Visitors from Boulder!

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The much-anticipated visit from Boulder(/Denver) friends Stephanie and Kari has arrived! They bought their tickets to come over here back in August, after I was accepted to do the TEFL program, but before I had even booked my ticket back to Thailand. Although I was sad to leave the students, it was great that I was racing off to Bangkok to meet up with the girls, something I was really looking forward to! I couldn't seem to get there fast enough-- traffic was the worst I have ever seen it and it seemed to take absolutely forever to reach them. But finally I reached our rendezvous point at the good old Rambuttri Village Inn just in time to catch up a little bit before they went to sleep, since they were dealing with the jet lag and the long journey.

On Saturday we flew up to Chiang Mai, which saved a lot of travel time. When no other plans are scheduled, we are on a strict regime of delicious vegetarian eating in large quantities (Stephanie has opted to go veg, too, on the trip, and Kari is a veg all the time) and regular massages. Life is tough here in the self-indulgent land of leisure.

We wandered the streets of Chiang Mai taking in the sights and sounds and enjoying the fact that it wasn't as brutally hot and sticky as Bangkok is this time of year. One of our big activities was to go on an overnight trek that Stephanie (who is a very organized and meticulous planner) had arranged through our guesthouse. Though I had been on a trek with Fiona on the last trip, we did ours out of Pai last time, so at least I knew this one would be slightly different. Besides the three of us, there was a French couple who lives in London and two guides (the main guide's name was Dat).

I think that we were all a little skeptical about how much 'trekking' we were actually going to do at first because it felt sort of like we were just being schlepped around in a songthaew. The national park we entered was a good distance from Chiang Mai to begin with. When we finally arrived, we had some time at a waterfall, ate lunch, and then went past a hot spring where we opted to start hiking rather than get in. Fortunately, we still worked up a heat in the afternoon of hiking and it felt good to be moving in nature. Everything is quite dry right now since it has been a while since the rains ended. There were lots of huge crunchy leaves in reds and browns underfoot and we were accompanied by the loud hum of cicadas all along the path. The area was also really hazy and I thought maybe it was pollution from Chiang Mai, but maybe it has something to do with the time of year (?)

When we arrived in the village, which is really just a cluster of huts, Dat gave us a brief tour and explained a few things about the lifestyle of the Karen people, but overall we didn't really have much interaction with the people or learn a great deal about their culture (better done at the museum in town, it would seem). Our accommodation for the night was a big room in a hut on stilts with a bunch of mattresses on the floor with mosquito nets for all of them. It was actually pretty chilly in the evening at the higher elevation and we bundled ourselves in blankets for our candlelit dinner. The next morning after breakfast we set off for the elephant camp, which was mostly downhill. It worked out well because everyone else wanted to ride the elephants and so they could pair up, while I was able to go on a separate trail with Dat and wait for the others at the village where we boarded our freshly-made bamboo raft.

We took the raft down the river which was mostly very peaceful except for occasional minor rapids that kept it more interesting. After a couple hours, we were ready to be finished in the hot, unguarded sun. And soon enough we were back in the songthaew headed back for Chiang Mai and the comforts of electricy and running water. There's nothing better than a 'real' shower after being dirty in the woods.

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Photos

Me and Kari
Stephanie didn't want to swim and Dat said to her, "Oh, did you already take a shower today?" as though that would explain why she didn't want to 'bathe' in the waterfall

The animals in the village often take shelter under the raised huts
Pigs, chickens, and cattle make their homes under the huts, as well as the occasional cat and/or dog

Comments

[Stephanie Null]

whity pasty legs
Umm, i wish this blog was like Facebook and I could un-tag the truly unflattering picture of myself in my bathing suit....thanks....haha.