Advertisement
Published: February 7th 2006
Edit Blog Post
our ride
time to trek! Again, apologies for the lateness of this blog.....time travel back to Dec. 25th.....
Since I couldn't be with my family this Christmas day, I wanted to plan something completely abnormal to avoid any homesickness. This is my first Christmas away from home. A trek in the jungle sounded perfect to me!
Bright and early Christmas morning Tony our Thai tourguide (tongue-twister?) arrived at our hotel with the pick-up truck. Our trekking group included 2 tour-guides, 2 people from Denmark, 2 from Australia, 1 from England and 1 from France. We rode in the back of the truck for about an hour, taking us out of Chaing Mai and into the country-side. Our first stop was the elephant farm.
Riding the elephants was an awesome experience! It turned out to be much more challenging than I expected! It took forever to get on the animal because it was moving all over the place, and I had to climb onto its back somewhere! Getting off would have been no problem...if I had let go my seat at anytime I would have been on the ground for sure. It was a bumpy ride! We went through the jungle on and off
trails....basically wherever the elephant wanted to go...for about an hour and a half. We bought some bananas and sugar cane "to make friendly with the elephants", as our guide told us to do! hehe. We were happy to find that this elephant camp was a reputable one, which takes care of its animals....unlike many others in Thailand that you hear horror stories about.
We had a roadside lunch, and then started the actual trekking. We walked 2.5 hours before reaching our waterfall break point. Some people chose to go swimming, but it looked far too cold for me! The trek was challenging mostly because there wasn't a solid trail. We were crossing rivers by jumping rocks or shimmying across fallen trees. I truly felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. Another couple hours of hiking and we arrive at the village by dusk. The village was probably one of the most far out things I've ever seen.
The Karen hill tribe village: There are 65 people who technically live in this village. I say 'technically' because there are a number of children that only stay there on weekends, as they live in another village during the
week to go to school. There are maybe 10 or 12 buildings, a couple of which are outhouses. Their only source of electricity is a single solar panel. It was dark by 7:00, and each house has only one light. There isn't any running water. This very kind village that hosted us for the evening made us a fantastic dinner.....we had curry and rice by the campfire. They housed us in a cabin that is raised on stilts, and has a very thin and shaky bamboo floor. We each had a sleeping bag and mosquito net. Our breakfast of toast and eggs came bright and early. The ladies of the village brought out many handicrafts to sell. I bought a handmade scarf for 30 baht (about $1) that took this lady almost an entire day to make! I wish I could have stayed in the village for a longer time. I learned so much about the people there. Here's a few interesting things: the young girls have to wear white everyday until they are married.. Also you can tell how many daughters there are in each family, buy the number of black pigs in their yards. The pigs serve as
a dowry for the girls. I've added a quote at the bottom of the page about the Karen tribal people that I copied from a sign in Chaing Mai.
Everyone in the trekking group had signed on for a three day tour. Due to our time restraints, Iona and I could only go for two. So after breakfast the two of us, and Tony the tourguide set off on our own. The three of us hiked on some very muddy trails for about 6 hours. It rained all the night before, so I wipped out many! And each time one of us fell, Tony shouted "Oh, my Buddha!" Hahaha. We travelled through a number of other villages, and got to see the school and some other peoples' homes. One of the highlights of the trip for me was meeting a very happy woman making some rice! She had a beautiful traditional and homemade outfit on....so colourful and gorgeous! She also had the biggest smile in the world, and did not shy away from the two foreign girls watching her. She infact invited us over to watch what she was doing....using the international language of gestures! At times I felt
like it was only the three of us travelling through the jungle. It was so cool!
Our final adventure of the trek was taking a bamboo raft down a river. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this. I was warned not to take my camera becuase I "might" get wet....I'm glad I took their advice! There were four people to a raft, plus a guide. I got knocked into the river, and was almost left behind! It had rained a lot the night before, so the water level was really high. I guess our guide lost control and we smashed into the river bank. I looked up and saw a tree branch coming for my head so I stuck my leg out to protect myself. The impact was so great that I ended up flipping backwards and was left with my lower body dragging through the river. It certainly wasn't the gentle cruise I thought it was going to be! The whole experience of the last couple of days seemed so surreal to me, that I couldn't help but laugh hysterically!!
We were returned back to Chaing Mai city in the early evening. I felt like I
washed about 10 lbs. of jungle dirt off me in the shower! Iona and I met up with the tours guides again in the evening. They took us to a non-touristy part of the city where I stuck out like a sore thumb! (like everyday in Japan!) We had a great night at the "Johnny Walker's Whiskey Club"....where whiskey is the drink of choice, and you have to bring it yourself!
This trek turned out to be a major highlight of
any trip that I've been on!
Next stop, Bangkok.....
***************************************************************************************
"Karen people live in different provinces in Thailand. They are the largest tribal population. The Karen are kind people who leave the nature. There are two major sub-groups of the Karen ethnic group in Thailand: the Pwo and Skaw. In everyday life the Pwo and Skaw wear their traditional clothing. The environment also has an effect on the way Karen people dress. Karen still weave their own cloth for their own use. They use cotton to produce cloth for the family. Karen textiles have many beautiful designs, patterns and ornaments requiring a complex skilled process. Karen textiles can be supported and developed for the handicraft market."
Advertisement
Tot: 0.193s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 15; qc: 80; dbt: 0.0567s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Roothie
non-member comment
What A Trekker You Are!
"Wow!" doesn't even do you justice, Heather! You must be in such good shape and you'll be absolutely buff by the end of your stay. I'm so glad you are experiencing everything you can while there...definitely once in a lifetime stuff!! Trek on! Love Roothie