in, the heavens opened and we had to take shelter in a tiny shack! (The tribe people make money by setting up shacks to sell drinks along the paths) We were all huddled underneath with our bags, wondering if we'd be there for hours! We were so lucky that it hadn't happened earlier and we'd been somewhere with shelter! As the rain eased another group turned up who hadn't been so lucky!

We carried on, uphill! It was madness, and I was very hot and tired! But just kept going! You can see how high we climbed from this picture, we started at the bottom and this was taken from the top!!!!!!! See now, do you believe me?! When we could see the huts of the village it all got a bit easier, and the end was in sight. I think you can see from this photo that Ben also found it hard going!

We arrived at the village at about half five, to a warm welcome, a child of about four looked me in the eye, held his middle finger up and told me to foxtrot oscar! Lovely! However, once we were shown to our hut, the rest of the locals were very nice, and the children even sang songs for us in the evening! The hut was similar to all the tribes huts, so you can get an impression of how they live. The hanging white things are mosquito nets, and yes, the beds were all in rows next to eachother! The hut had three sections, a 'bedroom', middle open air bit, with a camp fire, and a 'kitchen'. I was the first to brave the 'shower', which was a different shack down a path. I went to suss it out and it was a shack, with little privacy, (gaps between the wood etc), and a pipe that ran across the ceiling, with a tap, releasing COLD water! I took my bag with me, and gave it a whirl! It was pretty cold and 'invigorating'! However, it was SO nice to feel clean, ish! Put my flip flops on and headed back to the hut where everyone was chilling out.

They lit a nice camp fire, and we all sat around. They fed us yellow curried potatoes and a chicken dish, we ate it all as we were so hungry! The children sang for us, for donations for pencils for school. We sat around the campfire talking, and it felt much later than it was! Got to know our companions well, although poor French Patic could not speak a word of English, and the guide knew only a tiny bit, and the Dutch people helped a little, but we communicated with actions and got somewhere! With only fire and candles for light, we had to use our torch for the toilet. (Thanks to Matt for buying Ben the torch, was invaluable to us on this trip!) I must admit, I made Ben accompany me to the toilet, I was a bit chicken! I think we made it to about 10pm, before we went to bed, everyone was shattered! The bed was a thin 'matress' on a wooden slatted floor, not the most comfortable, especially after the day we'd had! I did have a little cry, and thought about going back with Lara and Mark (they were only doing the two day trip), as I didn't think I could do any more, but with Ben's encouragement I thought I had better stick it out! I knew I was going to feel so proud of myself if I did it! It was still an 'if' at this point, believe me! Took some sleeping pills, we now know you can take up to four, so no wonder one didn't do much on the night train! I took two and was out! Was broken sleep due to comfort, and an over-zealous cockerel who liked to crow on the hour from about 4am! Woke up not really feeling ready for another day!