3-day trek

Day 1: 09 March 2005

We took off this morning around 9:00 in a sawngthaew, the pick-up trucks with 2 benches in the back that we love so much. There were eight of us on this trek, Nige and I plus two Kiwi guys, 3 English girls, and a girl from Japan, plus our guide Pumpkin (his Thai name translates to this in English). After a 3 hour drive, we arrived at an elephant camp for another elephant trek. Having just gotten rid of the bruises from our last elephant ride, we were hesitant to climb onto the beast, but it was for less than an hour and wasn't too bad. Our elephant had his tusks in tact and made use of them along the way to strip bark off of trees for a bit of a nibble. He would choose his tree, push one tusk against the bark to pry some loose, then strip it off with his trunk. Sitting on top, we could feel how powerful he is. He also delighted in spraying himself (and, therefore, us) with snotty water and dirt to cool himself off. But he was cute and a good elephant.

We arrived at a Karen minority village (really a village shopping mall, as each hut was selling the same stuff), where we stayed briefly before driving another 2+ hours. We drove up into the mountains (through pine forests that could have been in California) to start a 2.5 hour hike through the forest. At the start of the hike, we literally walked right through a forest fire that villagers had set in their slash and burn tactics during the dry season. Because they do this every year, there is not too much fuel to burn, so the fires stay small and creep along the forest floor, usually missing the trees. This hike was through forest much greener and more dense than our last trek. We arrived at our destination around sunset, a minority village of Lisu people near the Myanmar border. We dropped our gear in our hut and went down to the river for a bath. Some of the local kids joined us, and had a lot of fun making suds with my bath soap to wash their hair and turn their bodies white. Some of them were little brats, demanding candy and kicking and hitting with sticks. We had dinner outside, interrupted by all of the village women surrounding the table and placing their crafts for sale in front of us. Nige knew he wasn't going to buy anything, so he picked up one of the little boys, put him on his lap, and chatted to him, all the while ignoring the women trying to sell stuff. We didn't like the way they pressed us to buy something by surrounding us at the table, and we knew they were not genuine articles made by this tribe (they buy them at a market). But, I did buy a small belt thing, which was only cheap, even though I didn't want it. Then all of the village kids gathered around to sing us songs. They varied from Thai songs we didn't understand, to 'Happy Birthday,' 'Jingle Bells,' and 'Kum-Ba-Yah.' This was very fun and entertaining until our guide Pumpkin had them all line up to receive candy, pens, paper, balloons, and other things we were expected to have brought for them. Nige and I did buy pens for them, but were disgusted by the way things were handled, and by the way the kids expected it. We gave a few pens out, but kept the rest as we would have preferred to actually sit down with the kids and draw and write with them. We stayed up late drinking beers with the Kiwi boys, then realised tomorrow will be a long day and went to bed.

Day 2: 10 March 2005

We started the day with a 4 hour trek through the forest. It was difficult to get our legs working at first, but really enjoyed it once we got moving. We walked along a river that was quite tropical and jungle-y. Apparently I almost stepped on a snake, but I didn't see it (one of the Kiwi guys behind me brought it to my attention). We had lunch at a hut on the river, then set out on our 3 bamboo rafts for a 3 hour cruise down the river. Each raft had a local guy in front to steer (although they didn't do too much work most of the time). Nige and I had fun as we got to do the paddling this time. But it was harder to look for wildlife as we were focusing on the river and keeping clear of obstacles in the water. It was hard work using a long bamboo pole to push us along, but a lot of fun. In the las hour, Nige told our local guy to have a rest, and our raft was steered and moved along by Nigel, myself and the Japanese girl the rest of the way. We were disappointed not to see any pythons though.

We got to our home for the night, a minority village of Lahu people. We had a cold bucket shower and sat down to relax with some cold beer. Nigel spent a while playing a kind of marbles game with a local boy. They threw coins trying to get them into a small circle scratched into the dirt. Then Nigel made a little cup out of the bottom of a plastic water bottle, and the boy enjoyed playing this game with him as well. We ate dinner outiside, and then the local women came and set up their little stalls in the dark. This time we were allowed to browse among all of the sellers, but we were still made to feel like we had to buy something, especially when they said "You buy something. Baby, no food." This being said by old grandmothers and small young girls alike. When they were gone, we relaxed around a huge blazing campfire before heading to bed.

Day 3: 11 March 2005

This morning we took off from the village and went to a cave nearby. We walked through the cave for an hour and a half, despite the fact that we had about 3 working flashlights among us and could barely see anything. The highlight was seeing all the tiny bats inside, and we did see some cool cave spiders the size of Kel's hand. Thankfully two of the English girls did not come with us, as they had been whinging the entire day yesterday ("How much further?" "Are we almost there yet?" I'm so tired, I can't go any further" "It was so cold last night!") and we'd had enough of them. After the cave we got back into the truck for a long drive back to Chiang Mai. The first hour was through some gorgeous mountains covered in jungle with huge cliff faces rising up. We returned around 4:30, headed out for some dinner, and then Kel started to feel quite sick so we went to bed.

Although not as good as our first trek, we still had a great time on this trek, and it was a different experience being in a group. It was nice that the jungle was much greener than our first trek.