Episode 3: Chiang Mai Trek
Elephant Moms and babies
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December 9, 1999Hi again, this time from Chiang
Khong, just across the Maekhong River from Laos. The last
you heard from me we were in Chaing Mai investigating
treks.
After attending a meeting suggested by Ms Soipet, the
travel agent suggested by the Potters, we said ‘what the
heck’, signed up for a trek to the Mae Taeng/Pai region
and found ourselves packing our small detachable day
packs, and the next morning, Friday, getting loaded into
the back of a pickup truck with 9 other people for the
ride to the start of a 3 day, 2 night trek. The group
consisted of a head guide, Andrew Sukham and an
assistant, both members of the Karen hilltribe, Ray &
me, a young couple from Denmark & 7 young Aussies, 5
of whom were travelling together to celebrate the
completion of their ‘Uni’ (university). The truck had
benches along each side and had a hard top with rolled up
plastic windows. The best seat was on the side with 5
people nearest the open rear of the truck. This was
important later. Our first stop, after 1 1/2 hours, was
at a large food market in the town of Mae Taeng, where
the guides bought our box lunches & we browsed. The
whole market was under a tent & each vendor sat at or
sometimes cross-legged on top of plywood tables. The
whole market was a riot of sights and smells from dried
fish, buckets of spices, fruits, raw meats, live fish
crowded into aluminum pans, to dinners cooked to your
specifications on propane or charcoal burners. We loaded
up on bottled water & continued on to the Mork Fa
waterfalls, our lunch spot.
About 1 K down a jungle path the water fell in twin
streams from a height of about 50 ft to a pool below.
About half way up the falls was a large cave, formed by
long ago water action, which several of us explored. The
truck ride after lunch was twisting and bumpy, straight
up into the hills. By the time we stopped another hour
later for a break, all Ray wanted to do was get out. He
and several others were starting to feel nauseous from
the motion. Andrew gave us a choice, we could drive for a
shorter distance and hike 3 hours or drive farther &
hike 1 1/2 hrs. You can guess Ray’s instant response:
‘long walk’, that was echoed by the others. He and
another girl also opted to ride the rest of the way
standing on the tailgate. He declared it was fun &
infinitely better.
We finally stopped at the beginning of a jungle path,
just before the village of Pai, and adjusted our packs.
Ray & I had elected to rent sleeping bags, so these
were added to our load, but we managed fine, but we
missed our walking sticks left behind in Bangkok.
The
day was warm & the path was straight up the hill,
just like the Lake Placid trails. Thank goodness Ray
& I were in shape from our other trekking. I think it
was a revelation to the others, who generally did not
have good footwear & were not hikers. The trail
continued uphill, then along a ridge where we had lovely
views of the surrounding hills, all lushly covered in
jungle forests. Here and there on the slopes of the hills
were cleared fields, some replanted, which Andrew told us
were once opium fields. It is now illegal to grow opium,
except for the personal use of the tribes people in the
area. We never did see anyone smoking.
We arrived finally at our overnight destination, a
Lisu hilltribe village set in a small valley. A pond that
apparently holds fish for the villagers, in the center of
the town, was surrounded by low windowless buildings,
with walls of split bamboo, and small open doorways
looking into what appeared to be one large room with an
open fire in the middle for cooking. Andrew told us the
tribe was originally nomadic and moved their homes
following their jungle food source according to the
season. Therefore these simple homes are easier to take
down & move. Now the government has moved several
villages together to a permanent site (sound familiar)
and there were 125 families in the lower village and on
the adjoining hillsides. The men of the village wore T-shirts
and blue cotton trousers, constructed like a skirt with
the middle drawn up between their legs and secured at the
waist. The women in the village wore
colourful tunics over black cotton trousers, the same
design as the men’s trousers. Some even had leggings on
under the trousers and several had babies carried in a
sling on their back. Our dorm that night was the same
construction, but with a door, with a sleeping platform
of bamboo poles covered with bamboo mats along each side.
Our bathroom was an outhouse next door and the shower was
a cold water tap in an adjoining room. We each were
provided with 3 thin blankets and a pillow. I was glad of
the sleeping bag as it was chilly as soon as the sun went
down, but I did miss the foam pad and Thermarest I had in
Nepal.
Before supper we had a visit from a French couple who
seemed pleased to converse with me in my terrible French.
They were part of Group B, and were staying in another
dorm down the hill from us. The tour company we were with
had enough people for 2 groups, but to make sure the
trails were uncrowded, had divided us into 2 groups. I
call us Group A as we left first every day & never
saw any other trekkers. After supper prepared by our
guides, we were entertained by some of the villagers. One
man played a 3 stringed instrument and the villagers,
invited us to join them in a circle dance around an open
fire. Andrew, our guide, directed the step dances from
the center. They started out simply & got gradually
complex. I think the villagers get a kick out of seeing
the tourists mess up the dances. Anyway, it did warm us
up.
We were all up early the next morning, as everyone had
trouble adjusting our soft bodies to the hard beds. Our
hike this day started uphill through the jungle, but
continued mainly downhill on a narrow sharply banked path.
The views once again were beautiful. On the trail, Andrew
stopped to have a snack, and offered us some. No one took
him up on it, as he was eating dried crickets! As we
descended a steep path, we came upon elephant dung. I was
surprised as I didn’t think elephants would go up such a
steep path, but in the forest nearby, we saw the elephant
with his Mahoot riding into the jungle. We learned later
the elephant was spooked by our noisy appearance &
the Mahoot had to detour 5 miles to get the elephant back
to the elephant camp, which was 1/2 hr walk away. At the
elephant camp, beside a small river, we all watched in
interest as several elephants, including 2 babies,
descended from a small hill and gathered with their
mahoots below. One of the babies decided to wade the
stream towards us, so everyone grabbed leaves to try to
feed him and give him a pat. The mother followed but was
not threatening, but we kept our distance anyway.
After lunch, we started on our elephant ride.
The elephants in this area
are smaller than the Chitwan elephants, apparently as a
result of the difficulty in obtaining food. On the other
hand, the babies, aged 3 & 4, were born in the
vicinity, so they must be doing right. We sat 2 to an
elephant in a sedan chair facing forward, with the Mahoot
walking along side. Three Aussie girls shared one
elephant, with the 3rd sitting in the usual Mahoot place
on the elephant’s neck. She said later that it was safe
but hard on the but for 1 1/2 hrs. The chair was padded
but lacked a front safety bar which would have been
helpful when we made our many descents. You had to hang
on or fear slipping off the seat onto the ground. Anyway,
it was fun. Ray & I were on one of the Mothers,
following behind the 2 babies and the other Mother. We
were a little slow as the babies kept stopping to munch
leaves and had to be prodded ahead.
Our destination that day was the rafting village
beside the Mae Taeng River and a dorm similar to the
previous night, except it was larger & had a fire pit
in the middle. We were not allowed to light it as another
group had burned down a cabin during the night. We
arrived in plenty of time to swim and ride the current a
short way down the river. Great fun.
The night was a lot warmer than the previous and we
all decided to stay up until we were good and tired, so
we would hopefully sleep better. I folded by 3 blankets
into quarters to make a mattress & it did work. That
night we sang and listened to more of Andrew’s terrible
jokes (I swear he reads Xmas crackers) and had a good
time, probably fueled by the beer we bought from the
locals. I told the group the nickname I had given us:
‘Mom & Pop & the Aussie kids’ and they got a good
kick out of it. One of the guides from the other group
started calling us Mama & Papa & it stuck.
The next morning we got ready for rafting down the
river. The
rafts are made new for each group and are 45 ft bamboo
poles lashed together with a quadri-pod arrangement of
poles towards the front to hold the backpacks out of the
water. You were well advised to wear sandals for the trip
as your feet were in the water most of the time. We had 2
rafts for our group with six of us plus a guide as raft
master on one & 5 and a guide on the other. We stood
in the center one behind the other and rode the current
downstream. The Guide had a long pole to steer us as did
2 people at the back of the raft. A third person had a
shorter, spare raft to help us along. The day was
overcast and we rotated the people with poles so everyone
would have a chance & stay warm as well. It was a lot
of fun and we were quite pleased with our ability to work
as a team navigating the frequent rapids, even if we did
get the bottom of our shorts wet at times. We had a break
after 3 hours at a small village where we could get
snacks & drinks. Five of the Aussies were supposed to
leave us at this point to trek to another village for the
night, but they had decided they had had enough and
cancelled the 4th day. Besides, they said, they would
miss us.
After our break, we started out again, this time
negotiating several small waterfalls. This was quite a
thrill to ride on the raft through the quite large waves.
Ray then discovered why he wore his bathing suit! He was
manning the short pole through one of the waterfalls when
it became wedged in some rocks. Rather than lose the
pole, he tried to free it & freed himself from the
raft instead. He was unhurt, aside from a bruise on a
hip, and said he was fine and was more concerned about
being hit by another raft, as there were several other
groups navigating this same stretch of water, than being
dashed against rocks. We were able to stop our raft a
short distance away from his upset and he floated over to
re-board the raft, getting a good laugh out of the
experience. At least it was near the end of our trip so
he didn’t have time to get chilled. He was the talk of
the other raft groups. A few of the other guides were
heard to exclaim ‘where’s Papa!’ when he fell. Anyway, we
were able to change into dry clothes at the end of the
trip & traveled back safely to Chiang Mai.
Back in Chiang Mai, I persuaded Ray to go with me to
one of the Thai massage parlours. I highly recommend this.
We opted for a 1 hour traditional massage (only 100 baht).
We were ushered into an upstairs room to change into
baggy cotton shorts and top, then into another dimly lit
room with about 6 mattresses on the floor. We were
directed to side by side mattresses by our masseurs, Thai
women of indeterminable age, and were subjected to a full
hour of massaging and manipulating all the muscles and
joints in our feet, legs, back and neck, with some work
on our arms. The women used their hands and even their
feet for the treatment. I can see that regular treatment
could really help your body and even improve your
flexibility and prevent soreness.
I think this letter has gone on too long and I am
going to have to write another episode to bring you up
todate! Ray is waiting for dinner, so I bid you adieu.
More later.
Ciao, Jeanne & Ray
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