CHIANG RAI, THAILAND
Chris, Kyle and I have decided to do a two-day jungle trek which will take us into the hills and give us some more contact with some of the local hill tribes. We started out this morning with our guide, Kai, who's a friend of Tom's, and another guide-in-training named Pan.
Before doing any actual trekking, though, we were dropped off at a riverside boat dock in Chiang Rai, where we got into a longtail boat and traveled upriver through farmland for about an hour. We then arrived at an "elephant camp" populated by 35 Asian elephants and their mahouts (drivers). As I understand it, some of these elephants may have been used in logging operations years ago, but now they're just there for the tourists. I immediately bought a bag of pineapples and bananas to feed the big guys--it was quite amusing to see how excited they got at the prospect of fruit, sticking their long trunks out at us and shaking their heads from side to side in anticipation. (It was also pretty funny to see an elephant eat an entire pineapple in one bite.) We then got to ride the elephants around for about 40 minutes, first through the village (same traffic rules as for cars: elephants on the left side of the street), and then off-road, around some rice paddies and farms. Kind of touristy, but fun. Oh, and speaking of touristy: Before leaving the camp, Chris and I had our pictures taken holding a 100-pound python.
After a quick boat ride across the river to where our pickup truck was waiting, Kai drove us to a Karen tribe village where we began our trekking. Unfortunately, it's been pretty rainy for the past day or so, so this meant hiking in drizzling rain through thick red mud for most of the time. And we hadn't got more than twenty minutes into our trek when we came to a spot where the trail was completely washed out by a roaring river!
At this point we had to come up with an alternate route to today's destination, a Lahu hill tribe village several kilometers away. We ended up taking the "high road," a steep, muddy trail up the hillside which offered some nice views of the surrounding greenery but was a bit taxing on the calf muscles. And the mud on the road was so thick and sticky that Chris and Kyle had to regularly stop and scrape it off their shoes because it was making their feet really heavy. Luckily, I had invested 120 baht (about $3) in some wellies this morning, which seemed to handle the mud a little better than their sandals. On the trail, we came across two giant black beetles with scissor-like mandibles that Kai happily tore the limbs off and stuck in his pocket for eating later on. Mmm, big black beetles....
We made it to the hilltop Lahu village in the late afternoon, where we had a chance to rest on the porch of the raised bamboo house we'll be staying in tonight (along with the family that lives here!). About 70 Lahu tribespeople live in the village, along with a heckuva lot of noisy chickens, dogs, cats, and pigs. In some ways it seems to be a pretty traditional farming village, but there are a few modern touches--many of the villagers have motorbikes, and there are solar panels scattered around that provide limited electric power (for the TVs, of course!).
Kai, Pan, and Chris then cooked our dinner over the fire (which was inside the wooden hut!)--we had potato curry, stir-fried pork and vegetables, and soup, which were all excellent. We washed it all down with some of the local rice wine, very similar to the arak we had in Indonesia. One of the guys in the village then offered to do a "beer run" to the next village on his motorbike, so we gave him some money and he returned a little while later with six big Chang beers, which we shared with the villagers. They then rolled out mattresses and put up mosquito nets, and we all slept on the floor of the hut.
Chris, Kyle and I have decided to do a two-day jungle trek which will take us into the hills and give us some more contact with some of the local hill tribes. We started out this morning with our guide, Kai, who's a friend of Tom's, and another guide-in-training named Pan.
Before doing any actual trekking, though, we were dropped off at a riverside boat dock in Chiang Rai, where we got into a longtail boat and traveled upriver through farmland for about an hour. We then arrived at an "elephant camp" populated by 35 Asian elephants and their mahouts (drivers). As I understand it, some of these elephants may have been used in logging operations years ago, but now they're just there for the tourists. I immediately bought a bag of pineapples and bananas to feed the big guys--it was quite amusing to see how excited they got at the prospect of fruit, sticking their long trunks out at us and shaking their heads from side to side in anticipation. (It was also pretty funny to see an elephant eat an entire pineapple in one bite.) We then got to ride the elephants around for about 40 minutes, first through the village (same traffic rules as for cars: elephants on the left side of the street), and then off-road, around some rice paddies and farms. Kind of touristy, but fun. Oh, and speaking of touristy: Before leaving the camp, Chris and I had our pictures taken holding a 100-pound python.
After a quick boat ride across the river to where our pickup truck was waiting, Kai drove us to a Karen tribe village where we began our trekking. Unfortunately, it's been pretty rainy for the past day or so, so this meant hiking in drizzling rain through thick red mud for most of the time. And we hadn't got more than twenty minutes into our trek when we came to a spot where the trail was completely washed out by a roaring river!
At this point we had to come up with an alternate route to today's destination, a Lahu hill tribe village several kilometers away. We ended up taking the "high road," a steep, muddy trail up the hillside which offered some nice views of the surrounding greenery but was a bit taxing on the calf muscles. And the mud on the road was so thick and sticky that Chris and Kyle had to regularly stop and scrape it off their shoes because it was making their feet really heavy. Luckily, I had invested 120 baht (about $3) in some wellies this morning, which seemed to handle the mud a little better than their sandals. On the trail, we came across two giant black beetles with scissor-like mandibles that Kai happily tore the limbs off and stuck in his pocket for eating later on. Mmm, big black beetles....
We made it to the hilltop Lahu village in the late afternoon, where we had a chance to rest on the porch of the raised bamboo house we'll be staying in tonight (along with the family that lives here!). About 70 Lahu tribespeople live in the village, along with a heckuva lot of noisy chickens, dogs, cats, and pigs. In some ways it seems to be a pretty traditional farming village, but there are a few modern touches--many of the villagers have motorbikes, and there are solar panels scattered around that provide limited electric power (for the TVs, of course!).
Kai, Pan, and Chris then cooked our dinner over the fire (which was inside the wooden hut!)--we had potato curry, stir-fried pork and vegetables, and soup, which were all excellent. We washed it all down with some of the local rice wine, very similar to the arak we had in Indonesia. One of the guys in the village then offered to do a "beer run" to the next village on his motorbike, so we gave him some money and he returned a little while later with six big Chang beers, which we shared with the villagers. They then rolled out mattresses and put up mosquito nets, and we all slept on the floor of the hut.
posted by John Kuge at 10:13 PM
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