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Published: August 2nd 2009
So after a mad dash from Kho San road to Bangkok airport and a short flight north we eventually made it to Chiang Mai. The old city of Chiang Mai is a neat square bounded by moats and remnants of a medieval style wall built 700 years ago. It was a welcomed break from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok and allowed us to sample some of Thailand’s amazing culture. We checked into a superb hotel called SK-1 and for a bargain price of $12 we had modern rooms with all the required amenities we have come to appreciate so much more - Hot water, AC and most importantly a western toilet. Our first evening was spent getting merrily drunk on cocktails, which was obvious when Amy started ordering Jizz Fins rather than Gin Fizzes and James was beaten at pool by a local Thai woman.
Chiang Mai’s leading tourist attracting is its legendary night market, spreading out over several blocks and made up of nearly a thousand stalls selling everything from fake designer handbags to electric tasers and guns…..Obviously Kim, Amy and Sarah were in their element and after 3 long hours of walking around the endless line of
shops their new purchase included a new Dolce and Gabbana handbag, a ‘diamond’ ring (that fell to pieces 2 days after being bought) and a Tiffanys necklace that Kim got made up on the street to the design that she wanted. The girls could clearly see that James’s patience was starting to wear thin, and steered him in the direction of a massage parlour where we all got an hour long foot massage.
The main reason we came up to Chiang Mai was to do some trekking in the dense jungles around the north of Thailand. James put his superior haggling skills to use and managed to get a great deal on a 2 day / 1 night trek that included a visited to a minority village that was home to the famous ‘Long neck woman’, elephant riding, white water rafting and bamboo rafting….all for the cheap price of a few beers and a curry back at home. We were all a little nervous about the trip as Amy and Sarah have never done any serious trekking before and we had only just got over the epic volcano trek we did in Bali.
An hour drive out of
Chiang Mai we arrived at the Karen hill tribe village, where we walked around the village and were introduced to the local people. The tribe originally lived in Myanmar and later immigrated over the boarder into northern Thailand and today are now a well-known tourist attraction due to a strange tradition they continue to carry out, involving the woman of the tribe wearing a spring like brass collar around their neck which over many years gradually stretches their necks, hence their nick name - The long neck Woman. After chatting to the ladies we found out that the ‘collar’ is introduced to girls as young as 16 and generally isn’t taken off apart from bathing. Kim was lucky enough to try on a sample collar and was shocked at how heavy they were. We estimated the brass collar had to weigh somewhere close to 5kg and guessed it put a lot of stress on the spine. To think us ‘westerners’ moan about wearing braces or glasses!! When we asked why the ladies wear the rings and stretch their necks we were told, “the longer the neck, the more prestigious and attractive they appear”, personally we thought it looked a little
alien to us! As the people are refugees they receive no help from the Thai government so funds tend to be low and therefore they rely on selling souvenirs to tourists. Before we left Kim bought a brass ring, not the neck type as she thought she might get some strange looks sporting it around the streets of England but a simple bracelet.
After the Long Neck village we paid a quick visit to the local market to stock up on vital supplies for our trekking ahead. With our Pringles and chocolate Oreos purchased we hopped back into our Sawngtheaw (a glorified tuk-tuk) and headed deep into the jungle. Before the trek we spent an hour feeding and riding elephants which was a great experience and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. Our elephant was called Oi-oi and was the size of a small house, so was quite daunting being so high in the air. Oi-Oi was the mother of a cute baby elephant that followed us for the entire journey and was very playful, splashing us with muddy water at every opportunity and using its trunk to try and get food out of our pockets…It was funny when the
baby was trying to search for bananas on James and started poking around in places he shouldn’t have been, prompting James to shout out ‘He’s going after my banana!!” The scenery was truly amazing and it was kind of surreal that we were stomping through rivers and jungle on elephant back.
Once we were safely put down by the elephants we had some lunch, which comprised of the usual - rice, vegetables and fruits and were on or way trekking through the jungle. We were both sure it couldn’t be as strenuous as the volcano hike we did in Bali and when a girl in our group collapsed due to low blood pressure we started to wonder what we had got ourselves into again. Unfortunately we didn’t have porters this time and therefore had to carry all our own belongings and food. We decided to cut down the weight by only taking one bottle of water between us which we soon realised was a major mistake as we both started flagging behind, while Amy, Sarah and the rest of the team stormed ahead. Three hours into the trek we were both exhausted and in desperate need of a drink
but we eventually managed to claw our way to the village on top of the mountain where we would be spending the evening.
Our accommodation for the evening was a large bamboo room with several thin mats on the floor, covered by mosquito nets. After a well deserved drink, we made up our beds and enjoyed the fantastic view while our dinner was being prepared. We were pleasantly surprised at the range of food that was being dished up and we all dived into the feast before us. As night dawned, the drink started flowing more and we played drinking games all evening. Our favourite game was one our guide (Jonnie Walker) taught us and was called ‘Spoons’. The rules were pretty simple; you had to swap a card with your neighbour and when a person gets 4 of a kind everyone has to grab a spoon as quickly as possible. As there are fewer spoons than players, the loser is the one who doesn’t grab a spoon in time resulting in getting drawn on with charcoal and drinking more beer. Needless to say as more beers were consumed our reaction speed gradually got worst, Kim’s more than everyone
else. As you can see from the photos, nearly everyone had doodled on Kim’s face and she was the proud owner of a charcoal moustache and goatee.
For those of you that know Kim well she has a surprisingly weak bladder and was dreading having to trek to the toilet in the middle of the night, so when she woke James up to help her and Sarah to the loo he grudgingly got up. It’s a god job that he did as there was a huge spider sitting calmly on the wall right next to the toilet. He was far to chicken to move it, so stood on guard outside while the girls did their business.
After a filling breakfast we were back on the move trekking down the mountain towards a large waterfall. Even thought the decent wasn’t as exhausting as going up, the route was far more treacherous and dangerous. Sure enough Kim tripped over first and went head over heels prompting Amy and Sarah to burst into laughter and then causing them to fall over themselves. The smug smile was soon wiped off James’s face when he slid down the hill and cut all his
leg open :O(
When we arrived at the waterfall we wasted no time stripping down and cooling off in the ice cold water.
After the waterfall we trekked another hour to the white water rafting base and soon after we were all sitting in our inflatable raft being briefed on the safety procedures. For the next 45 minutes we had loads of fun whizzing down the river, navigating ourselves over the grade 2 rapids and even though we ended going backwards through most of them, we made it to the end in one piece! After white water rafting we swapped vessels onto a bamboo raft and peacefully glided down the river to base camp.
We all really enjoyed the trek and had so much fun over the 2 days, we were lucky to have a good group of people and a superb guide that contributed to all the enjoyment. Out of our whole trip we think it is one of the best things we have done and certainly think it was great value for money.
On our final night in Chiang Mai we went to watch some Thai boxing, known as Muay Thai. Almost anything goes in
this martial art sport and can actually be quite violent with all surfaces of the body being considered fair targets and any part of the body (apart from the head) can be used to strike an opponent. After 4 bouts Amy and Sarah had had enough and opted to do more shopping around the night market while we stayed to cheer on the English guy who was fighting. Unfortunately he embarrassingly got knocked out in the first round, so we decided to go back to the hotel and see what weird and wonderful things the girls had purchased.
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chelsea dallimore - crook
non-member comment
Trip - Company
Hi there i hope you don't mind me asking but who did you book this tour with, i am going in October and this sounds like a fab thing to do? xxx