Trekking in the Thai hills

  Chiang Mai, Thailand
Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Thank you poncho!

Monday 9am ish we set off for our Trek picking up Alicia on route from her Mai Thai training session. Alicia's spent the last 6 weeks training on the islands! There are 10 of us signed up for the trek, 6 Brits, 2 Estados Unidos , Eriq and Rachel and then me and Alicia. Alicia hits it off with our US friends immediately reaching such decibels the rest of the truck can't get a word in edgeways - personally I have a headache!!! And then Rachel asks why no one else is talking - there's 3 days to come of this!
 

Lady sewing

We arrive at our village for a lunch of rice before the start of our trek. We take a walk around the mud street, past the wooden houses on stilts and peeping out between the trees is a glimpse of a women sat at her window busy on her old fashioned sewing machine. Little chicks and kids scramble around in the mud as we sit in a little market square out of the way of the hoards of children tying bracelets to us so fast before we can snatch are arms out the way. They are well practiced at this! We head back to start the trek, and as if on cue the heavens open. Conveniently the lunch team also happen to have ponchos on sale!

Kids playing

The rain quickly calms but the damage is done. The pathway through the forest is bright orange clay mud - incredibly slippery after the rain. We slowly slide our way down the hillside, while Sarah, one of the English girls goes for the more rapid descent on her backside. As her love affair with the floor continues those sparkling white shorts didn't stay that way for long - soon she blends in with the path! The grips on my shoes aren't much better than Sarahs and one by one we all seem to be hitting the decks.
 
We continue through the countryside, rolling hills with wooden houses poking out through the misty rain, followed by the forest. At this point our guides chopped down bamboo sticks for us to try and aid our progress. It would be easier to walk on ice. We reach the top of a hill and there is a bamboo bench just waiting for us. A couple of others are already perched on it so I go to join them.

Yoga time

Lowering myself not so gently suddenly all 3 of us were plummeting to the floor. Crash! Clatter! Oops!! Oh well, straight off again. A couple more hours and a little fording of streams we've arrived at our village for our nights rest. We walk past the raised wooden houses with an enormous pig dragging its heavily pregnant udder through the mud between the stilts; across the saturated mud pit of a football field to a little wooden shack.  There are 2 rooms, one a big dorm room full of dusty blankets to accommodate us all, the other a platform covered with mats for dinner time and the night's entertainment.

Dinner time

We use this to learn a little yoga in the dry while the boys kick a ball around and get annihilated in the torrential rain outside. Meanwhile dinner is being cooked. Delicious. Rice with a pork thai curry and sweet and sour vegetables. Then we get paraded all the village children dressed in traditional costume to dance and sing to us. It was a bit like a pantomime when we had to join in at the end with similar moves to head, shoulders, knees and toes.

Kids preparing to entertain us!

 

Day 2 of the trek. Team US and I are up before everyone else and trying to get breakfast on the go. Meanwhile the guides and other randoms from the village all appear to be curled up on the dining platform with no intension of getting up any time soon. Alicia pretends to join them in an effort to get them moving but doesn't receive a very positive welcome!! I think they must have had a heavy night after we had all gone to bed. Eventually eggs for breakfast and we're off back into the mud - but this time no rain. Today we continue making our way through the lush forest to reach a waterfall for lunch. Sarah continues to worship the ground and most of us pay our respects at least once! My shoes have nearly totally disintegrated. Why did I through out my walking shoes in Oz. My trainers aren't designed for trekking as the sole is rapidly falling off. 
 

Shower time

We arrive at our lunch spot and I disappear towards a neighbouring shack to change for the waterfall. I hop up to the bamboo veranda; crack! Not again! The whole veranda now tilts to the right. What is wrong with me? Anyone would think I was obese! I must learn - stay aware from and Bamboo structures! To the water fall to freshen up. It's hardly Iguazu falls but it's a shower!
 

The elephants prepare

Now an hour more walking and we should make it to our Elephant trek. We can tell as we draw nearer by the smell, the piles of elephant poo and giant urine puddles on the ground!! Down a hill and I can spy three large elephants and a baby waiting for us. So splitting into 3 groups its time to mount the elephants. First up its Eriq on the head and 3 girls behind. They disappear straight into the undergrowth, Eriq holding on to the ears for dear life.

Mike not happy!

Next up its Alciia and Korina behind with Mike on the head.  He is uncomfortable form the start, trying to grip on with his knees behind the elephants ears. The elephant promptly walks straight into the bushes and trees with complete disregard to her passengers. 'Can we get some ******* help over here' he screams more than once with genuine distress as he struggles to hold on! We chuckle and proceed to clamber across our elephants tentatively treading on her head and taking my place in the seat, hoping it wouldn't tip off the side waiting for the guys to sit the other side. Dan sits on the head heroically, not too stable, but better than Mike. Now we are all set to go, hold on tight. The elephants trample through the forest; every few minutes they stop to pull down small trees to eat on route. No worries about the passengers as we crash off the path through the trees ducking as we go.  Its great fun if a little painful on the bums. The guys up front are getting numb, and eventually after about 1hr Mike gives in to the discomfort and dismounts to wade through the river by foot. Fun times. And then its time for all of us to climb off on a cliff - although one elephant wants to keep some bags as it heads back off before they are retrieved!

Us visiting the trees

 
We stroll on via some paddy fields and the guides pick some leaves for dinner. We reach some banana trees Alicia wants to attack. While we are putting a plan together to reach the high branches Rachel lets out a little scream. There's a leach on Eriqs leg. Time for a bit of first aid, and we're at out next bamboo hut for the night. This time we sleep on a rickety bamboo floor - I am nervous about going straight through it! Incidentally I manage not to break it! The shower (tap) and loo are down a track and pretty much visible to all as you try and squat under the tap avoiding the spiders, luckily most disguised by the dimming light.

Last leg of day 2

 
Wednesday morning, more eggs and marmite toast (it comes everywhere!!) and we're off again. My shoes have totally collapsed. The only think holding the sole on is the lace tied under the bottom. The clay mud is also helping hold them together. Luckily its just a shortish walk this morning. The guide seems stressed and keeps hurrying us up - chill! We get to the river and time for our bamboo rafting.   3 rafts are waiting for us by the bank.  They are made up of about 12 thick bamboos tied together. I'm a little nervous with my track record of bamboos holding my wait. Four of us grab a pole nearly 3 times our height and jump on ready to punt our way down stream. We rock the raft, duck the trees as we collide with the edges. One group managed to ground the flat raft - how? Quite a few took a closer visit to the water too! My leg disappeared between some bamboo - but luckily that's as close as my water encounters came! So a couple of hours later and our guide having visited the river we arrive at our destination. The completion of our 3 day trek. Maybe not the most arduous, but fun nevertheless.

A jeep is waiting for us with our rice for lunch and then it drops us at an intersection an hr down the road so we can get the bus on to Pai. The locals we ask tell us we have plenty of time so Alica, Eriq and Rachel head into the market for food while I watch the bags. Typical, as soon as they've gone the bus arrives! I can't really leave the bags and the market is way down the street. However the driver seems keen to take us and before I can stop him he has thrown Alicia and My backpacks into the back of the bus. Eriq and Rachel just have day sacks so I grab them, indicating to the driver I'll be 2 mins - hope he understands- and sprint down the street, calling for the others like a mad women in the market. There's no response, the 3 i'm calling must be the only ones not to look up! I track them down. What a site. The 4 of us crazy 'ferang' sprinting back up the road towards the bus hoping to god that it doesn't leave with Alicia and My bags on board. The bus has waited and we jump on to see the sad sorry site of my wrecked shoes sitting by the road side getting smaller and smaller in the distance - down to just flip flops now!