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Published: November 23rd 2006
Before I left for Thailand I recall spouting to people, "For the past two years, on the same weekend, I've broken my left leg. This year, no matter where I am, I am doing absolutely nothing, just relaxing and preserving my leg"......Well instead....
I just got back from a 3 day trek in the Jungles of Chiang Mai.
I had no real intentions of trekking, but after a 12 hour bus ride from Bangkok, a weary Brodie didn't feel like resisting the guest house managers charm in suggesting a trek. He quoted a price, told us we'd get a good deal on their rooms once we got back, and said here at Nice Place 2 "We love you long time." I was sold.
That night I checked out a nearby night market, had a self portrait done by a street artist for less than a dollar, and tasted a variety of meats on sticks. This was followed up by a foot and shoulder massage which I felt might be needed before my trekking began.
The next morning our crew met up for a meeting before we set out. The group consisted of 3 girls from Ireland, 2
First Village
This place was the most westernized of all the villages.from Finland, a couple of dutch dudes, a trio from Englad, as well as an american italian girl who I had met earlier in Kanchanaburi. After our meeting we drove to a nearby market to pick up some supplies. I had a light snack (grasshopper) before heading out to our first stop. We drove for about 2 hours, most of it uphill, and found ourselves in a dusty little village. We were fed lunch here, and we got to mozy around the village taking pictures and chatting up a few of the locals. When we first arrived a group of kids were chasing the truck and when we got out the little gaffers slapped bracelets on a few of the trekkers. Very cute, and also clever as they wanted 10 baht a cuffing. haha, they were very sweet though. So I took a few pictures of the town and switched into some pants as the view of the jungle from the village looked quite overgrown. And with that we set out...
Treacherous. Honestly, our crew of 13 was strugglin and for good reason, the jungle had all the serious elements of danger, steep downward cliffs, small paths, slippery grounds....
Throughout the whole trip very few of the paths were level, it was almost always either upward or downward trekking. After our first few hills we were told that we were nearing our first village stay, which was good because it was starting to get dark. On our last stretch to the first village one of the finnish girls spotted a snake in the grass, probably about a meter and a half long. One of the dutch guys the day before had been to the snake farm in bangkok, and kept repeating the advice of the thai snake handler, using the a very slow thai accent. "If snake moooove, you no mooove, if snake no mooove, you moooove. You can mooove leeeft, you can mooove riiight, you can moooove back, but you do not move forward." I felt this was sound advice. We reached the first village and were greeted by abouta half dozen of little puppies. After giving them a little love we went and set up our dormatory style sleeping area. We were on the floor with a little bit of bedding beneath us. It was probably around 6 and we ate dinner that one of the guides
Cute Village Boy
He was just saying Goodbye cooked up for us. Quite delicious. Then we all shard a little something about ourselves and had some casual drinking. The drinking was far from cheap though, buddies were charging some serious jungle prices. (I've seen some jungle prices since coming back to Chian Mai City as well). We also had some local village "water." Someone had an ipod with a speaker set, so we had music and a while after dinner a group of the local kids joined us. They were fantastic, dancing laughing, and just genuinely loving our company. This one little guy really took a liking to me, haha, and definately had a fasination with my gorilla arm hair. Haha. Everyone in our group felt equally surprised to learn it was only 7 after the kids had gone to bed and we were all feeling a little tipsy. Most people went to sleep shortly after, but a few of us sat up for about an hour longer singing to the guitar and chatting. I had a fantatic sleep. The same apparently couldn't be said for a few of the others, but I slept warmly and soundly.
The next day we started with the vertical. First came
Mountain View
On the truck ride up to the first village. a steep uphill path, and the developing Beer Chang Belly was making it quite the challenge. After that it was more downhill trials, and it was very slippy. There were many falls, but I managed to make it through unscathed. After another upward struggle we found ourselves in a small field with some abandoned huts, around them were a pair of wild horses grazing in the grass. The tour guides were halarious, there was a younger guy who kept hiding in the bushes, the hissing or jumping out and scaring the wits out of some of the girls. Today was day 2, and we were promised that the waterfall (our midway point of the trek was nearby). It was nearby, just outside of a little one-family-village. There was 2 grandparents, their childen, and another boy who was an orphan. He was a little rat, terrorizing the dogs and whatnot, but he loved getting his photo taken. After having some lunch here (I think they boiled up some Mr. Noodles....beef flavor, we made our way to the nearby "waterfall." I use quotes because where I'm from (because there is one nearby that sets an example) a waterfall means falling water of
at least 15 feet or so...this one couldn't have been more than 10. You'd actually struggle to fit the 13 people on the trek into the base of it. We tried anyway. I was actually reluctant due to the effort of getting in and getting out, but enough cajouling persuaded me otherwise. We lazed about for another couple of hours then set back out on the trail. This part of the trek was a little easier and very scenic. At one point after a very slippery slope we trekked along and across a river. The only way to make it down the river was to jump accross rocks, criss crossing it. I'd have to say, my fatigue became a factor at times, but my rock-jumping abilities are superb. Not one fall the whole trip, and we crossed many a water source. Must have been all that super mario as a child. In fact, I'm considering putting in an application for Takishi's Castle, who knows. As we approached our final village I was taken aback by the sight of two massive elephants standing on the path. Once the moved we made our way into the camp. This was a mahout village,
where they train and take care of elephants. We all settled in our new place, and took turns in the shower (I was last and took a freezing shower in the dark.). After my shower I noticed one of the younger tour guides had caught something in the forest, looked like a rat, and since I was the only one who ate his delicious rat dish, I can honestly say, tasted like...well, not chicken. After dinner we all sat down around a fire in one of the huts and played a drinking game that the guide suggested. It was a clapping game with the penalty of a soot design on the face and a shot of fire water. We stayed up quite late partying that night and all crashed around the same time. That night I dreampt of snow, and for good reason, it was freezing. I remember waking up at one point, shivering, looked over at the dutch guy beside me, considered having a little snuggle then deciding otherwise. Instead I searched around for some unused blankets and did my best to keep warm.
The next morning we had a simple breakfast. While doing so, we saw the
mahouts washing out elephant steeds. About an hour later, the elephants and ourselves were ready. They were not enough seats on the elephant mounts, so I ended up riding on the elephants head. It was unerving at first, but after a while I got the hang of it. The Thai's are such a fun people, the whole time they were taunting the teenage elephant. Jumping on him in attempts to ride him, and the elephant would shake them off. Then towards the end they really started wacking him (playfully) and he was doing side kicks, charges, trunk swipes. It was really quite funny. After the elephant ride (an hour long through the thick jungle) we were back on foot. We trekked for another half hour, and saw a bunch of wildlife. A bird eating spider (massive) a ants nest in a tree, ferns that wilted when you touched them and a few birds. After this little trek, you started to get the impression we were making it back to civilization. A truck picked us up and drove us to a nearby river and we proceeded the rafting part of our journey. I remember watching an episode of the Amazing Race
in Thailand, and laughing at the fools who couldn't handle their rafts. I laugh no more. It was rather difficult, and our raft took a serious bashing, but after a while I got the hang of it. Also, I consider my raft lucky as we passed many strugglers with busted rafts along the way. After a good hour and a half of rafting and raft seige attempts, we made it to the end of our trip. A truck met us and we came back into Chian Mai.
The whole experience was amazing and by the end of it I had really bonded with everyone who took part in it. When we got back to Chian Mai I checked into the guesthouse we booked the tour through and the group of us went out for some drinks and pool. Some shut it down early, but myself, the dutch guys, the irish girls, and italia-america went out on the town. Good times.
The next day I took it easy around the guesthouse (which is an absolutely amazing guesthouse, hot water, a pool, double beds, good food, friendly staff) and 5 dollars canadian a night. Couldn't ask for a better deal,
and probaly the reason why I'm still in Chiang Mai. That night our tourguide and some candians from another trekking group went out to see a Muai Thai event. It was great. haha, there was so much betting going on, but I figured these guys knew the fighters so I kept my bets fairly tame. The fighters really come to play and I've never seen such intense fighting up close and person in my life (the ages ranged from 10 - 40). All the while these guys are fighting there is a "band" that plays this trancy snake charmer music which haunted my inner ear all night. After this, our tour guide suggested we go to the bar I had been to the night before, we did, and while everyone else was having an ok time, I had seen it the night before and this night just wasn't making it up to par. So I opted to leave and have an early night. Was that last night...or the night before...I think the night before. Yesterday I hung out with the local people at my guesthouse and studied some Thai with them. That day I worked on some vocabulary and today
I was doing some reading and writing. A lot of Thai's don't know any english, so I figure I'll try and bridge the gap. Last night I went out for a burger at "Mike's" who's maintains a commitment of "converting vegatarions since 1979" and "If you're food isn't ready in less than 2 hours, your food is free." I came back and had an early night.
Today, myself and the two candians who went to the muai thai match went up a nearby mountain by car and went to a temple that overlooks the entire city. There were tonnes and tonnes of people upthere, but the atmosphere and the view wer fantastic. We were gretting by an elephant when we first got up and we stood there feeding him for a good 10 minutes. After getting back into town I really just took it easy and in a few minutes here I'm gonna go to the night market with a kiwi I met the night night. He has a car rented, very nice.
Well, I guess that's it for now. I hope I didn't miss out on any interesting stuff on my trek, but I think I got
Lahu Village
This is where we stayed the first night. the gist across. As for my plans from now....I really don't know. Sarah is in Thailand now, and I just got an email from her. She's been in bangkok for a few days, and is heading south on the 1st. I told a friend I'd meet them on the 1st and hang out for a few days, so, we'll have to see how things develop. I like it here, at the guesthouse, but I think Chiang Mai may wear itself out (tourism wise for me) in a day or two. Then maybe I will go up to Pai or Chiang Rai. In Pai there is this huge cave complex and in Chian Rai you are close to the Golden Triangle. If not, maybe I'll hang out here and then start making my way back down to Bangkok slowly. stoping off at a few towns I want to see. Who really knows though, I'll see how I feel when I wake up. This place is really fantastic. Well....sorry for leaving you all on a cliff-hanger yesterday, I hope you forgive me and keep on reading. Oh, three interesting things:
1. The venders have motorbikes with their vending carts attached. halrious
Village Partying
It's just water, I promise. 2. Red Bulls cost 10 baht. Which is 33 cents.
3. Phone calls cost between 3-10 baht a minute (usually around 10. So to talk for a few minutes on a payphone it's often around a canadian dollar. Atrocious.
I'll try to do a post when something interesting happens. Take Care.
Oh, and I'll put some pictures up one of these days, but the internet in these parts is pretty shabby. I'll put up some from the zoo and the trek. Till then.
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Sam
non-member comment
You're missing the wii
Please tell me you didn't break your leg.