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Published: March 13th 2011
HE SAID... Day 1: We woke at 6am and headed straight for the shower. We breakfasted on
khao niao sung khaya (sweetened coconut sticky rice topped with egg custard) and
you tiao (Chinese deep fried donuts) with coffee. It was very tasty and perfect energy food. We were due to leave at 10am, so we had a leisurely morning. A
songthaew (small pickup truck/ute with seats in the tray) took us to the start of the
trek and we set off at 11.30am. We walked along a sealed road, which became an unsealed road and eventually a dirt track. We crossed a number of small creeks and started ascending to our lunch stop, where we sat beside a creek and sheltered under the tree cover. Our lunch had been prepared that morning at the homestay and was wrapped in a banana leaf. It was
pad ba mee (stir fried egg noodles) which we ate with chopsticks, and it was delicious. We continued our ascent along the creek bed to the base of a waterfall, where we rested before a steep, almost vertical climb on our hands and knees to the top of the waterfall. The view from the top of this
ridge was amazing - the horizon was literally a sea of high mountains and deep valleys. We continued walking and arrived at
Mae Tang village at 2.30pm.
Ten Lahu families lived here in bamboo huts, and it was a very rustic life. Our sleeping area was a single room bamboo hut with sleeping mats and mosquito nets. It was raised from the ground on bamboo stilts and had a small bamboo deck at the front. A small brick shed outside the hut housed a squat toilet and cold shower (which was basically a hose coming out from the wall with a tap on the end). A large bucket of water with a small plastic container floating on the top was used to flush the toilet, which you could also use to pour cold water over yourself if the shower trickle wasn’t enough. We dropped our packs in the hut and I headed straight for the shower - it was just what I needed after trekking in the hot afternoon sun. I washed my clothes as I showered and hung them to dry on our deck. We wandered around the tiny village, retreated to our deck where cold drinks sat
in a bucket of water, and then helped make a batch of spring rolls for dinner.
We had dinner on our host family’s deck at 6pm. There was so much food - steamed rice, chicken curry, vegetable stir fry, tofu and noodle soup and (of course) the spring rolls we had made during the afternoon. It was fantastic. We retreated to the deck of our own hut to relax after dinner in candlelight. We did relax for a while, but we suddenly realised that a village elder had slipped onto our deck in the darkness and was sitting and listening to our conversations. We tried to engage her, but she just smiled and stayed there. We didn’t really know what to do, but it soon became evident that we were completely exhausted from the day, so we crawled into our mosquito nets at 8pm. It was to be a disturbed night. The village had not yet been adversely impacted by tourism, so life went on as always and there was no attempt (and nor should there have been) to pamper to the needs of tourists. The village didn’t sleep - dogs fought, villagers talked, roosters screeched, babies cried, pigs
snorted and motorbikes came and went all night long. There is little privacy in a small hill tribe village (bamboo is not sound proof), so we had no chance of sleep. The other problem we faced was the bamboo floor structure - every time someone moved, the whole floor moved. Every time someone got up to go to the toilet (which meant negotiating the mosquito nets in the dark), the whole hut moved. It was a long night.
Day 2: I got up at 6am, navigated the mosquito nets and headed straight for the shower. It had been a hot, stifling and sleepless night, so a cold shower was the best way to start the day. I love this place. We breakfasted on scrambled eggs, toast and coffee and left the village at 8.45am. We climbed a steep ridge and descended into a village that lay deep in a neighbouring valley. There were times during the trek that our local guide had to cut overgrown parts of the track with his machete, which was as disconcerting as it was exciting. We stopped for a short break in the village before climbing a steep ridge and descending into yet another
valley. We then trekked along a creek bed and stopped for lunch on rocks in a wider section of the creek. Our lunch of
khao pad gai (chicken fried rice) was wrapped in banana leaves and had been prepared that morning by our host family. It was very welcome. After lunch we continued along the creek bed, ascended/descended a few small hills and emerged onto a basic road, which we followed until we reached another small village at 1pm. We stopped for drinks and then continued in the afternoon heat through a steep tea plantation until we reached a small waterfall. We swam to cool down and then continued a short (but steep) distance to our destination -
Bpong Nam Long. We arrived at 3pm, settled in to our sleeping area in the bamboo hut and shared a few cold drinks on our bamboo deck. This village was not as rustic as Mae Tang. It was home to the Akha tribe and was more tourist-driven in its outlook. This is not to detract from the village itself. It was an amazing place. The amenities were basic - squat toilets and cold showers - but our bamboo hut was removed from
the main village (which was much bigger than Mae Tang). This gave us a little more privacy and a little less noise, which made it a more relaxing experience.
We walked around the village and then headed back to our hut to relax on the bamboo deck in the late afternoon sun. Dinner was served on the deck at 6pm - sweet and sour capsicum, chicken green curry, snow peas and steamed rice. We finished the meal with coffee and then played cards (using a pack of the infamous cards used by American soldiers in the gulf war to identify Iraq’s most wanted military and government personnel). Exhausted from the day, we crawled into our mosquito nets at 8pm. The sleeping mats were much thinner here, but we slept much better - it was quiet! All we had to contend with was a wayward rooster and a very loud lizard.
Day 3: I woke at 6am, jumped straight into a cold shower and then sat out on the bamboo deck to catch up on my writing as the sun rose. We breakfasted on pancakes and honey, watermelon and coffee as the morning sun started to heat up. The
night had been cool for the first time on this trip - I actually needed to pull a blanket over my legs around 4am. We donned our packs and left the village at 8.45. The ascent out of the village was steep - very steep. The path was dry, the dirt was slippery and the sun was hot, and half way up the track Ren looked at me and quietly confided that she was about to die. She didn’t, of course, and we eventually reached the top of the valley ridge where the view of the village’s thatched roofs was breathtaking. We had been informed that this trek was to be short - only two hours - and that we were heading to the national park’s hot springs. This sounded exotic, and the prospect of soothing our feet in hot water kept us going through the searing morning heat. After trekking past isolated huts and through a small village, we eventually arrived at the hot springs at 11am. However, we were greeted with disappointing news - the springs were closed for cleaning. They had been open the day before, and they would be open tomorrow, but they weren’t open today.
We had lucked out. 😞
We slumped into the restaurant opposite the Springs and lunched on
khao pad gai (chicken fried rice) and
pad thai (rice noodles stir fried with shrimp, egg, bean sprouts, tofu, chillies, fish sauce and peanuts). It was good, but we were exhausted. After lunch we thanked our local guide and jumped into an awaiting
songthaew for the short trip into Chiang Rai.
SHE SAID... We left the Baan San Sai homestay to pick up our local guide Mr Sun in Chiang Rai, and embark on our three day
hill tribe trek. It was estimated that we would walk for approximately five hours each day.
Day 1: We walked four or five kilometres, which took us three hours! I know that doesn’t sound like much for a day’s trek, but add to this high humidity, ferocious heat, steep inclines and a pack with three days of clothing and water in it - and the degree of difficulty just sky rockets. After the first uphill climb to a waterfall that lasted a gruelling twenty minutes (sometimes on hands and knees) - I really felt like a cup of tea and a little
lie down! But that was just the nerves talking (and possibly a little dehydration from the night before). I had wanted to do this trek ever since a friend told me about it in 1998. The reason it hasn’t happened until now is very simple - I just haven’t had the courage. Andrew had been excitedly looking forward to this component of the trip and this helped no end, but I also decided that this is probably the fittest I was ever going to be and if I didn’t do it now, it would never happen.
We trekked through village life, amongst farms, orange plantations, past massive teak trees, across many shallow streams, through pungent wild banana forests, jungles of old creaking bamboo, and thick and thankfully unexploited forest growth. It was a sublime experience. It was very hard work in spots, but gratifying during well-earned breaks gazing over hillsides covered in bamboo or sitting beside fresh water streams or a gushing waterfall - the only respite from the heat. It was at one of these little streams that we had our
kowhor (take-away lunch) of
pad ba mee (stir fried egg noodles) which had been packed by our
homestay hosts in a fragrant banana leaf. Realistically the trekking was really not that strenuous when we got into the rhythm of it, except when we had to drag ourselves uphill again!
As interesting as the trekking was, I for one was particularly thankful when we reached our hosts for the first night - the villagers of
Mae Tang of the Lahu tribe. They lead a simple life in bamboo huts on the mountainside. They are a self-sustaining farming people who have more recently also turned to tourism as another source of income. Homestays are relatively new for this village so we were lucky enough to experience the village as it normally would operate.
Our group stayed in one large room and slept on thin mattresses under mosquito nets on the floor of a bamboo hut typical of these villages. This was a real working village with a herd of cows sitting around the central village area, a massive sow and her little piglets running around nervously…and dogs, puppies, chickens and naked children all thrown into the mix too. This was as basic and rustic as I had imagined it would be, however a little unexpected touch was
an icy cold bucket full of beer and soft drink that appeared like magic on our hut’s deck within minutes of us getting there. 😊
Later that night we were presented with a feast on the deck of our host family’s hut - spring rolls we had helped to make, red chicken curry, spicy stir fried vegetables with cashews, glass noodles and tofu soup, and steamed rice. We had worked up an enormous appetite on the trek, and I hope we didn’t look too rude as we sat gobbling the delicious food. Even though our bodies were aching, and we desperately wanted to go to bed, we went back to our hut and sat on our bamboo deck in the candle light, enjoying the village comings and goings. All eight of us had tackled the first day of the trek and loved it (mostly). Now all we had to do was get through two more days. When we reached the point of being delirious with exhaustion we all crawled into our mosquito nets, hoping for a deep and restorative sleep.
The bathroom consisted of a cold tap, but it was actually refreshing to have a cold wash after
the hot trek. The toilets were of the squat variety here. Ok most of you who know me know that I have a ‘toilet’ thing. I don’t like public toilets at the best of times and I have real issues with squat toilets. Yet I love to travel? Yes, one of life’s little ironic jokes on me no doubt. At the risk of sharing too much, some western travellers in Asia experience a case of
travellers retention - a result of a severe fear of using the squatty potty. The public toilets in Thailand are predominantly squat toilets with a manual flush (i.e. you pour a bowl or two of water into the bowl to make it ‘flush’), and the further regional and rural you get, they tend to be in an outdoor hut and for obvious reasons, far from anything else. Furthermore, for environmental and functional reasons, used toilet paper cannot be flushed but has to be placed in the provided bin. So hence the aforementioned
travellers retention. Again, very unwisely and against all sound advice from Andrew, I decide to dehydrate myself in the evening to avoid a night time rendezvous with a dark squatty. I survived, but
only just.
Oh by the way - that deep and restorative sleep I mentioned…it never eventuated! We were all wide awake by 4am thanks to the village roosters who clearly take their role very seriously in these parts and start crowing at 2am.That is after the pigs, dogs, babies, motorbikes and a distant blaring radio playing Thai pop and sometimes Boyzone songs had just stopped their cacophony of noises around 1am. Oh, and did you know that bamboo floors have lots of movement? We were all intimately aware of anyone in the room rolling over or waking up to use the bathroom. Needless to say we got very little sleep that night. Lee summed it up perfectly the next morning when he said Kim was walking around with her own private storm cloud over her head - all the girls were feeling exactly the same. Until the coffee/hot chocolates and lovely breakfast that is, after which we all cheered up somewhat. 😊
Day 2: Andrew and I woke up early to shower and watch the village wake up. By normal village standards, these were late risers (not surprising after the noisy night I suppose). After a breakfast of
beautiful scrambled eggs on toast, we packed up and started our second day of the trek. Trekking on the second day was relatively easy going, probably because we knew what to expect and we had the option of porters! Unfortunately none of the local porters were available as they were out farming that day, but Paul and I still opted for sending our packs ahead to the next village by motorbike, as I wanted to get a chance to take in the scenery and also take more photographs than I had been able to the day before.
We walked along village, farm and remote jungle tracks, climbed steep rocky paths, zigzagged over muddy fields and clung to not-very-steady bamboo bridges over mountain rivulets. Overall the terrain alternated between rural and jungle. Where there were no discernible tracks, we faithfully followed our local guide and porter who frustratingly looked like they were out for an easy Sunday stroll.
We climbed about 600 metres over 10 or so kilometres, and it took us six hours including breaks and lunch. Our
kowhor (take-away lunch) was
khao pad gai (chicken fried rice) wrapped in a banana leaf from the host family in
the Lahu village, and the setting was a lovely stream in a tropical jungle. Even though the trekking was marginally easier, we kept coming out of the jungle canopy into fields, and so we were in the direct line of fire of a blistering sun. As I stood in the hot jungle, minus my pack, but still sweating like a piggy and gulping rehydration drinks - I felt a surge of excitement mixed with elation knowing I was really here and actually doing something that I had wanted to do for so many years. Although I have to be very honest and say that at one point when we were scaling a steep oolong tea plantation with the hot sun on our backs and no end in sight, I did question the wisdom of signing up for this trek. But that doubt disappeared when we came to a beautiful rock pool at the bottom of a gorgeous waterfall…and I clambered in fully clothed to sit in the cold water. This was also a great way to rinse sweaty clothes! 😊
Our second night was spent in an Akha tribe village called
Bpong Nam Long. The Akha people now grow
alternative and legal crops instead of the opium crops they used to grow. They credit the King with improving living standards for many hill tribes by setting up farming projects with guaranteed prices for the farmers. This is also supplemented with more aggressive tourism than in the Lahu village. Our bamboo hut was set a little out of the village and while it gave us more privacy, we felt a bit removed from the action of the village. We walked around the village and realised that they have a distinct tourist part of town with a bar and restaurants, and Akha trinket and fabric laden shops; then down a non-descript sandy lane the real village sits relatively unscarred by the tourists.
We walked back to our hut and settled down for drinks and eventually dinner on our deck. Dinner was lovely and filling - sweet and sour three coloured capsicum, stir fried snow peas, chicken green curry, and steamed rice. I continue to be amazed at the volume and diversity of food that can come out of a one wok kitchen. Later over coffee, we sat around on the deck chatting and playing a card game called Kings with
the local guide and porter. The porter was a lovely man who loved his card tricks. This was one of those classic travel situations where we sometimes had absolutely no idea what he was saying but it didn’t matter, because between the eight of us trying to decipher things and his willingness to communicate, we usually got there in the end. As lovely as the evening was, I really struggled to stay awake through it, even though it was still ridiculously early. I was relieved to see that the rest of the group was as completely worn out as I was, and soon afterwards everyone snuck off to the communal room with our bamboo beds. This was a more restful night, with only noise from three roosters and one pesky lizard to contend with.
Day 3: We woke up to the much needed ‘3-in-1’ coffee and hot chocolate again, and also had a lovely and filling breakfast of pancakes with honey and fresh watermelon for breakfast. The final day of hiking was supposed to be all downhill, so I opted to carry my pack; but within ten minutes we were scaling a ridiculously steep hill through a lychee plantation
that took about 20 minutes to climb. I nearly died. Really. It took me longer than the rest of the group to get to the top and much thanks go to Andrew and Golf who patiently walked behind me as I huffed and puffed up that evil sandy, mountain goat hill. After another hour and a half of much easier walking through bamboo forests and cleared hill tops with only short bursts of uphill climbing, we hit a paved road and knew that the end was finally in sight. We walked to the Hot Springs and even though the Springs were unfortunately closed for the day, we were happy to sit down to lunch at a nearby roadside restaurant. Lunch was a choice of
khao pad gai (chicken fried rice) or
pad thai (rice noodles stir fried with shrimp, egg, bean sprouts, tofu, chillies, fish sauce and peanuts); after which we gladly crawled inside our
songthaew...very happy to give our poor throbbing feet a rest. Everyone was quiet on the one hour ride back to the hotel in Chiang Rai, where we had showers and an ensuite bathroom waiting for us! 😊
We covered about 15-17 kilometres in three days, experienced a wide cross section of northern Thailand’s terrain and landscapes, and met a number of nice people in incredible villages - it is probably one of the more physically amazing things I have done.
Sadly there is a fear that if the hill tribes cannot continue to carve out an existence for themselves in the mountains, they will move to cities and thus slowly break down their rich tribal culture in the hills. The tourist trade gives the local men a chance to be porters and the women to run homestays. As thrilled as I am to have been a part of this, from what I have read a few of the renegade (read: cheap) trekking companies out of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai need to be more regulated to ensure the tribes get a fair share of the profits of the trekking trade.
See you in Chiang Rai, hopefully after a looong hot shower!
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Traditional Hill Tribe Cooking
I shamefully have to admit to a little laugh about Ren's hill-climbing. Sorry. But I was very impressed by the tradional hill tribe breakfasts. I vaguely remember having that sort of stuff in a hill tribe village in Yunnan many years ago. It must be common in that region. And it sounds much better than my tuna and tea-leaf lunch. I've still got tea-leaves stuck in my teeth...