C & C globetrotting around the world…

We had signed up for a 3-day trek around Chiang Mai because we heard it’s beautiful and the thing to do. We were picked up in a sangtau and were surprised when we didn’t change to a mini-van after a while. The entire drive was by sangtau, and there was a lot of driving! Our group consisted of Britta and Jan, a German couple who just started a world trip, Lena from Germany who is doing a 6-month Asia trip, Sandra from Austria, Francis, a 49-yr-old Frenchman with his 26-year-old Thai girlfriend Koy and us. We drove for a while and arrived at an elephant camp. We were not too happy to see that many of the elephants had scars on their heads, probably because they were being mistreated. We weren’t sure about wanting to ride them, but finally decided to do so anyway. We chose one that didn’t have so many scars and were happy that our elephant driver didn’t use the metal pole at all during the ride. Francis kept on telling us how it is totally ok that they mistreat the animals, but the rest of us didn’t feel the same way. The elephant drivers (mahouts) are supposed to be in a peaceful relationship with the elephant, starting training at a young age and caring for the elephant for its entire life. The guys there didn’t seem to care and were just doing this as a job, so we were disappointed about this. The elephants are huge and kind of scary in a way, but they are also very cute. Their trunks are just amazing! We embarked on one together sitting in a seat on its back while the driver was sitting on the elephant’s neck and was controlling him with oral commands and his knees. We bought some bananas to feed to our elephant and were amazed by the speed with which he eats. Every now and then he would stop, reach back with his trunk asking for bananas. Pretty cute. There was also a little one around, really adorable. There was also an adult attached and who bored out of his mind, so he was doing a dance. Too funny. One was itchy behind the ears so he was scratching against a tree, also interesting to see.

The ride afterwards was simply horrible. We could not even absorb the bumps with sleeping bags under our butts, so big were the potholes. Then, we finally arrived to the trekking area. We hiked for about 3 hours through the jungle and were happy not to be in the sangtau anymore. The forest was beautiful and shortly before dark we arrived in a village inhabited by the Karen hill tribe. This is where we spent the night, in a wooden hut. The family taking care of the hut prepared dinner for us and we ate a nice meal. Afterwards we sat around the fire, chatting and even singing German songs. It was hilarious when the local lady asked us something. We didn’t understand what she said, so Cecilia guessed she had said “animal”, figuring she wanted to know what animal we were in the Chinese Horoscope. Since Cecilia is wild boar, she started making pig sounds “hrk hrk”, then Britta joined in with “wau wau”. We were laughing at how ridiculous we sounded. Then, to top it off, Koy (the Thai girl) translated that the lady wanted to know our names, not the animal. Wow, what an embarrassing moment! But we definitely had a good laugh. Koy also translated stuff about the family. Sometimes some things got lost in translation and it felt a bit like playing “broken telephone”, but it was interesting and fun nonetheless. It was really cold and we were dreading going to sleep. We had a sleeping bag and some blankets, but everything was really thin and didn’t keep us warm at all. We were cold from beginning to end and were happy when the morning came. Because of exhaustion we did fall asleep after the roosters crowed and before breakfast, but it wasn’t the most restful night. What was really nice though was the beautiful starry sky above us.

On the second day we woke up frozen and immediately went to the fire to warm up. We spent some time sipping tea and complaining about the night until we had breakfast and the weather warmed up. That’s what’s really weird: during the day it’s super hot and at night it gets really, really cold. We started trekking and this time it was more strenuous than one the first day, but very enjoyable. We were also pleasantly surprised how fit we were after a sleepless night. We hiked through the jungle, crossed streams and had fun chatting, laughing and taking in the beautiful nature around us. Just like on the trekking tour in Laos, we had a very eco-friendly lunch. The meal was packed in banana leaves and we had fruit and purple sticky rice cooked in bamboo sticks. We also got tea in bamboo cups, with water cooked in bamboo sticks. It’s pretty cool how versatile the bamboo can be and how ingeniously the locals use it. We trekked some more (6 or so hours in total) and arrived at our hut still in daylight. We immediately set up our “beds”, trying to improve on the technique used the previous night. We then had dinner and sat around the fire again chatting and singing. The night wasn’t as cold as the previous one and we got some sleep, but not warm by far. We survived without a cold, so that’s good.

The last day of our trek we woke up a bit more rested. We sat around the fire having breakfast, packed our things and off we were to bamboo rafting. In China (Yangshuo) it was delux rafting compared to what was awaiting us here. We were sent off on bamboo rafts that the village people had made the day before. It was fresh bamboo rods held together by bamboo strings. We had to stand, with a guide in the front steering and one of us in the back, also helping in the steering. Christoph was not very happy about his position in the back since there were no explanations as to what had to be done and he had no experience in bamboo raft steering. Shortly after we left we got stuck in some rocks due to our lack of experience and finally Francis conceded to taking over the rear steering, so he and Christoph switched places. He sat down for the rest of the ride. Cecilia was still standing in the middle, since the river water was too cold for her to sit down. Whenever the water got rough, she crouched down holding on with her hands not to loose balance. About half-way down the river we stopped to repair the raft since the bamboo rods were slowly drifting apart. What an adventure! After the rafting experience, we drove on more bad roads before having lunch. There were some helicopters flying around and we were told that one of the Princesses is in the area, visiting a neighbouring village, but unfortunately we didn’t get to see her, although we have so much experience with royalty already… From there we drove to Doi Inthanet National Park and the Wachirathan waterfall. The waterfall is about 80m high and pretty nice. This National Park is also home to the highest peak in Thailand with its 2565m altitude. On the drive home we got stuck in traffic close to Chiang Mai, but we made the best of it and started singing again, which was lots of fun.

When we arrived back at the guesthouse, the electricity was out, so we checked in with candle light. Our dreams of hot showers were shattered, but after about half an hour, the waiting was rewarded with one of the best showers ever. Although the trip itself wasn’t the best, we had a really good time with the group and it made it all worth it. We had such good laughs and will remember it as a fun time with lots of jokes, laughs, songs and great new friends.