Chiang Mai
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Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Sunday, December 2, 2007
I headed up to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand to do some trekking in the jungles and hills up here. I approached this with some trepidation. Last time I went on an organised trip, the group drove me mad. But the people I've met on the trek here were great fun. They were much more like me. They wanted to see the sights - not just get drunk. And they share my deep concern about all of the people back home who have to work in the dark and cold. We planned to hold a minute's silence to think about you guys when it got to 9:00 am GMT on Monday morning. But somehow a mintue's cruel laughter seemed more appropriate.
I'm aware that it's ticked into December and it must be cold back home. I hadn't expected it to be cold at all in Thailand - it's an entirely tropical country - but it got really cold one night on the trek. As low as 10 degrees, so I feel your pain.
The scenery has been spectacular here. Spikey mountains, covered in dense jungle. There's not much animal life here though. As our guide informed us, it's been entrusted to the care of the local tribespeople. So naturally they've shot most of it. Our guide had an aggressive attitude to the wildlfe himself. Depsite earning his living from the jungle, he took every opportunity to hack at random plants and trees with a machete. You had to be careful not to get too close.
We had our doubts about the guide's knowledge anyway. He kept leading us off the path into the undergrowth for 10 minutes or so. And the stopping and declaring:
"No. Wrong way." And turning back.
But his wildlife knowledge seemed disappointingly deficient too. We spotted a couple of bright red birds in the treetops. Wendi, a Canadian, asked:
"What are they?
"Birds". He replied.
"What kind of birds?" said Wendi.
"Red birds."said the guide.
I thought he was joking at first. I remembered his aggression with the machete and laughed loudly. But he just stared at me like I was mad.
The tribes you stay with are friendly. Even if they don't speak English. They smile a lot. At first it looks like thay don't have any teeth. But they actually die their teeth black - a fashion that I won't be trying to introduce to England.
The one regret I have about the 3 day trek, is that I've got lazy, and don't read itineries as carefully as I used to read bank reconciliations. The 3 day trek was not 3 days trekking. It turned out to be two days trekking. The final day was half a day of elephant riding, and half a day of whitewater rafting. I had not packed swimming stuff or a towel.
The elephant riding was fun. Until the driver decided to jump off just after we'd crossed our first river. I had no idea how to drive an elephant. It got very uncomfortable. My backside is very sore now. But at least I can say that I did it.
I had resolved not to do any extreme sports under third world safety standards, so I was a bit nervous about the whitewater rafting. It was fun though - Wendi turned out to be a professional whitewater raft guide in Canada, so she did most of the paddling. "Brownwater"might have been more appropriate though. I'm sure that the toilets from the tribe we'd camped with connected just upstream from where we rafted.
Over the next 2 days, I have a day in a bus on bumpy roads to the Laos border. Then I sit on a slow boat for a day down the Mekong river. I'm wishing I hadn't done that elephant ride.
