Tigers!!! and Trekking....

---

It's been a while, but we have a good excuse: we were in the jungle. Literally, for five days... It's great to be back in civilisation again now though... we're in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand.

Our whistlestop tour of Northern Thailand (North of Bangkok anyways) has begun in earnest. After topping up our tans in Ko Chang, we began in Bangkok where we met up with some of Stu's friends from Australia and Ireland for a LARGE St Partick's day celebration. We were a bit worried that our drinking abilities would be impared after being off the grog for a while. (been practising my Australianisms, can you tell?) But we held our own (well I did, Stu got hammered! - Sarah) and Sarah was delighted to find vodka on happy hour and supped lots thoughout the night, with a happy smile on her face! Stu's friend Scott took us on a tour of Sukhumvit, the infamous Patpong/ping pong (and super girls, hmmmm) followed by a nightcap on Khao San Road. Was great to meet Stu's mates and hope to get to Ireland to visit the mad Irish boys when we're back in blighty. We will be seeing Scott again in April as he's lending us his pad in Sydney while were there, as well as being our tour guide... (thanks Scott) We manged a 4pm-2am session that night, not bad, not bad...
Stu was feeling like death the next day and we had to get the bus to Kanchanburi, North West of Bangkok. But it was pretty painless and after a quick 2 hour journey we arrived at the lovely Apples guesthouse and the comfiest bed we'd had in ages! After a quick scout about town we decided we really liked Kanchanburi. We didn't manage much the first day though, apart from finding an English pub for some stodge to keep the hangovers at bay. We were up early the next day though to catch the 'death railway' (The old Burma to Thailand railway built by POW's during WW2) to Nam Tok. It was a pleasant journey, with nice views, but the Japanese tourists were out in force, which was a bit strange considering it was the Japs who killed over 100,000 soldiers and SE Asians during the building of the thing... Weird! We arrived at Namtok and attempted to get a local bus to hellfire pass. This part of the railway is no longer in service, but there is a museum there which was built and paid for by the Australian government. However the guidebooks directions to the bus stop were rubbish and we found ourselves waiting at a lonely bus stop praying for a bus to come... It did, only after an hour though, thankfully!!!
The Hellfire Pass Memorial museum was fantastic. So well done and informative. They had a great audio tour of the museum and grounds, with recordings from soldiers who actually built the railway. We also walked the 4km section of the track which has now been turned into a memorial walk. When you see what these soliders accomplished, cutting through huge rocks with extremely basic tools, it's quite astounding! The Japanese treatment of the prisoners was brutal and the soldiers caught every tropical disease going. Over 18,000 mainly Australian and British troops died constructing the railway, very very sad! We only did a 8km walk which was bad enough in the sweltering conditions, but the soldiers used to have to do the same, bare-footed after a 16 hour shift, fueled with only one cup of rice a day!
The next day we hired a motorbike and rode 35km out of town to the "tiger temple". The Buddhist monks at the temple have taken in lots of orphaned or injured animals over the years including tiger cubs, which have subsiquently bred. (The first tiger cub they took in was bought to be stuffed by a wealthy Bangkok business man, but they botched the embalming and some how the tiger survived!) They now have about 10 tigers on site and everyday between 2pm and 5pm they take them down to a canyon in the monestry grounds to be exercised. Visitors can go down to the canyon and watch the tigers playing around, sunbathing and socialising. If your lucky, you can also get your picture taken with them, like Sarah!!!!! (Don't worry, these tigers are not drugged or anything, there just really used to humans as they have mainly been hand reared) The abbot is trying to set up a perminent sanctuary so the tigers can have a natural environment to live out there days in and any new cubs can be brought up wild. (check out http://www.tigertemple.org/Eng/index.htm) He loves the tigers so much and they act like big kittens when they are around him! They don't just have tigers though, they have all sorts of animals that they look after including waterbuffalos, deer, horses, pigs and peacocks. The animals cover the grounds of the sanctuary and are breeding freely as buddhists cannot kill animals.
There was a massive rainstorm while we were there that came out of no where. We took shelter as the rain came down in sheets and watched the animals running around like lunaticas and enjoying a break from the scorching sun. The waterbuffaloes took full advantage of the rain, which quickly filled up there bathing pond with fresh water. The pigs were fighting over their new mud bath and everything else was trying to find shelter that wasn't next to the two strange humans who were trying to avoid being swept away in the flood! They all looked disgusted that we had taken one of their spots. Imagine a scene out of Noahs arc! Unfortunately the water didn't do our motorbike much good and the lovely staff at the sanctuary ended up basically having to take it apart for us and dry the spark plugs with a rag before we could ride the 35km home. A totally amazing day and just another reason you have to check out Kanchanburi if your in Thailand!
So now we embarked on the most adventurous phase of our SE Asia trip, trekking in the area around a village called Umphang in the NW of Thailand. Well actually getting to Umphang was an adventure in itself. We got four buses in total from Kanchanburi and quickly realised that when you head off the beaten track no one really speaks English anymore. Fortunately some Thai's took us under there wing and some how we made it 3/4 of the way to our destination. A days worth of travelling later we arrived in Mae Sot, just four hours from Umphang and a great place to stop over for the night as we ate for cheap in the night market. The next day we got as local Songthaew (Kind of like a pick up truck with seats along each side for passengers, but with a roof). Now the guide book had prepared us for the four hour journey by telling us there was 1219 twists and turns through the mountain, but it was really quite sickening all the same, but the views more than made up for the nausea. (I was right at the back though and Stu had to hang on to me to stop me going out the back on particularly steep sections - Sarah). We arrived at Umphang Hill resort and were met by 'Captain Dang' the owner and local police chief... Quite a character! We booked on a four day trek and after eating the massive meal priovided for us, we headed off to get some sleep. (this was to be our last hot shower, dinner at a table and sleep in a bed for some time!)

The next morning our Burmese/Karen guide (a minority hill-tribe people who live on the Thai - Nurmese boarder) Tutu or 'Tommy' met us for breakfast at the resort and then we went straight out to begin rafting on the river to Tee Lor Su waterfall. It's the dry season right now, so the water was pretty calm except in a few places, so it was a very gentle start to the trek. Sarah and the only other trekker Karen from Denmark got to put our feet up as Tommy, Stu and the other guides did all the paddling. We paddled through the jungle passing overhanging rocks and vines with monkeys looking down on us from the trees. On one section water ran down rocks like rain, causing massive rainbows and making us feel like we were in the middle of the amazon jungle! When we arrived at our camp site for the night, we were horrified to find an infestation of billions of spiders all over toilets blocks. So Karen and Sarah immediately decided that they would have to use the trees for any calls of nature!!! Then we trekked about 30 mins to Tee Lor Su falls and went for a lovely swim. Sarah was so brave and jumped off a really high waterfall (it was probably 20 feet high I think - Stu）. (Stu couldn't belive I did it, what with my fear of heights and all!!! - Sarah). Ｗe had dinner cooked by the guides that night by candlelight and had an early night. Very comfortable in out tents and sleeping bags - it got really chilly at night!!!
The next day we were up early for a 14km walk to our next overnight stop at a Karen hill tribe village where the company 'house' was. It was a lovely walk which took in another three waterfalls along the way and gave us ample oportunity to wash away the sweat, yuck! There were some pretty precarious sections of the walk though including a decidedly dodgy bamboo bridge, （thank god I went first, so I couldn't wimp out at the last minute! - Sarah） And then a slippery log across a swamp. We spent the night in an open sided hut with just a mosquito net over us. For entertainment Stu fashioned a 'natural' chess set out of sticks and stones for us to play. It has to be seen to be belived!
The next day Karen headed back to base by elephant while the two of us had the most difficult day of the trek and climb over a 1200m mountain to the next village. By this time we were carrying all our stuff along with our roll mats and sleeping bags (Well, um, Stu was anyway!!) The heat really takes　it out of you and the going was steep and sweaty. The path we took wasn't used very often, so it had grown over in places and caused much head scratching by our guides. (they were lost at times, but didn't admit it!!!)
After a 17km walk we finally made it to next village. Unfortunately they didn't have anywhere for us to stay, so we got put in the village school (The kids are on holidays at the moment) We washed in a stream full of tadpoles and relaxed until dinner time. Walking around the village was lovely as they all still wear traditional Karen tribe clothes (very colourful). There are chickens, pigs, buffalo and ducks running around freely. You really felt like you were in a remote place．　We had a feast for dinner that night. Then the guides met up with some of their friends and the home brew rice whisky came out. They tried force feeding us this, along with their natural 'cigars' made from home grown tabacco and what looked like tree bark!! Stu also sampled some baby frogs and tadpoles and baby crabs - he had to eat them whole, gross!!! Plus fried pig (fat and all) that had been killed that day.
On the final day we got as 'fast elephant' part of the way back... (No joke this thing could move, especially down hill) Elephants are not the most comdfortable way to travel!!!! (Especially when you have a dicky tummy after all the campfire cooked meals!) We finally made it back to the resort after hitching a lift with a very strange guy, who took a bit of a shine to Sarah and was very excited by my pale skin (Can't he see i've been working on this tan for three months!!!) To say we were glad to be back in a proper bed was an understatment. Four days of no electricty, toilets, showers or any food but rice and egg took it's toll. What an amazing time we had though. We are officially hardcore!!!!!!

---

Photos

Pussy Cat!
Sarah risks it all stroking the belly of a "Star" at the Tiger Temple... shaking when she came out but glad she did it!

Into Hellfire Pass
This cutting was built by POWs and Asian conscripts in WW2. Thousands died a month using bare hands and picks while being beaten and abused by Japanese soldiers. We visited the sobering museum and walk...

Bridge Over the River Kwai
This is the famous Bridge Over the River Kwai - obviously quite touristy now but a beautiful area

Big Bull Buffalo...
Stu decides the buffalos are safer than the tigers... this one was much, much bigger though than he looks in the picture. (I was quite nervous when he tried butting me with those massive horns!! - Stu)

Whoops...
We misjudged the weather while we were in the tiger temple. You can see how hard it rained by the fact our helmets were completely full when we came back!

Heart of Darkness...
Not quite the Congo but this was the amzing river we paddled down on the first day of our trek in north Thailand. Rock walls over-hung the river and created curtains of rainbow waterfalls as the water fell from above...

Arachnaphobia!
The campsite toilets on the first night of our trek were infested with small spiders that grouped in their thousands... Sarah refused to go in!

Bounty Hunter...
Like a bounty advert. This was one of the spectacular water falls we visited on the second day of our trip... below is an enormous fresh water pool to swim in...

Bloody Slipped didn
Stu decided to dive off this water fall... he couldn't walk proper after though...

In the jungle...
Day three of our trek saw just the two of us and a guide hike 15 kms over a jungled mountain... he kept losing the path though as he said he only took this route every other month (apparently hardly anyone goes for the four day treck.)

Back to School!
On our third night, our guide Tutu had to ask the village chief if we could stay in the school!

Comments

[Envicta]

The Tigers,..
are powerfull, full attention, adrenaline rush,.. unpredictable,.. I am always on my way, to seek peace and stretch myself to those in need. Seldom without succes,.. TC, and stay travelling envicta.web-log.nl