Trek to Karen villages

3/19-3/21

We went on a 3 day trek out of Chiang Mai. We had 3 guides to escort/cook for/entertain the 13 of us on the trip. The guides names were Poe (translation: baby), Nop (translation: beautiful), and Jackie Chan (translation: Jackie Chan). The pharang (foreigners) on the trip were from France, Holland, Russia, Ireland, England, and us from the US. Not only did I get to practice a lot of French in translating things for the Parisians (they spoke very little English), but I also gave the Russians English lessons in exchange for some Thai rum.

We rode out of Chiang Mai in the covered back of a pick-up truck, but we were over capacity, so a guide climbed up on the roof rack and I stood on the back gate. It would've been nicer had the air been fresher, but I had a better view and the thrill of almost being bounced off was worth it.

The first stop was an elephant ride. Somewhat depressing, fairly dirty, but also very exciting. Some of the elephants seemed worse for the wear, but considering they only have to wander up and down a river twice a day to be fairly well taken care of, it could be worse. Lauren was grinning so wide she swallowed more bugs than the FDA recommends for a month.

We then hiked for about 2 hours to reach a waterfall we could swim under and relax. The hike made it pretty obvious why they organize the groups by age, but even so there were pretty big differences in ability. We hiked another hour to the camp in time to catch our collective breath before the sun set over the mountains.

The next morning we hiked 1.5 hours to our lunch spot. After lunch and a nap, at Lauren and my request, we split in to two groups: she, Poe, and I took a 3 hour hard hike to the next waterfall/camp, while the others took an hour long easy hike. I can say much of their hike, other than they told us they were singing and joking the whole way. Lauren and I were out of breath and sweating hard for pretty much the whole 3 hours. When we weren't out of breath we were jogging along "flat/easy" parts of the trail, racing the sunset so we wouldn't be lost in the dark.

We did see some amazing things: traditional agriculture is a lot more beautiful (and probably less environmentally damaging) than modern techniques; if you plan well, irrigation is efficient and simple; jungles are amazing and full of reptiles, birds, and insects (and the local dog I befriended who kept us company). The number of ants alone that we saw was absurd.

About an hour before dusk, the path through the jungle we were supposed to take was blocked, so we had to veer off in another direction to try to hit it later. This meant following animal trails under bushes, over trees, around rocks, and through rivers, before we came to a swamp. Of course we were on the wrong side. Our guide slipped off his shoes and waded in, telling us to follow where he went, but not to fall through.

Fall through? We were walking on a woven mesh of the roots of the grasses and plants we were wading through. Right as he said this, my foot broke through and I was soaked up to my waist. We slowly made our way through, ignoring the spiders and insects and pretending he didn't just warn us about water snakes.

When we emerged on the dry land at the bottom of the hill on the other side, Lauren had several slashes on her legs around knee height from the sharp grasses, Poe had cuts on his thighs, and my shins had a mark or two. Leg hair seems to have at least one use.

Over a few more hills and down a few valleys later, we finally made our way to the camp, just as the sun was setting.

The next day we had a comparably easy hike, and then went bamboo rafting down the river. This was a lot of fun, like tubing down the Truckee or American river in California, only with some minor rapids and a lot of Thai spectators relaxing on the banks under bamboo shelters.

Three days wells spent.