LOST in the Jungle

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Chiang Mai is increasingly used as a starting point for touring the hill tribe villages that surround it. We stumbled off the night train from BKK at around 7 am, and spent most of the first day exploring inside the ancient walls and moat that once marked the city center, walking around and stumbling into bookstores, cafes, etc. Despite the initial impression it gives of a sleepy town (at least in comparison to BKK), we found it to have a surprisingly cosmopolitan feel. Well, maybe that shouldn't be that surprising, given the influx of expats as well as the fact that it is the country's second largest city. Since there happened to be a real Muy Thai fight going on that night, as opposed to the tourist-geared exhibition matches we saw advertised in Bangkok, the boys went to check it out. Meanwhile we spent some time wandering through the Chiang Mai night market. Boys like sports and girls shop - shocking right? Well, it turns out, that we sort of regretted our choice. This market turned out to be a cleaner, better organized and cheaper version of the one in Bankgkok, but once you've seen one Thai bazaar you've more or less seen them all.

The next morning, we set off on our 3-day trek. Here is roughly how it went:

Day 1
Daypacks in tow, travel as a group to visit a waterfall for swimming. Drive to starting point for lunch, and set off. Hike through jungle for three hours, starting with a 400 meter climb up a 60-degree incline. Arrive in Karen village before dark. Chill out in what can best be described as a tree house, eat yummy food prepared by Jungle Boy (that's what Chai refers to himself as!) and his porter Mr. U (pronounced ew). End the night attempting to sing along as Jungle Boy & Mr. U play the guitar and sing their versions of popular english songs. Don't sleep more than 1 hour at night, for fear that mosquito net will collapse and farm animals living under hut will find their way inside.

Day 2
"Wake up" with the rooster's crow. Interestingly, the animal likes to start crowing far before dawn, not that any of us were really sleeping anyway. Today would be the toughest day of the trek, with a 5-hour hike through various terrain: the tropical rainforest (both up and down hill) and rice paddy fields (infested with leeches, might I add). It actually went by fairly quickly, with our guides stopping us intermittently to point out certain vegetation and scurry up trees to pick fresh fruit (the names of which neither of them could translate) for us to sample. By lunchtime, we arrived at an elephant camp, which the Karen people established in order to train elephants for agricultural uses and transportation over the area's steep terrain. After lunch, we climbed on top of the elephants and rode them to our next and final village stop. Well, almost. After an hour, the elephant trainers dropped us off on a elephant docking station of sorts, and walked away. Just at that moment, the heavens opened and it began to pour, Noah's Ark style. No big deal, right? Except that we were 7 city farang (the word the Thai affectionately use to refer to both foreigners and guava) in the jungle, all alone. Our guides, finding elephant riding too boring, had decided to walk and said they would meet us at the village. Yet, there we were, deserted next to the world's largest pile of Khi Chang (elephant poop), no guides or village in sight. We decided to give it 10-15 minutes before setting off on our own a la Syeed, John, and Kate from LOST. Alas, out of nowhere, Chai and Mr. U charged out of the hills and straight toward us, muttering something in their native Karen language. They didn't even stop to explain, so we ran after them, in the rain, for the next 1/4 mile or so, until we all stumbled into the treehouse that would be our home for the night. Already soaked, we grabbed soap and all jumped into the river fully-clothed for our first washing in two days. It was like simultaneously having a cool shower and warm bath, while laundering the clothes on your back. Awesome! Once we cleaned up and the rain died down, we received a tour of the village, which includes a boarding school for children in neighboring villages. We watched the older kids play football and attempted to interact with some of the younger ones, getting them to pose for pictures and teaching them how to give high fives. After dinner, we learned a new game ourselves - Ping Pong Pang - a sort of group memory/concentration game, which involves having the loser's face marked in black as a penalty. We were thinking a marker would work, if only we had a marker in the village. Mr. U, however, resourcefully produced a soot-covered kettle. It was odd, but a hilarious way to end our crazy day. Not surprisingly, all seven of us decided this will make a fantastic drinking game in our respective countries (the US, UK, and Sweden).

Day 3
After another sleepless night (this time thanks to a couple of jungle dogs in heat with a most inconvenient choice of mating location - under our hut), we woke up for what we were told would be the easiest day of our trek. Rather than hike, we opted to cover the last leg of the trek on bamboo raft. The prior evening, the locals assembled a custom raft for us. Typically, the rafts hold three to four people each. However, Jungle Boy decided that the three petite girls in the group (Mihira, Heeral, and the Engligh girl Beccy) add up to the size of the average Western traveler, bringing our total body count to 5 Western travelers and 2 Thai guides - still the equivalent of 3 people too many for one raft - and insisted that we would all be able to fit on the same raft. Our little raft managed to hold up under our weight, although it was covered in about 2 inches of water the whole time. Three hours, one pair of lost flip flops, 15 river fish caught with a bamboo pole baited with fruit, and two bodies thrown overboard later, we made it to our final stop. After a quick lunch, we climbed into the back of a pickup truck (cleverly converted into a taxi) and rode 2 hours back to Chiang Mai.

Aftermath
We arrived back in Chiang Mai, exhausted, dirty, and ready to party. After cleaning ourselves up, we had dinner as a group and headed back to the area around the Night Bazaar to grab some drinks with an elephant. Seriously. An elephant almost walked into one of the bars. Pictures to follow.

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