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Published: August 12th 2006
THE A TEAM
Our treking crew DAY ONE
Shakey start to the trek.... 8.30am pick up.. alarm fails to go off, SHIT it's 8.30am, we haven't packed a thing, in fact all we've done is pulled everything we own out of our rucksacks and sprawled in around our room.
eek!
Great start. But we're off and running. I wish I could tell you where exactly we went... but I believe it was to the north of Chiang Mai, and the first stop was a market place where Andrew and I grabbed some breakie and the rest of the bart Bus piled out and got bts and pieces they may need over the next 3 days. Namely water as it appears that regardless of the fact taht it is quite a necessity around these parts (especially climbing mountains in the steaming jungle) it is not part of our package. Oh well, good to know these things early on.
We had a great goup of 9 of us, and a healthy mixture of Aust, Irish, Dutch and Scottish. From the beginning we all got on grand as the irish would say, and started the easy walk through the flat areas of the jungle wading
Deckum
The boys kicking ass through streams and admiring the massive piles of poo that seemed to cover the path. What kind of creature could possible produce so much waste?
Thanks to our trusty giude Joshua, and Mr Handsome and Moo Moo, we successfully made it to the first stop, changed our shoes from sandles to hiking shoes / trainers and realised we were starting to hit the more serious stuff.
The jungle wasn't exactly what i was expecting. That is to say that the vegetation was alot like that in northern NSW / Queensland, and the heat and humidity were not that dissimilar either. Mind you, I think the two Irish lasses were stuggling a bit and as the accent became steeper it became apparant who the fitter people in the group were. NOTE: Andrew spent a great deal of time at the head of the pack, though i'm going to say it was wthe long legs that gave him the advantage 😉
Starting to strugle towards the end of the day as the blisters were steadily growing and the progression became steeper and steeper. The cicadas, again just like home, droned on and on and then some super species cicada
Amy -the Terror
She can even chew through metal. started that sounds more like a machine grinding metal down rather than an insect.
We hit a small waterfall where the majority of us tookt he opportunity to either jump right in, or at least wet our hair. "We're nearly there" says Joshua.... "Just one more hill"
Needless to say it was the steepest yet, but obviously well traversed as there were permanent steps carved out in the shape of feet that seem to have upheld regardless of the rain or landslides.
We come across our first Karen village. And are greeted by "One" (not sure of spelling, but that's how I was to remember her name aparantly) and her two little ones, 6 year old boy, and 2 year old Amy who was an absolute rascal to say the least (Pic of her eating the motorbike) One promptly started on the selling or wares and sugary treats for the sweat soaked westerners that decended upon the tiny village.
The village only held 7 families, but it became quite aparant the communal nature of the place with everyone looking after each others children, and when night decended the sounds of communal singing could be heard as
a form of entertainment. (I didn't fail to notice the TV aerials though on most of the huts 😉 so who knows what really happens when the tourists aren't there ?)
The afternoon consisted of the boys joing in and then beating the locals in a local game "Deckom" that is a cross between hacky sack with wicker balls, and volleyball. The result is very entertaining to watch, and hard work to play.
The girls mind you sat around and admired the amazing view, chased Amy around, or patted the massive swine that lived under the hut we would all share.
Night closed in, as dinner was served our fatigue became aparrant, but we stayed up latish discussing with Joshua the traditional ways of the karen people who were originally from Tibet, as he asked questions about what life was like where we lived. It is interesting to think that the majority of these people will not leave thailand, and some not even their close suroundings.
Thai Riddle: " There are 2 brother seperated by a mountain, they will never meet... Why this?"
Yep, the Thai's answer to logic puzzles.
Off to bed as
Top of the mountain
We've reached the top the moon showers bright silver streams over the jungle, and we sleep as best we can on wooden floors, sheltered by mosquito nets and only woken at 3am by the rooster that unfortunatley noone could find the snooze button on. All the boys vowed to kill it the following day.
DAY TWO, 6th August
"Only one hill to climb today" says Joshua. Considering its started off pretty steep, there were silent groans of what was to come. But saying that, after the initial incline it did become easier and we were rewarded with an amazing view out over the valley where we could see the our final destination at the end of day 3. Still looked a fair way off mind you. BUt true to his word, that was the only hill, and it was all down hill fom there.
We were accompanied by thailand's only dingo - heaven knows how it got there - who escorted us all the way to the next village where we stopped for lunch.
Not before mind you a 'spontaneous' game of soccer on a massive red earth field perched on the side of a mountain. I think
Thailand's only dingo
Andrew's found a friend the Karen boys just wanted to try and beat the pharangs after the embarrasing defeat at Deckom. Considering the location of the field, I was not so sure the game would be that long as there were some big kickers amongst the boys.
Again the pharangs won, with Australians featuring heavily in the 5 -2 victory, and they were close to falling down with heat exhaustion before we plugged on to the next big karen village - this one hosted 100 people - and Andrew got to catch up on a Muay Thai fight on the telly. Ah... the sweet sounds of civilisation.
Second night was in small individual bamboo huts next to a larger waterfall where we all enjoyed a good natural shower, and an evening of more Thai games.
Thai game: Lay out a series of matchsticks on the table, then ask how many sticks are on the table.
Clue: It has nothing to do with the amount of matchsticks on the table.
Oh the hilarity of it all. If only John could legally strangle Joshua.
DAY THREE 7th August
Leave late, and spend the majority of the day traversing
rice paddy fields and counting banana trees.
We hit our destination, and were driven to one of the elephant camps where Andrew and I kindly declined a ride after our ride in Kathinaburri. Once is enough, and you can only watch massive animals be chanined and hit so much. Though, this camps did seem to be better than the one we first went to. We stayed back and watched them take showers and get hosed down. Pretty cool.
Ast he skies finally broke open and we received the first bit or rain in our entire trip we headed to bamboo rafting. Again, we had done this in Katchinaburri, but this was HEAPS cooler. 4 pharang to a raft, with one guide and a giant bamboo pole we headed down the fast moving river attempting grad 2 rapids on a quickly sinking raft! Our guide mind yuou was not easily amused by our antics and Andrew received a fair few grunts of disapproval when the guide turned round to find Andrew on the back with the very important task of controlling the end of the 10 m raft with his own pole, instead swinging it about his head like
a ninja stick. His reward? He got to stay on down a meter big drop while the rest of us had to get off and walk around. What's all that about ?
Stopping quickly at a deep spot in the river, the boys all showed off their prowess by jumping off a 6 m rock into the river. Needless to say Andrew beat them all and did a double summersault.
We reach the end of our rafting journey and pile back into the Bart Bus for the 1 1/2hr journey to Chiang mai. The boys kept themslves amused by freaking out fellow drivers with their replication of a siren produced on Johnny's traditional Karen flute. A flute mind you that only has 2 notes.
Ah.... what a journey. And it was only the beginning of the adventures with Johhny, Lyn, and Jasper as we hit the bar scen of Chiang Mai the following evening...... but that as they say, is another story all together.
I will give you a clue though... it involves LadyBoys.
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siobhan
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wowie zowie
loving the fact you guys have a camera again.. now you can make us all full colour jealous bitches xoxoxoxox