A group of students from Bangkok came up to the farm where I was staying in northern Thailand one day. They were going to one of the hill tribe villages in the area to give them loads of stuff that they had collected in Bangkok and everyone staying on the farm was invited to come with them for the day. 
After breakfast we jump on the back of one of the many vans going and set of towards the mountains. We sit there talking, drinking beer, enjoying the beautiful scenery and I feel so lucky to be exactly where I am. Life is beautiful.
We drive for a few hours before we arrive at the small hillside village where the school is. The children come running and gather around as we unload the trucks. The kids are adorable, dressed in traditional clothes and rather shy when it comes to us foreigners. We just manages to get everything under roof before a massive rainfall comes upon us.It rains for about 20minutes before it clears up again, the sun comes out and we go back to playing with the children.
Sandot (the guy who runs the farm I'm staying at)asks if we wanna head further up in the mountains to visit the village where most of the kids are from. To us that sounded like an offer we couldn't resist, so we jump on the back of the cars again and wave goodbye to the kids.
We quickly realize that driving further is not going top be easy. The rains have made the dirt roads to mud roads, and after about five minutes driving we get stuck. A huge tree has fallen across the road, seeing that it is useless for us to try and move it, we decide to walk the three kilometers to the village.
Three kilometers doesn't sound a lot, but on the muddy mountain roads, it took us about one hour.
As we're about half way there, the sky darkens yet again and we see big clouds heavy with rain rolling towards us across the valley. Not knowing how far we have left, we don't really know what to do, but decide to continue to the village. Hopefully we reach it before the sky opens again.
We drive for a few hours before we arrive at the small hillside village where the school is. The children come running and gather around as we unload the trucks. The kids are adorable, dressed in traditional clothes and rather shy when it comes to us foreigners. We just manages to get everything under roof before a massive rainfall comes upon us.It rains for about 20minutes before it clears up again, the sun comes out and we go back to playing with the children.
Sandot (the guy who runs the farm I'm staying at)asks if we wanna head further up in the mountains to visit the village where most of the kids are from. To us that sounded like an offer we couldn't resist, so we jump on the back of the cars again and wave goodbye to the kids.We quickly realize that driving further is not going top be easy. The rains have made the dirt roads to mud roads, and after about five minutes driving we get stuck. A huge tree has fallen across the road, seeing that it is useless for us to try and move it, we decide to walk the three kilometers to the village.
Three kilometers doesn't sound a lot, but on the muddy mountain roads, it took us about one hour.As we're about half way there, the sky darkens yet again and we see big clouds heavy with rain rolling towards us across the valley. Not knowing how far we have left, we don't really know what to do, but decide to continue to the village. Hopefully we reach it before the sky opens again.
I enjoy the walk, the scenery is gorgeous, the people I'm with are great and we have loads of fun getting to the village. Shoes was given up on a long time ago so we wander the muddy roads beer foot and by the time we reach the village, we are all covered in mud.
Within five minutes of reaching the village, the sky opens and it pours down like I've never seen it before. We seek refuge in a small shop where we sit with the locals watching the roads turn to rivers within minutes. The wind howls, bamboo snaps and breaks all around us as we sit there and wait for it to stop. When we didn't think it could get any worse, it starts to hagl!
We give up hope on getting back that eavening and come to terms with the fact that we most likely have to spend the night there, when Sandot turns up with his car and is ready to take us back. The only problem is that we are 15 people, and his little car cant really handle that many people. We weren 8 on the back, 5 inside and 2 were hanging from each door. The car was sliding sideways on the slippery roads and all of a sudden, the suspencion breaks. Everyonehas to get out and walk back to where the other cars are waiting. The rain is not as bad anymore, but the roadsareway worse than when we came in to the village. We struggle up the hills, taking three steps forward and sliding two steps back. Muddy, wet and exhausted we finally make it to the cars, climb in and head back to the farm in the freezing night.
A real Thailand experience as Sandot said. You can never prepare for that and it's always loads of fun!
