As soon as I got to the guest house in Chiang Rai the other day, possibly before I even checked into my room, I asked about doing a trek. All I wanted was to get out into nature for a few days. The owner had a friend who ran a trekking company, and he appeared five minutes later and signed me up for a trek the next morning. So at 10 am yesterday, I was ready to hit the trails.
There were two other people on my trek: a couple of guys (probably late 20s) from the Czech Republic. (They had enough English that we could talk a bit, although they did do a lot of nodding and smiling.) The first stop on the trek was a longboat ride up the Mae Kok (which, alas, is not pronounced 'my cock') River. There were some other people on this boat ride, and one woman asked me if I was going to the village. I thought for a moment and told her I honestly had no idea WHERE I was headed. I was just going, and hoping for the best.
The boat deposited us at an Elephant Camp, where a small herd of elephants were all saddled up waiting to take people for little rides. This is not something I would have chosen to do, but apparently I had already paid for it, so off I went for my 20 minute ride. It was pretty bumpy. Not much else I can say about it, except that at one point we seemed to be stuck in an elephant traffic jam. I think the elephant in front got distracted by some bananas or something. After the ride the guide told us we had and hour to explore the village. "Village" in this case translates to "series of shops selling trinkets and shawls to tourists".
From there we headed into the jungle. It was nice to be out walking through the bamboo forest... until we started to go uphill. Those nice quads I'd developed over the last 4 years of ballet are officially gone, as are all the other muscles I had, and any cardio stamina. I am, I think, becoming an old lady. Sigh.....
We spent the night with the Lahu Hill Tribe in their village. We hiked all the way up there (garbage strewn all around the path, which was quite distressing to me... guess they don't know about Pack In, Pack Out), and of course there's a road that they all drive their motorcycles up. I walked around a bit (and saw a child's dirty bottom being wiped with sticks), and noted that every house had a solar panel. (Yeah! Although it ran out at about 8 pm.) We stayed in a bamboo house. All the houses were made from bamboo. All bamboo. The main beams are small logs from some tree, and the roof is grass, but everything else is bamboo. And not thick bamboo. You can see through the walls and floor (which was a bit bouncy in parts). I believe the livestock (cattle, pigs, chickens, and loads of dogs, which I assume are pets put possibly not) live underneath the house. Anyone who tries to tell me that a rooster crows with the rising sun has obviously not slept with only a 1/4 inch thick piece of bamboo between him and said rooster.
This morning we set off into the jungle again. At one point the path forked and we went to the left. A few minutes later the guide stopped, thought, did some math, and said we would go back to the other path, because the one we were on would take four hours and the other three. So
back we went. The other path got a bit small at one point, and guide stopped to rifle around in his backpack. I assumed he was looking for a map. Silly me. He was getting out his knife so he could bushwhack. What had been a small path turned to no path, and we bushwhacked our way up the side of a mountain. For some reason the words "A three hour tour... a three hour tour" kept going through my head. Eventually we did find the path at the top (which I was quite pleased about, because it was very steep going up, and I would not have liked to bushwhack DOWN!).
We stopped at a lovely waterfall for lunch, walked through another hill tribe, and eventually ended up at a hot spring. I'd never been to a hot spring before, but it sounded nice. It looked nice too. But it certainly did not smell nice. There was a little sign for the "boiling egg bath" (a gimmick for the tourists that they could cook eggs in this water). I thought that was terribly appropriate, because that is exactly what this sulphur spring smelled like. I was good for about 5 minutes in the water. (For me water is meant to be cooling, not cooking!) Then the guide said we weren't being picked up until 5 (at this point it was about 3). Ugh.
The driver did not actually pick us up until 6:30. In the interim the guide bought some hideously noxious stuff that he called local whiskey. I probably could have managed the rice based alcohol, but the stuff looked like Kool Aid, and I think they might have actually mixed some nasty, sugary, hot pink stuff in with it. Oh, it was awful. I was actually considering washing it down with some of the Czech's slibovisk (or whatever it was called... plum based booze). But I really had about had it, and was absolutely willing the driver to appear, when three self-proclaimed hippies arrived and started promptly offering us pot, and then rolling themselves some joints. That is SOOOOOOOO not my thing! Thank goodness, just as they were lighting up, the driver appeared, and I made a mad dash for the van.
The ride home had me chuckling, for there was a DVD playing. I saw the last half hour of Live Free or Die Hard, dubbed into Thai. I don't think you've really lived until you've seen Kevin Smith speaking Thai. Loved it!
Trekking was good, the long, hot shower was good, and I'm sure my bed this evening will be good too. Tomorrow I'm off to Chiang Mai (which I hear is just like Bangkok, so I'm not holding my breath about it... or maybe I will be because of all the exhaust).
(Just a few more days until Australia!!!!)
There were two other people on my trek: a couple of guys (probably late 20s) from the Czech Republic. (They had enough English that we could talk a bit, although they did do a lot of nodding and smiling.) The first stop on the trek was a longboat ride up the Mae Kok (which, alas, is not pronounced 'my cock') River. There were some other people on this boat ride, and one woman asked me if I was going to the village. I thought for a moment and told her I honestly had no idea WHERE I was headed. I was just going, and hoping for the best.
The boat deposited us at an Elephant Camp, where a small herd of elephants were all saddled up waiting to take people for little rides. This is not something I would have chosen to do, but apparently I had already paid for it, so off I went for my 20 minute ride. It was pretty bumpy. Not much else I can say about it, except that at one point we seemed to be stuck in an elephant traffic jam. I think the elephant in front got distracted by some bananas or something. After the ride the guide told us we had and hour to explore the village. "Village" in this case translates to "series of shops selling trinkets and shawls to tourists".From there we headed into the jungle. It was nice to be out walking through the bamboo forest... until we started to go uphill. Those nice quads I'd developed over the last 4 years of ballet are officially gone, as are all the other muscles I had, and any cardio stamina. I am, I think, becoming an old lady. Sigh.....
We spent the night with the Lahu Hill Tribe in their village. We hiked all the way up there (garbage strewn all around the path, which was quite distressing to me... guess they don't know about Pack In, Pack Out), and of course there's a road that they all drive their motorcycles up. I walked around a bit (and saw a child's dirty bottom being wiped with sticks), and noted that every house had a solar panel. (Yeah! Although it ran out at about 8 pm.) We stayed in a bamboo house. All the houses were made from bamboo. All bamboo. The main beams are small logs from some tree, and the roof is grass, but everything else is bamboo. And not thick bamboo. You can see through the walls and floor (which was a bit bouncy in parts). I believe the livestock (cattle, pigs, chickens, and loads of dogs, which I assume are pets put possibly not) live underneath the house. Anyone who tries to tell me that a rooster crows with the rising sun has obviously not slept with only a 1/4 inch thick piece of bamboo between him and said rooster.This morning we set off into the jungle again. At one point the path forked and we went to the left. A few minutes later the guide stopped, thought, did some math, and said we would go back to the other path, because the one we were on would take four hours and the other three. So
back we went. The other path got a bit small at one point, and guide stopped to rifle around in his backpack. I assumed he was looking for a map. Silly me. He was getting out his knife so he could bushwhack. What had been a small path turned to no path, and we bushwhacked our way up the side of a mountain. For some reason the words "A three hour tour... a three hour tour" kept going through my head. Eventually we did find the path at the top (which I was quite pleased about, because it was very steep going up, and I would not have liked to bushwhack DOWN!).
We stopped at a lovely waterfall for lunch, walked through another hill tribe, and eventually ended up at a hot spring. I'd never been to a hot spring before, but it sounded nice. It looked nice too. But it certainly did not smell nice. There was a little sign for the "boiling egg bath" (a gimmick for the tourists that they could cook eggs in this water). I thought that was terribly appropriate, because that is exactly what this sulphur spring smelled like. I was good for about 5 minutes in the water. (For me water is meant to be cooling, not cooking!) Then the guide said we weren't being picked up until 5 (at this point it was about 3). Ugh.
The driver did not actually pick us up until 6:30. In the interim the guide bought some hideously noxious stuff that he called local whiskey. I probably could have managed the rice based alcohol, but the stuff looked like Kool Aid, and I think they might have actually mixed some nasty, sugary, hot pink stuff in with it. Oh, it was awful. I was actually considering washing it down with some of the Czech's slibovisk (or whatever it was called... plum based booze). But I really had about had it, and was absolutely willing the driver to appear, when three self-proclaimed hippies arrived and started promptly offering us pot, and then rolling themselves some joints. That is SOOOOOOOO not my thing! Thank goodness, just as they were lighting up, the driver appeared, and I made a mad dash for the van.The ride home had me chuckling, for there was a DVD playing. I saw the last half hour of Live Free or Die Hard, dubbed into Thai. I don't think you've really lived until you've seen Kevin Smith speaking Thai. Loved it!
Trekking was good, the long, hot shower was good, and I'm sure my bed this evening will be good too. Tomorrow I'm off to Chiang Mai (which I hear is just like Bangkok, so I'm not holding my breath about it... or maybe I will be because of all the exhaust).
(Just a few more days until Australia!!!!)
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