Trekking - Like Hiking, But Sounds Cooler!
Doi Inthanon National Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand
March 30, 2009
On the agenda for today:
Sit in the back of a pickup truck for 1 1/2 hours (not as bad as it sounds, the benches are padded and there is a roof over our heads)
Stop for supplies
Ride an elephant
Go on a 3 1/2 hour trek
Stay overnight in a Karen Village
Sing songs and play games
So here it is:
I finished the last of my raisins with my cereal and peanut butter. Funny how you become so fixated on the little things that can bring so much pleasure when you are traveling!
We picked up our laundry (another joy - fresh, great smelling clothes) and packed up
. We jumped on the internet for a few minutes and I saw a great note from my niece Annie. It sounds like Ella and Ally are settling in to their new home and Ella has already become good friends with Annie. I am sure that they are going to soak up every ounce of her attention for the next couple of months!
We were picked up in a truck, we are the last of the group for the ride to the elephants. There are 2 guys from England, a guy from Germany and 2 guys from Holland. One poor fellow from Holland paid for his excessively good time last night! Good thing we are in this truck and not a van!
We stopped for supplies at a small market. We met our guide for the next couple of days, his nickname is Boy. I was able to have a pancake that was folded in half and filled with coconut and some filling. It was very good! Bill and I also shared some fried chicken that was pretty good too
. We were able to find some more peanut candy, so we stocked up and bought 3 more packages.
1/2 hour later we arrived at the Elephant Camp. We stood on a platform to climb onto the seat on the back of an elephant! It is just a steel seat with a cushion with a small bar across our laps to hold on. Our elephant handler is sitting on his head and has a small stick with a hook on the end to control the elephant. Good thing I have long pants on because their skin is very rough and their hair is very prickly.
Immediately our elephant is demanding the bananas that we have purchased! I think he has done this a few times before. We give him everything we have in a matter of minutes. Everyone else has caught up before we even cross the road. We slowly make our way along the hilly path. You have to lean way back when you are going downhill or it is possible to fall out. Our handler is great and stops once on land and once in the water to take pictures of us with our camera
.
When we are part way done there is another station where we can purchase more bananas, so we bought 1 more bag because our elephant has become upset with us and has been spraying snot and dirt all over us. I was picking red mud off my clothes, shoes and out of my hair for hours after that. At the third banana stop we bought some more bananas, just to be sure our elephant was satisfied, although I held on to a few to feed the baby that we saw at the start.
We made it in and out of the river without getting completely soaked. I was sure our elephant was going to protest more by spraying us!
There are 2 young elephants here and were able to get very close to a 3 month old elephant. It is incredible how tiny they are! While all the adult elephants were around the baby they were grumbling and trumpeting. It was very cool. The sound that they make is like a guttural rumble that reminded me of a lion
Singing Songs - The Hill Tribes
. It was a sound that I did not expect.
At the end of our incredible ride the other, larger baby was there greeting the elephants and looking for treats. I was able to get its attention and was able to feed it some bananas. It was so sweet!
We hopped back into the truck. 2 girls from England and a girl from Ireland has joined our group. After a short drive, we arrived at the next stop. It was a short uphill walk to the waterfall where we will have lunch and go swimming.
We had some fried rice out of a bag that had been purchased at the market. It was not too bad. I went for a quick dip near the waterfall. The water was nice, not too cold. I decided to find some sun and read my book while Bill was taking photos of the waterfall. As I was navigate in the water to get to my book I slipped on a rock and fell into the water
. Luckily I only bruised the side of my foot. It is very rocky and could have been a lot worse. One of the guys from England fell too and had some scrapes on his side.
An hour later we began our 3 1/2 hour trek. The entire first hour was uphill. A couple of the girls were having a hard time, so we took it slowly. It was pretty hot out, but I put my "legs" on my zip-off pants. The heat is better than the flies that were biting me (like a horse fly). The second hour of our trek was mostly flat terrain. We stopped at "7-11" for a break and some drinks. They have some covered benches and a cooler with some soda and beer (Chang beer that the local guide was calling Elephant piss because the label has 2 elephants).
Since this is the hot season (just before the rainy season) there are many leaves on the paths. The trees drop their leaves to conserve water before the rainy season begins. We see a few flowers, but not many. There is one flower up high on a tree truck that Boy says would bring 1,000 bhat in Chiang Mai (that is quite a bit, flowers are very inexpensive here). We walked through an area where the local people did a controlled burn. They regularly do this so that there are no large forest fires. We also see lots of ants - some are black, some are huge and some are red. Our Karen village guide points out Doi Inthanon. It is 2,576 m and is the highest peak in Thailand.
We walked another 1 1/2 hours before arriving in the hilltop Karen village. At one point when we were near the end of our walk we had to cross a small creek running through a rice field. The poor hungover Dutch guy slipped into the water - not his day at all!
The people are White Karens who live in stilted homes. They are farmers and have created terraces (like Peru) to grow rice. The young, unmarried girls wear white, only married women can wear other colours. When we arrived 4 men were playing foot volleyball, women working at looms, a women was rocking a baby in a swinging bassinet, the pigs were being fed and the chickens were trying to peck up the scraps.
We headed up one last hill to the upper part of the village where we will be staying. It has a large raised room with mattresses and mosquito netting . There is also a long table and benches for us to eat and socialize at. Boy has gone to prepare our dinner and we all just relax. There is a cooler filled with soda, iced tea, water and Chang beer. We help ourselves and record what we have taken so we can settle up in the morning.
The local ladies show up with bracelets and scarves. I bought a leather bracelet with my initial on it for 30 bhat. I was able to give each lady some soap, a toothbrush and some shampoo that I have collected from the hotels.
Boy is a pretty good cook. We had some coconut soup with chicken and hot and sour veggies. After dinner the village children built a camp fire and sang 6 or 7 songs to us. We each had to sing a song from our country back to them. Bill and I sang "Take Off" from Bob and Doug MacKenzie - we knew the lyrics to this better than Anne Murray, Celine Dion, Alanyis Morrisette, ect!
The local host who I will always know as Banana showed us some games to play (all great drinking game ideas). The first one involved fruit and charcoal. Sounds strange, but was really funny. Everyone has to pick a fruit. Our host chose banana, the girls from England chose pineapple and kiwi. The guys from England chose lychee and apple. The guys from Holland chose strawberry and guava. The guy from Germany chose durian (large spiny fruit that tastes like a combo of banana, vanilla and caramel - I am going to try to find one, that sounds good). Bill chose grape and I chose peach. Here is how you play - the first person says the name of their fruit twice (without showing your teeth - you have to pretend that your dentures are out) and then another person's fruit twice. If you say it too slowly, or mix up the order, or people can not understand what you have said, or say a fruit (for example "pear") that no one has chosen, then you are given some charcoal on your face that was taken from the bottom of the kettle! It was a pretty good game and lasted a while. Everyone had some or completely black faces by the end.
The next game was setting your hands on the table, you have to stand, and linking arms so that your left hand and arm are linked under the person's hand and arm to your left. Your right hand and arm are linked over the person's hand and arm to your right. When a hand it tapped once, it means that the next hand goes. If a hand taps twice, the direction is reversed and if someone pounds with their fist, you skip a hand. If you miss your turn or go out of turn, you have will get a charcoal mark on your face.
The final game was the bunny ears game. There must be 4 ears up at all times (your thumbs on either side of your head and wiggling your fingers). A person on either side of you must make the other 2 ears. You keep doing this until the person claps and points their hands at someone else. If you keep your ears too long or don't pick them up fast enough - more charcoal. Needless to say, we were all pretty dirty!
Oh, unrelated, but interesting - the guys from Holland told me to try to find Calve - peanut butter with hazel nuts. It sounds great!