Trekking in Northern Thailand

We booked ourselves on one of the many trekking tours out of Chiang Mai that go up to northern Thailand. Originally it was for 3 days, but our plans changed, so we had to bump it down to two days.

We started off heading out of town in a sawngthaew (truck with an open back door and bench seats) along with two girls from Sweden. There can be anywhere of up to 12 people on these treks, but our group ended up being just the 4 of us.

Our first stop was a local market outside of town to buy any needed water or supplies. Justin passed up the fried chicken feet (4 for 20 baht, or 50 cents!), but we did not pass up the fried bananas, YUM! We continued on into the countryside and made our next stop at the Longneck Village. You have probably seen images of these women on the pages of National Geographic Magazine, as I had, so I was interested in seeing them in person. They are actually refugees from Myanmar (Burma) and this particular tribe has been set up here for about 6 months. They allow tourists to visit for obvious reasons; we buy their crafts and pay a fee to enter. Of course, the downside to this is that it feels almost like a human zoo - "Look at the strange people". After the initial discomfort (look at our faces in this picture) -

you begin to interact with them, "talk" to them about buying some of their silk-weaved scarves, watch them weaving the scarves and feeling the weight of the brass rings (which are very heavy), you begin to feel a little less like an intruder and much more welcome. The villagers are very friendly and do seem to appreciate you being there, which I suppose is how you have to look at it. If we weren't coming to see them, then they would not be making any money. So, hopefully it is a symbiotic relationship.

Afterwards, we drove a little further and got dropped off to begin our 5-hour hike. We, believing ourselves to be in good shape, don't worry very much about how strenuous these outdoor activities can be. We figure if these are designed for normal tourists, we're probably in the upper part of that group physically. I'll just say that at one point in the hike, I realized that this was a lot more difficult than I was expecting - only later did I find out that at that point we weren’t even halfway there! Regardless, it was very beautiful and really wonderful to be out of the bustle of the city. We had to cross over several rivers, by walking/jumping across rocks or by using "sturdy" pieces of bamboo laid across the river. We had two guides to help us with this task, which was good, because I surely would have been swimming!

We walked up and down along the forested trail, and then we walked up and up and up. Just when we were about to fall over, we took a break at a beautiful waterfall. Then, everything seemed worth it! One girl from Sweden took a swim, but it was too cold for our Florida blood.

Our destination for the evening was a tribal village in the Chiang Dao valley. When we got our first view of the village, it looked like something out of a movie. On the other side, was a gorgeous view of Doi Chiang Dao mountain - and we were excited to rest our tired bodies and to meet the villagers. Then, the sounds of loud booms in the distance...

Apparently, this and other villages celebrate New Year's by having a weeklong celebration. And what means celebration to villagers - fireworks. I'm not talking about the light up the sky, 4th of July type; we're talking M-80's and miniature dynamite. Also, there are no rules as to where, when or at what age you can set off these fireworks - we literally saw a kid no older than 4 running around the village lighting them on his own. We were all a little surprised by this, but were still very intrigued for what was to come. The villagers were definitely different than the city people. While some were very friendly and welcoming, others would just kind of stare at you - we were the attraction at this human zoo.

The evening festivities involved dancing around a pine tree (which was about 10 feet from where we were sleeping) where the villagers would dress in their traditional outfits. There was a makeshift sound system set up where people would sing or play a Lisu flute. Then the real party started - before beginning the festivities, what better way to celebrate than hanging not one, but two pig's heads from the tree you are dancing around?

Of course, being a longtime vegetarian, I found this to be less than appealing, but I realized this is their culture and I took it for what it was. The purpose of the pig head is an offering, and I guess they had just eaten that very pig earlier in the day, so they were giving thanks as well.

The drums came out, the people showed up, and the dancing began. It was pretty much like line dancing, but in a circle. Eventually, after offering us shots of the local rice whiskey (I don't even want to know what was in that bottle), they had us join them in the dancing. It was neat to experience their culture along with them and they seemed very proud to have us there.

We retired to our beds around midnight, since we had had a long day of hiking. The villagers, on the other hand, had been saving up all their energy for this celebration, and they literally did not stop until the sun rose. Now the singing, drums and the generator under our hut I could handle, but the massive fireworks explosions outside our door got a little old. Needless to say, we did not get much sleep.

Here were our accommodations -

We headed out the next morning for another 4 hours of hiking. This day was a lot easier as we were going mostly downhill, however with no sleep, we were still be dragged along by our Thai guide.

Overall, it was a worthwhile experience, but we really appreciated our quiet bed when we returned to Chiang Mai.