Trekking into the Hills

Day 35 (04/05/08): Chiang Mai, Thailand

The day started early with me packing my bags ready for the trek. I could leave things at my guest house, so pared down my bag to just the few things I would need on the trek. After a quick breakfast, I was picked up in the class Thai Songthaew. A few more stops to pick up the other trekkers, and we were off. Through some statistical anomaly, the other people in my group were all Irish, well almost all. There were 5 Irish girls (2 pairs and a single), a French girl, South Korean girl and a Canadian guy. In another case of traveling being a small world, two of the Irish girls discovered that they actual knew of each other back home through several mutual friends, but had never met.

Our guides were two young guys, Good (his nickname) was the leader, with Pooza his assistant. They were a great laugh and proved to be excellent guides. We had a quick stop at a market to get water, while the guides grabbed some food for our trip. It was a typical Thai market, with all sorts of things being sold. There was even a table with a large number of fresh fish flapping on it, while the lady slowly took her time to finish them off and then gut and clean them.

Back in the songthaew for another hour or so, and we arrived at a very beautiful teak house in the jungle to have a lunch of fried rice. After lunch and the first activity for us was elephant trekking. Each elephant has a wooden platform with a bench seat strapped to its back. I shared with the Canadian guy (our platform even had an umbrella) and the mahout, sitting on the elephant's neck, led us off. While it was quite fun sitting on the back of an elephant, the 'trek' was quite pedestrian, just doing a small loop around the local area for just over an hour. Still it was fun, and the scenery was pretty good. Even though it was quite hard to take photos, as the ride wasn't very smooth, rolling forward and backward, and side to side with the movement of the elephant. There was a constant battle between the elephants who kept stopping to rip plants plants to eat, and the mahout to keep it walking. It is quite amazing just how strong an elephant is, reaching into a cluster of bamboo and just ripping it out.

Back in the songthaew for another half hour or so, and we were ready to begin our trek. We were staying with a hill tribe for the night, and so that means that we would be walking up hills! The trek was about two and a half hours, most of which was uphill, sometimes quite steep. It didn't look like anyone else in the group ever walked farther than from their front door to their car door, so the going was pretty slow. We stopped every twenty minutes or so, and most of the others would collapse and pant. I personally found the going pretty easy, with the slow pace and constant stops, even the steep hills were pretty good. The scenery and landscape were stunning though. At one stage we were following a stream up a canyon, and it really was very beautiful.

Shortly after 5 in the evening, we reached the hill tribe village. Not technically of Thai ethnicity, the hill tribe people have their own language and customs. There are actually quite a few different hill tribes, often originating from Burma, Laos or China, each with their own language and customs. We were staying in a large bamboo hut, were a number of simple mattresses and blankets had been lain out for us. A very good dinner of green curry and vegetables was cooked for us, and we sat around the common area of the hut eating dinner. The night was spent drinking a few beers, and sampling the local moonshine 'whiskey' that the locals brew. I ended up sitting next to the guides, who were drinking the moonshine, and they kept offering it, so I ended up drinking quite a bit of it! Although its actually quite a weak spirit, and I imagine you would have to drink a fair bit of it to feel anything. Good, our lead guide, knew quite a few songs on the guitar, and so in a short time we were all singing along to the Beatles and Oasis. This attracted the attention of one of the other tour groups in the village, and we were joined by two English girls and a very drunk Spanish guy, who joined in our festivities for the night.