Ode to Mother Nature

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Still hanging around in Chaing- Rai, coming up to my 5th day here. I bumped in to the 3 German guys that I left behind in Ayutthaya, and together with another German girl and 2 other German boys, we signed up for a trek. I know, I know, I was supposed to go with the doctor, but he didn't respond to my email until it was too late, so I missed that chance. Will probably do it some other time, when I return to Thailand.

To start by telling a bit more about the trek.....hmmmm....it wasn't the easiest of treks, and he said so himself. It was more a medium, to hard trek, and he took us to places where there are normally no tourists. It was well nice, and I througroughly enjoyed it, although I do think that signing up for a trek with 6 German people, might be the wrong choice! At times I thought the Germans were a bit arrogant, and quite frankly, at times I thought they acted like bullies! I just told myself that I was going to have a good time, and just let them get on with their own things! Although, we ended our trek in good spirits, and we will all stay in touch one way or another!

The trek started with a one hour elephant ride (yeah, I know, I told myself I wouldn't do it, but what the hey!). This was the only part of the trek that was somewhat commersialised. After that, we made our way to an Akha village, Akha being one out of nine hill tribes. After that we went to a Yao village, apssing a Lahu village until we finally made it to the Lahu village where we were spending the night. The good thing with this trek was that our guide took us to areas where there were no other tourists, and hence there were no villagers trying to sell you things, or pulling on you! The guide, Yuan, was very good at guiding, stopping when necessary, and explaining about the different plants in the jungle, and also about the different tribes, and their customs and traditions. I felt like I got a lot out of it, but boy did I sweat! We are not talking about walking a straight line here, the hills were at times at a 90 degree angle, and you didn't know if you making it to the top had to do with balance, coordination or just good trekking shoes, haha! Well, I had one out of three at least *lol*! At times, you only had an about 40 centimeter wide path to walk on, and then there was a steep drop down! There were dried leaves on the path, and you didn't know if there was a stone, a path way, a root from the bamboo tree or nothing at all underneath! The dry earth whirled up from you and your fellow trekkers, and got into your nose, your skin and mouth and made you cough and itch! Come to think about it, it wasn't really the safest thing to do, and one could seriously get hurt if falling! You had to think ahead, assess the situation, never assume something was solid, for it might well be hollow! Slipping down the dry leaves with only the bamboo walking stick as your support! The sun gazing hot in the sky, sweating like crazy! Apparently you lose about 2kg/day when you trek! Mainly water, but also the food that you eat! I had left my big back pack at the guesthouse, so at least I wasn't carrying anything heavy with me. The guide cooked for us in the most amazing way, out in the nature with nothing but fire! It kinda felt like a more primitive way of going camping, and it was nice to see that one can actually survive without electricity, and certainly without tv and computers.

It was interesting, and I really felt I learnt something more about the culture of the Lahu people, the nature in Thailand, and my ability to actually do things and get through situations I would normally not be in! Mother Nature- I salute you!!! 😉
x

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Photos

trek
The start of the trek. Stefan, Andrea and Killian.

cooking Thai style
This was the kitchen area in the Lahu hut.

Yao woman and child
Yao hill tribe woman with her child.

Sleeping quarter
This was the hut in the Lahu village. We stayed here for the night.

the view
At 1500m above sea level, this is part of the view on our trek!!