Trekking! Day 1

One of the popular things to do around Chiang Mai and northeastern Thailand is to go trekking in the area that's inhabited by the hilltribes. There are several different minority groups (at least 5) that live around here, and people want to go check them out.

Now, of course I can't make any easy, spur-of-the-moment decisions, so I had to talk to several different operators, look online for advice and quiz all travelers I'd come into contact with about their trekking experiences. And it came to light that many of the treks left people feeling like they'd just visited the zoo and looked at the people, and some sort of false environment had evolved from all of the outsiders visiting the villages. They were hassled to buy goods, and the children wanted candy, etc. I decided that I didn't want that, and then I talked to two folks who had gone to the Eagle House in Chiang Mai and done their non-tourist area trek. They saw no other foreigners during their trek, and they had a great time.

So I signed up the next day for that trek and then left for Pai to kill time before the trek left.

On Day 1 of the trek, we met up at 8:30 to store our bags and valuables before we left, and then we set off, each of us with just a small backpack on our backs. We had a lot of driving to do - about 4 hours total - but we first stopped off at a market so they could buy food for our trip.

We were travelling in a covered small pick-up truck with benches along the side in the back... there were 4 people plus driver in the front and 8 in the back, with the guide riding on top of the truck. Our group consisted of a family of 5 from Greece (the mom is from England, so daughters are fluent in English), 2 American girls travelling independently from each other, 1 Irish guy, 1 English guy, 1 German guy and a Canadian guy.

After the market, our next stop was an elephant camp were we were put in groups of 3 on elephants. Two people sat on an actual bench mounted on the elephant, and then a third person sat basically on the elephant's neck just behind its ears. Then our elephants were led on an hour-long loop down to a small waterfall. It was slow going, and those of us on the bench had a fairly easy ride. Those sitting right on the elephants had a bit more work to keep from falling off, but they also quickly got their balance. I thought it was interesting but not an amazing experience, but I did enjoy being able to touch an elephant - their skin is quite tough and their hairs quite prickly!

Post-elephant riding, we had fried rice and piled back into the truck. Eventually, we were given our backpacks and we set out for a fairly easy 2 hours' trek to the town we were going to sleep in. We were walking through rice paddy terracing (dry at the moment because rainy season has not yet begun), crossing a few streams via logs across them, and walking through a bit of greenery. Eventually, we hit our first home, which was a village of the Karen hilltribe, and we sat down to a beer to help recover from the hill we tackled to get up to the village.

Stay posted for more about rainstorms, bathing in rivers, leeches and more!