ABOUT 44 Bendigo South East College year 9 and 10 students are travelling around Asia as part of the World Challenge. Below is a diary entry from students Anna Tchernomoroff and Brenna Bailey on the trip so far.
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Going into the second week of our trip our team traveled into the north of Thailand to Chiang Mai.
During our two days there, we had the chance to visit night markets, temples and the 'Old City' which is surrounded by a wall and moat.
After two relaxing days we traveled to Chiang Dao where our trekking phase began.
Our first night we learned how to cook various Thai dishes such as fried rice, chili paste and others.
The morning that our real trek began involved white water rafting, a scary yet fun experience that our whole team enjoyed.
After that we had a four and a half hour hike up a big mountain.
The next two days of trekking were seven hours each.
The feeling of relief at the end of those days made it worth all the work.
The last day of our trek meant saying goodbye to two loyal dogs who had followed us for three days.
We went to the Maetang Elephant Camp where we had the chance to watch a show and ride the elephants.
After returning to Chiang Mai for one more night, we caught a bus to the Thai-Laos border and had a two minute long boat ride across the Mekong River into Laos.
It was a rather surreal feeling, standing on one side of a river where the other side is a different country.
The next day, after a few mishaps, we began a two day boat ride down the Mekong River starting in Houay Xai, to Pak Beng, then to Luang Prabang.
It was certainly a new experience, but it was fun and very memorable.
Tomorrow we start our project phase.
We are the first World Challenge team to visit the village and whilst we're there we'll be helping renovate the local Primary School and work closely with the young children in the community.
It's our last week and while we'll be sad to go, I think our whole team will be excited to be back at home.