We just got back from a very memorable 3 day trek in the Thai northern jungle near Chaing Mai. It was amazing and I will never forget the death-defying stunts that we pulled! We went with a group of 8 and 2 guides from the Karin hill-tribe. We had 2 Swedish girls, a Norwegian couple, a Canadian couple, and us. Our guide Andrew was a bit of a nut-case and we suspect that he was on opium the entire time. Gluk was our other guide and he didn't speak English...Only a few words, but he was very sweet.
The first day we drove in the back of a pick-up truck for about 3 hours, stopping here and there for the markets or to see waterfalls. The waterfalls were beautiful and tons of Thai children were playing in them and splashing eachother. After our long drive we got our trekking gear and backpacks on and took for the hills. We hiked for about 2 hours until we came to the Karin Hill Tribe village, where we were sleeping for the night. We stayed in a little hut with mats on the floors and mosquito nets for safety. We just wondered around and observed the Karin way of life. It's very basic and very hard work. For the children to go to school, they have to walk 3 hours over the mountains and through the jungle both ways, everyday. Only a few children can afford school and the others work. Pigs, chicken and cattle were wandering around. They cooked us a great dinner and then we went into the elders hut to talk with them. They were so sweet...We all talked over a tiny fire they had to keep them warm at night. They were both their 80's and married for 50 years. I think they have 9 children. Our guide translated our questions from Karin to English. They told us of the first time they saw foreigners and how scared they were. They didn't know about us. The man was 20 the first time he saw a foreigner. They still work hard everyday, collecting wood and harvesting rice. They laughed when we explained that most people don't work after 65 where we come from. During the whole talk, the man was smoking a pipe of unnkown substance...Ha Ha! One interesting fact was that the man has to buy his wife and they both live with the man's parents...In the same room...Until the birth of their first baby. When their first baby is born, then they are able to own their own house. You put the facts together and figure out how easy it would be to have that first baby!?! Our guide says you have to be sneaky! After that, our group sat by the campfire and listened to the animals and told stories from our countries. We went to bed thinking it was pretty warm...We were wrong. It was freezing! We didn't realize that we were so high up in the mountains and how cold it would get.
Then next day was our big day. We took off trekking at about 8am and hiked through the jungle. It was very dry and we didn't see much of anything. We stopped at some more Karin tribes and took a break. It was very hard to hike up and down some of those mountains. One woman had to take a motor bike halfway through because her knees were not taking the pressure. We all came away with many blisters! We had lunch at an elephant camp before we were to do some elephant trekking. Mahoots are people that raise elephants. The spend more time with their elephants than they do with their family. I read that they spend 25 days a month with their elephants and the rest with their family. They are able to communicate and the elephants understand. One baby elephant was very curious and came walking up to the hut we were sitting under and stuck his head in to see what was going on. It was so cute! After lunch, we got on the elephants. Of course Tanya and I get the pregnant one that poops all the time. We had 4 elephants walking in a row and I have never been so terrified in my life. I realized my phobia and now I know that phobias are real. Our huge elephants were walking up these tiny paths (that we would have trouble walking down) next to cliffs. I was so afraid that the elephant would slip and we would go tumbling off down the hill. I knew I didn't really like being up on open heights like that, but I never knew I was terrified of it. I was shaking and almost crying for a bit. Of course, our elephant had to poopp all the time so on this tiny path on a cliff it would turn sideways to poop off the cliff. My hands hurt so much from holding on, but we made it and I will never ride an elephant again unless I am guaranteed it is on flat land with no cliffs!
We finally got to another Karin hill-tribe where we were to sleep. We went for a swim/bath in the river with the buffalo and cattle. It was our only source of shower, so we had to take what we could get. At night we had another campfire, got a guitar and sang songs from various countries and made fun of our guide. Some other guides from other groups came over to talk with us and when some of our group went to bed, they brought out the Karin whiskey to try. It was very strong, but good. After many Thai songs and many American classics, we called it a night (after our guide was telling us to go to bed already!). We were off to have a relaxing day rafting down the river the next day...So we thought!
Our so-called relaxing raft down the river turned out to be very dangerous and tiring. Our rafts were made of bamboo and about 3 1/2 feet wide and maybe 15 feet long. Four people, plus one guide were on each raft. We had bamboo poles to help us steer/stay alive. I was expecting to be able to lay and relax and take in the jungle. Nope...We had to stand with our feet wide apart for balance and Tanya and I had to do this bare-foot because we only had flip-flops with us and they would fall off. We had our backpacks wrapped in plastic to protect them in case we sunk or fell in. They were tied to a pole in the middle. So, we were about 4 feet apart and 3 of us with poles at first. The guide is in the front and we were white-water bamboo rafting! It was a little like surfing white water rapids for 4 hours. There were some calm parts and then we would hear the rapids up ahead and get ready. You had to focus the whole time because if you lost your focus, you would lose your balance as well. Tanya was great at steering and protecting us from hitting rocks with her pole. I called her Rambo most the time. I got the hang of it after while, but it was freaky at first! Gluk was our guide and of course he doesn't know Enlish that well. The 2 Swedish girls were in front of us and we were in the back. When Gluk would say, "left side" we would all have to scream it back because we couldn't hear anything. We crashed a few times into the rocks and one time Tanya and I went flying head-first into the raft. It was hard work trying to maneuver the raft with a long bamboo pole. After about 2 crazy hours, we stopped at the Laihu (spelling??) hill tribe for a break. They children came running out to meet our rafts and jumped on and played with water and pretended to push the boat. After our break our guide tells us that we have 2 more hours and these rapids are University level. I guess the ones we just passed were elementary and high school level. Now, we had 4 sticks to control the raft and the rapids were crazy! We had the whole system down by screaming the directions, but we still had a hard time getting through the rocks and I fell a few more time. But, luckily I did not fall in the water. It wasn't deep, but who knows what I could have hit. Tanya's foot slipped through the bamboo on one of the rapids and that could have been really dangerous, but it was OK and no damage. A fish hopped on our raft, by my feet and went for a little ride. When going through the rapids, our raft would go under and water would be up to our calves, so the fish was able to escape our raft easily. Finally, with no major injuries, our trek was at an end...Thank God/Buddha! I was getting very tired of standing on that bamboo and fighting the rapids! We had lunch at another Laihu village and took the long journey back to Chaing Mai in the back of a pickup. It was very nice to finally take a shower and use a real toilet!
I learned a lot from this journey and I will never forget it. It's amazing how simple some people can live. They work so hard for food and education. You take for granted what you have every day and how easy it comes to you. I don't feel sorry for them, however. They seem happy and content and I don't think they would want to live the way we do. When we asked the elder form the Karin Village what his one wish would be, he replied "to have a long life so I can see my family grow up."
Sorry for writing so much, but there is so much more to tell. I haven't been keeping up with my written journal, so this is about all I have. I hope I don't bore you too much! Now, time to relax tomorrow and go on our visa run on Monday to renew our visas. Then, off to the beach again! Yipee!
