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Published: November 26th 2008
Trekking
Long neck tribeArrived in Chiang Mai Sat afternoon and booked into hostel, and immediately booked trek for next day. Spent the evening wondering around the night market which was extensive and cheap. Have finally got the hang of haggling but its so much easier here than Vietnam... Had a few drinks in a bar later. Minding our own business and an elephant appeared, casually walking down the street with his mahout (handler). He stopped at the bar and was moving to the music while the mahout asked people if they wanted to buy him treats. Very bizarre!
Left for trek at 9am. There was a group of 9 (5 french, 2 canadian and us) and 2 local guides. We stopped to get some supplies and drove into the jungle, north of Chjiang Mai. On the way, we stopped to see the Karen Long Neck tribe. Very strange. From 15 yrs, the women have metal coils round there necks, which get tightened or new ones put on slowly which slowly stretches the neck. Why? We have been told two different reasons! One being it protected them from tigers as women are slower than men and tigers go straight for major veins (some women
Trekking
Long neck tribe also had coils around them legs and wrists). The other explanation was that the husbands would remove the coils if their wife had been unfaithful sop the villiage would know of her infidelity. Im not sure which reason I prefer!!
The tribe is quite large and settles deep in the jungle towards burma but they had set up stalls and temporary homes which appeared to be just for tourism.
After that we had lunch, basic but delicious, and set off for our trek. OH MY GOD!!! Much harder than we expected!! It was very hot, over 30 degrees and we walked up very steep narrow paths for 3 hours. Crossing stepping stones over rivers, and taking regular breaks. One of the group almost passed out. But it was amazing. At one point when we stopped an elephant just appeared out of the bushes!! I couldnt quiet believe it. We were able to pat him etc. A little sad as he was a kept elephant so his front feet were chained together so he couldnt walk quickly and had a bell around his neck. Not quiet "natural habitat" but close as we could get I guess.
At the point
Trekking
having a go myself. Very heavy and it was only a semi circle, the real ones even heavier of complete exhaustion we reached the village where we'd be spending the night. Incredibly basic, no electricity but we were made to feel so welcome by the locals. We ate by fire and candlelight and relaxed while the guides played guitar. The children dressed in their tribal clothing and did a dance and song which was cool too.
Little achey in the morning!! After breakfast we trekked downhill (whoop whoop!) for about an hour and a half, stopping at another waterfall on the way. It was a relief to be going down but very difficult due to the steepness. And still scorching!!
After lunch we hopped on our elephants... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 to an elephant, we were strapped in and had a bunch of bananas to feed him with on the way. It was a lot of fun and so cool. Going up and down hill we were thrown about so much! Next of the agenda was white water rafting. 4 of us and a guide in fetching orange helmets and life jackets headed to the face the rapids. Simply amazing. We kept getting stuck on rocks though!! Then came bamboo rafting which didnt really compare to white water strangely
Trekking
Long neck tribe enough! A few guides took photos but I dont have any to put on im afraid of our water activities this time...
Amazing trip. I cant begin to explain it and I highly recommend it to anyone if you can hack the walking. The whole trip - activities, nights kip and all the food cost 25 quid each. Ridiculous really.
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