Well, it turned out to be ten people instead of six — but we all had a great time on our trek. In all, we hiked about 35 km over three days up and down beautiful mountains running along the Myanmar (Burma) border. We camped in isolated huts on top of some of the mountains with no power or plumbing and saw nobody but hill tribe people the entire time. We never saw or even heard a car or any roads until the end of our third day. Although it was technically a jungle, it was quite dry this time of year. It was nothing like the jungles I hiked through when I was in Fiji or Hawaii (which required a machete).
The elephant ride we took for part of the journey on our second day was very interesting, historically speaking. Thailand has a long tradition of using elephants to haul heavy goods and fight in wars (where they have been used to ram down the doors of forts, among other things). Although the ride was a bit rough in the seats provided on the elephant’s back, the ride was much more comfortable when you sat on the elephant’s neck. Occasionally they would stop at streams to fill up their trunks and shower themselves down in the heat. Of course, this is a whole different experience when you are sitting on top of them.
The traditional Thai food was fabulous throughout the trip, and the local guide and the people who came along, from Germany, Canada, and the U.K., were enthusiastic and fun to spend time with. The Canadians (from the Yukon) brought along a pet squirrel they picked up in a local market, which proved to be fascinating to the village kids. In the evening, the villagers entertained us with traditional dances around a bonfire.
For the last leg of our journey, where we cruised down a river on bamboo rafts, we had a lot of fun trying to sabotage each other’s boats — causing most of the rafts to fall apart on the way downstream. As it turned out, they dismantled them to ship them back upstream, where they rebuilt them anyway, so we didn’t have to feel guilty on the ride back home to Chiang Mai.
I decided to extend my stay here a few days so I can go on a mountain biking trip over more mountains tomorrow.
