Hill Tribe Trekking

South of Chiang Mai, Thailand, 18-19 May 2008

...peek a boo

We spent a day in Chiang Mai before we headed out of the city on a 3 day trekking trip. It was a fairly relaxed affair as our guide "Rambo"liked to take regular extended breaks where he would lie in a hammock! It was nice walking through the paddy fields and local villages and getting a glimpse of how the country folk (Karen Tribe) live in these parts. I think we were expecting to see a lot of poverty but in reality it simply isn't there (thankfully). The people live in a land where there is a huge abundance of fruit, vegetables and of course rice. So while they are not rich there may be no fear going hungry either. Houses are basic but adequate.

Our sleeping quarters consisted of a wooden hut with about 12 mattresses on the floor. Fortunately there were only 6 of us so we had plenty of space. We walked through the village and engaged the locals as best we could. By purchasing beverages or handicrafts the locals make a little profit from our visit (the Tour Company pay the family for our overnight stay but it doesn't amount to much, needless to say the rich get richer). The people seemed genuinely receptive especially the children. The children were beautiful and loved to pose for photos. We would show them the picture we had taken of them and they would respond with a fit of the giggles!

Rambo prepares dinner...

Playful children

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Day 2 saw us trekking through denser forest and past some stunning waterfalls. Our number halved as some opted for 2 day trip only. Having seen a lot of rainfall we thought we'd be caught in at least one downpour on the trek but it didn't happen. When we got to camp on night 2 we realised the wallet containing our credit cards and malaria tablets was awol. We were able to call the previous nights lodging but they did not find anything when cleaning up after we left. What would we do? We hired a motorbike from a local and Dave and Rambo went back to look for it. The holy grail was eventually found in the bin at the place we stayed the previous night! Beers all round. Back at Camp #2 there were large numbers of fireflies, we enjoyed watching them whirr about in the darkness.

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.Making souveniers for toursits

Catching some ZZZZ's

Local School

Day 3 was devoted to Bamboo Rafting & Elephant Riding. Both were fun, both were bump affairs and the day was exceedingly hot. We then caught a mini bus back to CM and our air con room. Overall it was a really enjoyable experience, although Claire found the squat toilets to be a rather unsavoury challenge.

Phew, it's hot

Ah, that's better