Thailand: Hill Tribe Trek

The trekking team.

Well, after my marathon sleep fest, I joined about seven other travelers in a saangthaew (basically a truck with two long benches in the back) for an hour-long ride to a small village in the hills outside of Chiang Mai. This was the beginning of a three-day/two-night trek through the jungles of northern Thailand.


Taking a rest break.

Upon arriving at the first village, we joined another group of about eight people, and after a lunch of phad thai, we all embarked on an intense, all-day vertical hike, lead by a young Thai man with a penchant for "jungle crafts," not to mention blonde American girls. We made the occasional stop, one being to take pictures of a wild elephant that was eating leaves beside our trail.


Elephant in the Jungle!


Coming into the village.

Finally, we arrived at our night's accomodation: a large bungalow in a small Karin Tribe village nestled high in the hills. After dinner, we all wandered about the village, hugging curious children and smiling with amusement at the numerous pigs, chickens, and cats that outnumbered the humans. Fortunately, our visit coincided with the first day of the New Year for the Karin's, so chldren were shooting firecrackers and fireworks into the sky as the adults prepared for the night's festivities.


One big New Year's Party...village style.

Of course, we had to join in the party, which was a small gathering in the center of the village, complete with a pig's head on a stake, food, and drinks. An elderly man began to play a wooden flute while a young girl beat out a rhythm on a drum. Even though many of the songs sounded the same to me, there was a different march-like dance (around the pig-on-the-pole, of course) for each melody. I tried my best to keep up, but after the man who was kindly holding my hand to show me the dance steps asked me "Where you sleep?", I decided it was time to take my dancing shoes off and head to bed.


The coolest Grandma EVER!

Sunday morning we all awoke to the sounds of roosters, and after a hearty breakfast, began another hike through the jungle. This was a much less strenuous route, as we were heading downhill, but the light rain that began to fall made for quite a slippery descent. Eventually, we reached a large waterfall, where we swam in the chilly water before changing into clean clothes and nipping into a terrific meal of fresh vegetables and pumpkin curry soup.

Today, the last day of our trek, was a fun-filled day of adventure. Our first stop allowed us the opportunity to ride elephants. Now, I must say, this was the most disturbing part of the trek for me, as I have a slight problem with animals in captivation merely for the enjoyment of obnoxious travelers. However, after a bit of coercing, I climbed aboard a young elephant and held on tight. After the elephant ride was over, my fellow trekkers and I separated into groups of five before boarding onto white-water rafts.


My poor little elephant!

We bounced along a slightly-raging river for awhile before trading our inflatable rafts for long bamboo rafts. Then, we glided along the slow river (well, the other rafts did, at least...ours seemed to have a problem staying afloat, dragging the bottom of the river at many times!) before finally loading back into the saangthaew for the trip back to Chiang Mai.

Overall, the trip was fantastic. My favorite part was visiting the little Karin tribe village and seeing the way of life for people outside of the city. I was pleasantly surprised, as well, to not see any signs of tourism ruining the authenticity of the tribe. It was definitely well worth the money!