Trekking in Northern Thailand

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A few hours north of Chiang Mai near Chiang Dao is a huge national preservation area, home to a handful of hill tribes and a hell of a lot of trees. Our tour group picked us up at 7am at our guest house in the back of a local bus converted into the trek’s personal transportation vehicle. We were met by 4 other girls in their late 20’s from London who would be joining us for the next 3-days. Loaded up we headed a few hours into the country side all pretty upbeat and looking very much like city people going for a stroll.

We arrived at a lovely guest house called the Chiang Dao Nest - it’s a beautiful retreat and was the starting point of our journey. After a quick breakfast we all piled into the back of a truck and headed to the mountains - a gorgeous and windey road drive - we were in heaven thinking this is so pretty, wont a stroll be nice etc etc. We should also mention our 3-days were split into: 1. ‘light’ hike visiting a few villages, caves and a waterfall, 2. a more laborious hike ie. 4 hours and the final being elephant riding and bamboo rafting - the trouble was we had no idea which day was which and our first guide spoke little to no English. So we just went with it! It was stinking hot out when we started and the beginning was a 1 hour walk down a very steep hill - one girl had bleeding knees from falling within the first 30 minutes. We got to a village all in a sweat had a quick break and headed for the caving part of the trek helmets and all. Kat, who suffers from a bit of claustrophobia opted to walk to the caves, but there was no way in hell she was going into dark crawling space caves - no way, no how.

So we walked there thinking it would be a gentle walk but it was hot and far and going over uneven quite steep terrain - so we were also thinking ah this must also be the hardcore hiking day. We all got the caves and Ed and one girl from the girls ventured into the caves for about 45 minutes …… the rest of us waited outside the caves and chatted. The caves were interesting enough but generally quite small without massively remarkable sites, but Ed was happy he did the did the trek. We then ventured back to the original village where we had lunch - chicken with sweet chili sauce and sticky rice (a Thai staple) - exhausted we moved onto the waterfall hike which was absolutely beautiful - going over creeks, up and down forested pathways was a treat, albeit a somewhat challenging hike with the guides front and back holding a lot of hands over the various hurdles. Ed managed to brush himself against a tree filled with red ants and get some nasty bites while the rest of the group somehow managed to avoid it. The waterfall itself was slightly anticlimactic as we were told to bring our bathing suits when booking the trip and found a bit of a puddle at the bottom, but regardless it was a beautiful sight. We then headed back to base and were originally told we were to hike up the original killer hill - it was unheard of, we could barely walk down that flippin thing! Luckily the group of girls were quite vocal and the guide soon called a truck to take us to the village where we were to spend the night.

We were really surprised of the accomodation of the village as we had our own little shack with a makeshift patio and our own bathroom, we thought we were going to be sharing! We quickly got into the Chang beers and started playing cards and discussing how glad we were the tough hiking day was over. Our guide got into the drinks with us - it went a little something like 1 for us 2 for him - long and the short he was right pissed by the end of the night. After a decent dinner we headed to bed early - the girls had befriended the group of army soldiers also staying at the village and we decided to let them get their mack on in peace...

The next morning we had a quick bite to eat and headed out after being handed bamboo poles - we were thinking hmmm why do we need these poles for the easy hike? After another killer downhill start we came across a village and were led to a local man’s house/shack. He had the kettle on over the fire and was busy preparing tea for us - an earthy local concoction. He then presented us with bracelets and asked if we’d like to purchase them and he would bless them as he is a shaman. We thought why not and he performed a very deliberate and methodical ceremony while individually tying the bracelets on our wrists with a lot of blowing and chanting.

We then pressed on - soon realizing why we needed the bamboo poles as it was mostly all up hill for the next 3 hours. Two girls in the group had asthma and were finding this very challenging. We were really surprised how well we were doing on the hike - we both attributed a lot of it to the cleanse giving us a lot more energy. After hours of ups and downs, caves, valleys, streams, never ending up hills we came upon a shack at a peak. One guide pulled out a huge knife and a pile of veggies and started chopping while the other went into the woods to cut down bamboo - he was hollowing out the bamboo for us to use as bowls, it was amazing. The other guide built a fire and stuck three pieces of wood around it to rest the wok on. He then cooked us the most amazing curry, sticky rice and a spicy tuna and tomato salad. We ate like pigs and were in heaven.

Ed quickly regretted having more than his share as the next leg was you guessed it another steep uphill climb - if you haven’t already gathered this day is the big ass hiking day! We’re going on hour 5 here…We hiked for another 3 hours and finally came to our destination - a shack by a river that was it! The shack consisted of two walls, a roof and being all made of bamboo bits there were lots of gaps to allow for most anything to get through. Plus the 6 of us were all in the one open space - we sighed and said ok its part of the experience, the girls were not happy! We also discovered chess on Ed’s phone - it was the first time Kat beat him! It was about 4.30 and the guides were already cooking dinner which was initially thought was odd being so early then thought oh yah we have no electricity and need to eat before dark. We had a blandish dinner with a few chang beers and were soon tucking in at about 9pm - the beds consisted of mats with hard pillows and fairly gross sleeping bags. We had one mosquito net covering us with another covering the girls - it was going to be a long night. We all fell asleep and about an hour later were woken up by a massive thunder and lightening storm followed by a huge tree falling down. Trying to sleep again Kat was soon awoken with what felt like a massive spider crawling across her hand and face, she jumped up shook Ed and grabbed the flashlight trying to not freak out too much. We then had a major half asleep non-verbal communicative breakdown when Ed started inspecting Kat and she was slowly touching her face and neck to make sure the area was clear but I guess looking oddly at Ed while doing this and he started freaking out like Kat was showing him it was now on him and he jumped back yelling “what, what, where is it?!?” and smacking his face, then Kat burst into hysterics trying to muffle her laughter to not wake the other girls. She was seriously convulsing trying to get back to sleep picturing Ed freaking out - Ed also mentioned at this point you're not going to believe what time it was, Kat replied 2-3am? not quite its 11pm!! Oh God what a long night that was…

The next day we were all so sore and were promised a very easy hike out and then a truck was going to pick us up to go elephant trekking. We had a quick breakfast of cereal with UHT milk and white bread and were on our way. We first stopped at the local village where our guides were from and looked around and saw the local school where one of the guides was a teacher. The village itself was relatively small, but beautiful and walking away from it and looking back it was an amazing site - a small village quietly hidden amongst trees and the rising morning fog. We then began our 'easy' morning hike, which turned into a straight uphill 2-hour hike, it was absolutely insane, like nothing from our strath hiking trips (Kat's girls will know what Im talking about). We were all dripping with sweat, literally dripping everywhere, all we could do was take deep breaths and say we must almost be there, our guides didnt speak English and couldnt tell us much. They were very sweet though and carried the bags of 2 girls from the group who were really struggling up the hill. We finally saw the truck in the distance and thought, my God we actually made it!!

We arrived at the elephant trek site and it was amazing. These elephants were massive - there were 3 of them - and Thai mahouts (elephant drivers) on the back. They went to the elephant stairs, where we climb up stairs and hop onto their backs with little seats on them. It was amazing - the way that the mahouts could make a few gestures and/or clicks to control these huge animals (no sticks or progs involved). We had a particularily naughty elephant who must've been pissed about being ridden because she kept blowing snot back on us - we were covered by the end - it was funny, but also concerned that if shes this pissed off what else is she going to do!? Kat braved the courage to shimmy down onto the elephants neck for 10 minutes, cool but scary and the elephant's bristles on its skin go right through the pants! The guide took to walking behind us for a good 45 minutes and as we approached a steep declining hill Kat through a lot of hand motioning finally got the "get back on the bloody elephant and guide it down" message across.

After a few more villages and endless people trying to sell us things we were on to the bamboo rafts - this was a very long day! We had a new guide as well who was so sweet and really trying to make an effort with us but we were all so tired. He even began singing us songs, Ed's favorite was the elephant song which went a little like: "elephant, elephant, elephant, long truck, big ears...." we were all lucky enough a few weeks following this trip for Ed to bust out this song at a karaoke session (to be continued in another blog).

The bamboo rafting was ok, pretty uneventful with lots of lovely floaters in the water, pls refer to picture. We eventually made it back to Chiang Mai and had a huge sleep! Next stop we're going south to Lampang.

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Photos

Guide making us lunch
The ingenuity of the guides was astounding - they made a feast out of what appeared to be nothing!