Living with Hill Tribes in the Jungle

Well I decided to go to chiang mai for the first time. I went to the train station to see if I could get a ticket there today. The train left at 6 pm for a 12 hour train ride. I booked at first class sleeper cabin. Only 1300 baht ( 40 bucks). The train ride was awesome better than any airplane ride I’ve been on. They brought me supper and I had my own cabin to myself so I slept most of the way. I would highly recommend going on the train up north. Well I wanted to write down my thoughts on what I was getting in to. This was a dream I had to someday come to Chiang Mai and see real Thailand and see the traditions ways. Really I should have been more nervous than I am, I travelling in a country that isn’t my home country by myself. To the northern jungle regions on Thailand, Burma, and Laos. I should be freaked out but I’m more excited. I thought on what to expect crazy jungle walks by foot, elephant trekking.

Well Today I landed in Chiang Mai after a train ride. I checked into my guest house, which was really nice. I went to have some pad Thai for lunch. Well around 10:00 am I booked a tour to look at the temples in and around Chiang Mai. Well I got into the van with Iren and Tom from England. We started off to the first temple and stayed their for 20 minutes or so. After that we ended up going for lunch and had some Red Thai curry. We walked up 500 meter or 20 minutes to a water fall. The water fall was very nice and is used by Thai Monks to meditate. After a nice relaxing hike we headed up another long hike. We walked up to the famous temple, which the stairs are more than 1000. 1000 stairs holy crap! We walked up to the temple and learned about the Buddhism faith and what it is to be and to become a monk. It was a very interesting trip and I would highly recommend it. Today I have a meeting about what I need to bring on my 3 day trek thru the jungle. Can’t wait…

Today is the start of out trek don’t really know what to expect. A bit nervous on the 3 hour walks pre day and living with the tribes. I think the tribes will be welcoming and have very basic living conditions. Bamboo huts, dirt floors and lots of bugs. I bought a new pair of shoes, rain coat and some bug lotion. I met to girls from Holland that we went out to the night market together last night and should be good fun on the trip.

Well we started our tour at around 9 am we first took a truck with the 12 of us in to the natural hot springs of Thailand. In the hot springs they put bamboo into the hot springs over night to soften up before making bamboo soup. After the hot springs we all go into the back of a 4X4 truck and headed up the steep hill. I lucky got to stand up in the box, because mostly everyone else was pushed back into the tailgate and squished. The ride up with the truck was truly off roading like I’ve never seen before. With Holes the size of Volkswagen beetles we slowly made our way up the steep hill. After about 30 minutes we stopped and we all got out the start of the trekking. We started trekking thru the jungle up hills. After about 11/2 hours we met up with a local hill tribe hunters in the jungle hunting wild bores. This was a surreal experience with 6 guys with guns in the middle of the forest. But they were very friendly we even bought some wild bore off them for our supper that night. About another hour of trekking thru the rain forest on small paths we arrived at the village. Our first stop was at the Karen Village, the showed us our room ( a big shack with 12 beds ..lol). Well as we got settled in having showers from a rubber hose tied to a piece of wood coming from a water bucket catching rain water. At that point I realized how remote we really were, no electricity, no cell phones, TV, even normal gas stoves. This was truly off the beaten track and the true Thailand experience. Well that night Rocky cooked an awesome meal for supper. After the meal we played some different games and rocky showed us some magic tricks. This was a great night rubbing shoulders with the real local tribes.


The next day we woke up to Fog and mist coming over the hills. Wow.. It was a postcard moment with the fresh air and sunshine in the morning, unlike anything I’ve experienced in Bangkok. We had breakfast and then started on our 3 hour hike to the next village. Again we crossed thru the rain forest over rivers and streams. The trails we went on were rarely used we were the 1st tourist to travel on these trails, so some times it didn’t even feel like we were on trails. After the gruelling 3 hour hike in the hot Thai sun we made it to the next village called the Pathong Tribe. This tribe still wears the traditional out fits. This tribe was from Burma and migrated only 40 years ago because of a ongoing civil war in the country. The war is about religion half of Burma is Christian and the other Buddhism. They fight for land just like the Palestine’s and Israel. So the tribe came to Thailand to seek refuge over the fighting. Well they were the most friendly people I have ever met. After a quick lunch we started another trek this time was to a hidden waterfall 11/2 hours up hill. The local tribes ladies came with us because even them have never been to the water fall we were going to. The two ladies ages 50 and 70, I could not believe that they came and did the trip with us. Sorry mom but I don’t think you could have done it or you Grandma. Once we arrived we got into the water fall we were so relieved to get there we all just jumped into the water. I’ve never swam or stood under a water fall. What a great experience. After we trekked back to the village where the ladies cooked us up some great food. That night I sat down a chilled with the local tribe ladies and we laughed as I showed them an ipod. Also we played some games, it was like going back in time. To see how it would have been like 100 years ago or even longer. The tradition in this village still lives. The next morning we woke up early because today was a busy day. We started our 3 hour trek to the next village where we had a 4x4 waiting for us. Then we drove about and hour to the elephants today we were going to ride elephants. We got to the park and they put 2 of us on each. The only time I’ve seen an elephant would be at a circus in Canada. I think I might have rode on too. But it was nothing like this we got on to the back of the beast. It started to walk down a 90 degree angle into the water. Once it was in the water we started to go up stream the animals were half submerged in the river. I asked the guide if I could “drive” the elephant(that’s sounded cool at the time). So he let me so I sat on his neck a rode the beast telling him to turn left or right but the way I moved. It was a ig overwhelming at first a Saskatchewan city boy riding elephants down the famous Mekon River. Our ride lasted about an hour.

After that we went white water rafting, again something new for me. I’ve wanted to try but have never had the chance. We arrived at the site and they split us in to two groups of 5. We put our helmets on and life jackets and we down to get instructions on how to paddle. We jumped into the raft posing for a picture then stated to ride down the river. I of course got the front probable cause I was the most excited person to do it. We started our way down paddling really hard to the first water fall rapids. We rushed down it getting soken wet. The rush of the water and rocks all around was sensational, it was a awesome. After about a hour packed ride down. We finished and I had a smile about a mile wide. This whole experience has just been amazing from the trekking, living with the tribes in the villages, the waterfall, elephant riding, white water rafting and all the people I met. The views and the stunning and life changing experiences I have had since arriving in Chiang Mai. I truly have a great like and I am lucky to be able to see these things that most people will never see or do.

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