Um Phang

We'd been told about this spot by an English couple we'd met in Malaysia. It's a pretty remote area and they did warn us about the journey there- however we were unprepared for a 6 hour bumpy ride in the back of a songtaew (ute with metal cage welded to the back) in freezing wind and rain over a mountain with 19 people and a motorbike on board.

We set out the next day for a three day trek - on the first day we rafted down a river with thick jungle and waterfalls coming off limestone cliffs for about 5 hours, then tramped up over a hill through bamboo forest for the afternoon This was pretty hot work, luckily it then rained which carried off and on into the night
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On the second day we had a short walk in the morning to the Thee Lor Su waterfall which is the main attraction of the area - it's the biggest waterfall in Thailand and really stunning - 200/300 metres high - multi-tiered kinda thing with thick jungle all around. Each tier has a big pool that are the most awesome swimming holes, so we stopped and had a good swim and explore. Toby jumped off one awesome waterfall part into the pool below while I looked on nervously!

Then later that day we had a much cruisier walk along the river to a Karen village where the guide knew a family who take in his tourists for a night. That was fun too - little bit weird as you feel like a bit of a voyeur. Our guide Om Pai was very cool though. We had a good couple of conversations with him and unlike some of the over-the-top Thai hospitality we've experienced, I felt that he was a really genuine guy. I didn't feel like he was putting on some show for us. He certainly complained a lot! He'd only ever taken one kiwi couple before who had later sent him a scenic NZ calender as a present, then he had never had kiwis since, and on the first night he asked us, quite seriously, why we would come to Thailand when NZ is much more beautiful. We had to explain it doesn't ALL look quite like the calender, and that we'd like to see different kinds of beautiful places too. Our house were we stayed was definitely the coolest- it had a TV! So we spent most of the night chilling with the kids watching mad Thai soap dramas and guessing what was going on.

On the third day an elephant arrived at the house. After feeding it some toast, we set off on a three hour trek back over the hill we walked in over, pretty tough on the bum but awesome fun too. The elephants were amazing and our elephant 'driver' was hilarious! Sharing some watermelon with the elephant at the end of the trek was really fun too.

Then we had to get back on that bloody songtaew for 4 hours this time- it was sunny and faster! Actually so fast- I've been on less hair-raising roller-coasters!

One last day in Mae Sot- then to Chiang Mai- hot water and swimming pools. Bring it on!