Carissa Goes Trekking
Day 1:
After breakfast a minibus picked me up at my guest house. The minibus is possibly the best form of transportation ever (aside from elephants)! It's a small pickup truck with 2 benches in the back and a plastic covered roof, but no doors or windows or seatbelts. Completely unsafe and wonderful! In the back of the minibus were already 2 Italian men, Fabrizio and Andrea. Andrea doesn't speak any English and once they heard my family name they decided that I had to learn Italian and spent the next 3 days teaching me Italian (which means with all the Japanese, Afrikaans, Thai and Italian my head is quite confused right now). We stopped to pick up one other trekker- a 53 year old man from Scotland named Ray. So the 4 of us and our Thai guide, Tong, made up the whole group. First we went to the tallest peak in Northern Thailand-- Doi Inthanon Park. There are two stunningly beautiful pagodas at the top dedicated to the Queen and King of Thailand. There are hundreds of people who work year round to make sure the extensive gardens always have something in bloom (we stopped and helped some of the people pull flowers out). From the top I could see Myanmar in the distance, I was quite excited about that. Thailand has a lot of hill tribes that are different ethnic groups than the Thais (I think the Shans are from Chinese heritage, the Karen and Hmong are Tibetan and Burmese). These groups of people somehow got passed over when Thai citizenship was being handed out and up until the last few years were completely ignored when it came to health care, education, etc. In the last few years their situation has been improving though, so all the villages we visited had a school and electricity (although the smaller villages still don't have electricity). These tribes use to grow a lot of opium and the guide said that 10 years ago everyone in the villages smoked opium. The government has been getting rid of that though and all the opium fields were converted into flower fields. I didn't see any sign of opium smoking or poppies. First we went to a Hmong village and then we hiked through the mountains to a Karen village where we stayed the night. We got to shower in a gorgeous river. While the guide was cooking dinner we sat around drinking the local rice whiskey with the villagers (they really love that rice whiskey). It was so strong I thought I was going to pass out after the glass had gone around the circle a few times. It was hard to communicate because the Karen people have a different language and just when I was getting a few words of Thai down, I land in a situation where I can't use it. It was a lovely time though and the people were very gracious. We got to stay in the chief's house, which was brand new. They are still poor people and very traditional, but certainly not backwards. There were TVs in quite a few houses and the chief had a computer in his house. I thought it was interesting that the chief is democratically elected by the people in the village.
Day 2:
I woke up and played with some of the village children before breakfast (such cuties). They are on spring vacation right now and looked as bored as I always looked during summer vacation. We got to watch all the cows being taken out to pasture while we ate. Then suddenly two elephants run into the village. Our rides. The elephants were really funny and kepy trying to get into the trash cans. They are so gentle though that to make them go away you just have to nudge them (very strongly) in a different direction. We fed them our left over fruit from breakfast and then jumped on. I didn't stay in the seat for very long, instead I got to drive! I sat on the elephants neck and tucked my knees behind it's ears. They taught me how to say go (hu-oi) and stop (hou). It was lots of fun steering an elephant through the jungle for an hour and a half. Our elephant was really good and didn't stop too much to eat. The Italians got a lazy elephant who stopped every 5 minutes to munch on a tree. After the amazing amazing elephant ride we hiked 13 km (I swear it was all straight up hill) to a spectacular waterfall. I was proud of myself for (mostly) keeping up with the boys. We all showered in the waterfall and then had dinner by candlelight next to it. We stayed up late drinking with the locals and teaching eachother songs from our various cultures. We also learned a bunch of Thai drinking games (more of the evil rice whiskey). We slept in a hut right next to the waterfall and the next morning I went swimming before and after breakfast.
Day 3:
Feeling a little shaky after the wild party the night before and an uncomfortable night sleep on bamboo. We hiked for maybe 2 hours (stopping half way at another waterfall to shower). We followed the river so it wasn't as difficult, but I was getting a bit tired (and hot hot hot hot hot). We finally arrived at our guide's Karen village. It had stacks of tourists all over the place aruging about what to buy and bargaining over prices. It was a bit of a shock after 2 days in the jungle to suddenly come across American's buying things. We had lunch, cooled down and went down to the river for a ride on a bamboo raft. I was declared princess of the jungle and sat in the middle of the raft holding all the beers while the men did all the work. It looked a bit like venice with 2 Italians standing on the raft steering with long poles (I convinced Andrea to sing a few Italian gondaleering songs). We were the most energetic group on the river and kept trying to pass other boats and yelling in all sorts of different languages (Tong the guide spoke some Japanese so we kept speaking Japanese and Italian and bits of Thai and English). I taught all of them a Japanese children's song when we were hiking and we all sang it together (a million times) as we floated down the river. There were stacks of Thai tourists relaxing on the sides of the river and we would all splash eachother as we went past (one Thai girl even pulled me into the water yelling "Swimming, swimming"). It was such a blast. Some of the people on the river bank even joined in on our Japanese song as we went past. It's amazing how close you feel to people after 3 days of braving the jungle together, I was very sad for the trek to end and to say good-bye to my new friends. It was an amazing experience though and I am very happy I decided to do it.
What travel blog would be complete without illness? I wouldn't want to deprive my readers of the full truth of travel. I am wishing I could die right now. I am covered in bug bites (almost 40 below my knees, I can't count the ones on my back). I sprayed bug spray everywhere and the bugs still bit me (I got one on the back of my ear, another under my eyebrow and one on the bottom of my small toe-- just to show the ingenuity of the bugs in Thailand). I think that the bugs like the bug spray. The Thai people think it's kindof funny and keep telling me I have sweet blood and need to eat more garlic. Vampires wouldn't come within 5 miles of me I have eaten so much garlic and yet I am still the favorite fast food joint for half the bugs in Chang Mai. I also ate something that made me sick. There are so many things I have eaten that I shouldn't have, it would be impossible to pinpoint what made me sick (maybe it was the water I got up my nose in the waterfall, who knows). The good news is that I haven't gotten sunburned yet (I'm waiting until I get to the beach though). More to come, hopefully from Cambodia....
Day 1:
After breakfast a minibus picked me up at my guest house. The minibus is possibly the best form of transportation ever (aside from elephants)! It's a small pickup truck with 2 benches in the back and a plastic covered roof, but no doors or windows or seatbelts. Completely unsafe and wonderful! In the back of the minibus were already 2 Italian men, Fabrizio and Andrea. Andrea doesn't speak any English and once they heard my family name they decided that I had to learn Italian and spent the next 3 days teaching me Italian (which means with all the Japanese, Afrikaans, Thai and Italian my head is quite confused right now). We stopped to pick up one other trekker- a 53 year old man from Scotland named Ray. So the 4 of us and our Thai guide, Tong, made up the whole group. First we went to the tallest peak in Northern Thailand-- Doi Inthanon Park. There are two stunningly beautiful pagodas at the top dedicated to the Queen and King of Thailand. There are hundreds of people who work year round to make sure the extensive gardens always have something in bloom (we stopped and helped some of the people pull flowers out). From the top I could see Myanmar in the distance, I was quite excited about that. Thailand has a lot of hill tribes that are different ethnic groups than the Thais (I think the Shans are from Chinese heritage, the Karen and Hmong are Tibetan and Burmese). These groups of people somehow got passed over when Thai citizenship was being handed out and up until the last few years were completely ignored when it came to health care, education, etc. In the last few years their situation has been improving though, so all the villages we visited had a school and electricity (although the smaller villages still don't have electricity). These tribes use to grow a lot of opium and the guide said that 10 years ago everyone in the villages smoked opium. The government has been getting rid of that though and all the opium fields were converted into flower fields. I didn't see any sign of opium smoking or poppies. First we went to a Hmong village and then we hiked through the mountains to a Karen village where we stayed the night. We got to shower in a gorgeous river. While the guide was cooking dinner we sat around drinking the local rice whiskey with the villagers (they really love that rice whiskey). It was so strong I thought I was going to pass out after the glass had gone around the circle a few times. It was hard to communicate because the Karen people have a different language and just when I was getting a few words of Thai down, I land in a situation where I can't use it. It was a lovely time though and the people were very gracious. We got to stay in the chief's house, which was brand new. They are still poor people and very traditional, but certainly not backwards. There were TVs in quite a few houses and the chief had a computer in his house. I thought it was interesting that the chief is democratically elected by the people in the village.
Day 2:
I woke up and played with some of the village children before breakfast (such cuties). They are on spring vacation right now and looked as bored as I always looked during summer vacation. We got to watch all the cows being taken out to pasture while we ate. Then suddenly two elephants run into the village. Our rides. The elephants were really funny and kepy trying to get into the trash cans. They are so gentle though that to make them go away you just have to nudge them (very strongly) in a different direction. We fed them our left over fruit from breakfast and then jumped on. I didn't stay in the seat for very long, instead I got to drive! I sat on the elephants neck and tucked my knees behind it's ears. They taught me how to say go (hu-oi) and stop (hou). It was lots of fun steering an elephant through the jungle for an hour and a half. Our elephant was really good and didn't stop too much to eat. The Italians got a lazy elephant who stopped every 5 minutes to munch on a tree. After the amazing amazing elephant ride we hiked 13 km (I swear it was all straight up hill) to a spectacular waterfall. I was proud of myself for (mostly) keeping up with the boys. We all showered in the waterfall and then had dinner by candlelight next to it. We stayed up late drinking with the locals and teaching eachother songs from our various cultures. We also learned a bunch of Thai drinking games (more of the evil rice whiskey). We slept in a hut right next to the waterfall and the next morning I went swimming before and after breakfast.
Day 3:
Feeling a little shaky after the wild party the night before and an uncomfortable night sleep on bamboo. We hiked for maybe 2 hours (stopping half way at another waterfall to shower). We followed the river so it wasn't as difficult, but I was getting a bit tired (and hot hot hot hot hot). We finally arrived at our guide's Karen village. It had stacks of tourists all over the place aruging about what to buy and bargaining over prices. It was a bit of a shock after 2 days in the jungle to suddenly come across American's buying things. We had lunch, cooled down and went down to the river for a ride on a bamboo raft. I was declared princess of the jungle and sat in the middle of the raft holding all the beers while the men did all the work. It looked a bit like venice with 2 Italians standing on the raft steering with long poles (I convinced Andrea to sing a few Italian gondaleering songs). We were the most energetic group on the river and kept trying to pass other boats and yelling in all sorts of different languages (Tong the guide spoke some Japanese so we kept speaking Japanese and Italian and bits of Thai and English). I taught all of them a Japanese children's song when we were hiking and we all sang it together (a million times) as we floated down the river. There were stacks of Thai tourists relaxing on the sides of the river and we would all splash eachother as we went past (one Thai girl even pulled me into the water yelling "Swimming, swimming"). It was such a blast. Some of the people on the river bank even joined in on our Japanese song as we went past. It's amazing how close you feel to people after 3 days of braving the jungle together, I was very sad for the trek to end and to say good-bye to my new friends. It was an amazing experience though and I am very happy I decided to do it.
What travel blog would be complete without illness? I wouldn't want to deprive my readers of the full truth of travel. I am wishing I could die right now. I am covered in bug bites (almost 40 below my knees, I can't count the ones on my back). I sprayed bug spray everywhere and the bugs still bit me (I got one on the back of my ear, another under my eyebrow and one on the bottom of my small toe-- just to show the ingenuity of the bugs in Thailand). I think that the bugs like the bug spray. The Thai people think it's kindof funny and keep telling me I have sweet blood and need to eat more garlic. Vampires wouldn't come within 5 miles of me I have eaten so much garlic and yet I am still the favorite fast food joint for half the bugs in Chang Mai. I also ate something that made me sick. There are so many things I have eaten that I shouldn't have, it would be impossible to pinpoint what made me sick (maybe it was the water I got up my nose in the waterfall, who knows). The good news is that I haven't gotten sunburned yet (I'm waiting until I get to the beach though). More to come, hopefully from Cambodia....
1 Comments:
At 2:31 AM,
kate said…
kero kero kero kero gwap gwap gwap!
-k
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