This post was written on Saturday, June 4th
*Most of the European or Canadian gap year-ers that we have met are between high school and college, so they are all 18~19 years old. Crazy. These girls were all 18 except one 23 year old older sister. They were an attractive lot, and we exchanged card games; they seemed to enjoy Egyptian Rat Screw.
** I'm using Anna's diary to make sure i don't forget anything. Here it says "gross breakfast in train"
As veteran travelers, we arrived in the Chiang Mai train station, got out, looked at each other, and said, 'well, I guess we walk towards the city.' After 15 minutes of very hot walking (~noon), we yielded and hailed a tuk-tuk. After some confused negotiated, we got a price we were happy with and hopped on. Soon we got to the city walls and the East entrance of the old city, and our driver pulled over to talk w/ some men on the side of the road. It quickly became apparent our driver had no idea where he was going, had never heard of our hostel, and couldn't read English. Eventually, one of the other men said to Sam, "You read, I know." So Sam tried to pronounce the name of our hostel (mind you Anna wasn't even sure if she had interpreted Kevin's handwriting correctly in the first place), got some glimmer of recognition, and off we went. Incredibly, our tuk tuk them made it's way to our hostel, Gongkaew, on the NW side of the old city.
We walked into the city center that afternoon to check our treks, but after consulting with Eric and Ryan (see below), we decided to do a 1-night trek, and we booked whatever our hostel recommended so that we would be trekking with Kevin and Andre, as the guidebooks had said that the key to a good trek was a good group.
That evening we went out to the east side of the city and the Night Bazaar with Eric and Ryan, 2 brothers from Minnesota we met in our hostel who had been traveling for a while. Sam had a hoot with the 2 guys (hopefully her first friends in Minnesota when she moves out there in a few weeks), so Anna and I wingmanned for most of the evening. Our dinner was a bit touristy (the night bazaar sits beneath all the Western hostel towers on the east side of the city), and Anna's was super hot. We then went to a few bars and, well, saw lots of prostitutes. Lots. At our primary bar we played pool, and the prostitutes enjoyed watching the white people makes fools of ourselves.
***
The following morning (Monday, May 30), we got picked up by a songtheaw in our hostel, made a few unexplained stops along the way (spending 20 minutes idling in a mechanics shop is a bit disconcerting), and stopped by a police office to drop off copies of our passports (never saw those again, had to make new copies yesterday). We picked up 4 Frenchies, and between them and the 5 of us it was quite cramped. Anna and Sam were wedged up against the cab and had a rather miserable drive out of the city, an hour-ish.
We separated from the Frenchies upon arrival, so our trek was just Sam, Anna, Kevin, Andre, and myself, plus our guide, Huan. Or Han. Or perhaps Pao. Never did sort that one out. A 10 minute walk to the elephant camp, and then immediately hopped on an elephant.
Our elephant's name was Leroy. Or at least that's what we decided. Asian elephants are not nearly as large as African ones, but he (she? Anna's journal notes that Leroy was a year into pregnacy) was still large enough to not seem bothered by me straddling his neck, with my knees tucked under her ears, and Sam and Anna sitting on a steel and wood bench strapped to his back. Leroy had quite dry skin, just kinda plodded along, and liked to eat. Other than that, not much to report. The ride was slow but surprisingly smooth and pleasant, and we ambled through the middle of a creek for much of it, which was very scenic. Andre and Kevin followed behind on another elephant; their guide was far livelier, he showed us leaves that would dye your hand red, demostrated how to blow bubbles using a leaf's stem and juice, would shout "Oh my Buddha" whenever he slide on and off the elephant. He would also sing songs which sounded vaguely American.
After riding Leroy, we had Pad Thai and Sam played with a super cute puppy, and we fed the elephants bananas. We then left on foot and marched up the valley, walking along rice paddies and fields of cabbage, papaya, and corn, which our guide would point out to us. We then cut up the mountain side, which was quite steep at times (didn't encounter switchbacks until our motorbike ride up Doi Suthep). We stopped by a bat cave, which freaked out everyone, especially Anna, but I thought it was super cool. Couldn't really get pictures of the bats, but you could hear then and seen them as they buzzed around your heads.
Rest of this post was finished early morning, Sunday June 5.
The rest of the afternoon was spent marching uphill. Our guide did a good job of stopping to show up various plants of interest as we walked by. We had a raw peanut, which was pale w/ a bit of purple, and basically tasted like a peanut if you stripped away all of the salt from roasting; it was moist and slightly crunchy. I was the only one brave (stupid?) enough to bite into a chili, which was painfully hot and gave me a strong case of the hiccups. We were taught how to "pop" leaves, where you take a fresh leaf and place it into your slightly clench hand, and smack down w/ the other hand, causing a sharp crack. Anna excelled, and appeared to have discovered a new party trick for herself.
Eventually, we hit a ridge line which we followed for the last thirty minutes or so. The ridge line had gorgeous views. Our guide cut us some fresh sugar can to munch on as we approached our village. We passed the spirit house for the village and entered the village. After dropping our stuff in our hut for the night, we wandered about the Hmong village and saw many cute children, chicks, and piglets. The village was not that big, and apparently everyone lets their animals roam free, and each household simply remember whose is which animal. Not that one black piglet looks different than another. We tried out our token Hmong word, "abuyya," hello/thank you, to minimal success.
Our sleeping quarters was a bamboo hut situated at the bottom of the village, affording stunning views of the valley below, especially when a rain storm blew in and you could hear the rain crescendo at it approached. The floor and the sides had enough gaps for you see through, to toss scrap food out, and for Andre to occasionally fall through, but amazingly the roof did not leak, including under a downpour. We slept on wooden pallets; no one slept well, which meant that I slept like normal.
Dinner was cooked inside of the wooden hut, which was initially alarming. We were led by a local village, a young man who we think was deaf, and would be constantly grunting and hooting. He was incredibly expressive, waving his hands about and making noise, and he had a few hand signals that he and the guide understood. It took a bit getting used to, but eventually Anna and Sam were able to follow his instruction to make our dinner, cucumber soup (served hot) and stir fried veggies w/ egg. We also marched our way through 2 bottles of rice whiskey, which our cook was constantly offering to us, and he was quite tipsy by the time it was done. We played some mind games using twigs with our guide, and then after we were alone we played a round of 21 with Chang, the local beer [Chang = elephant. Chang is the cheapest of the few local brands, and given that, it is quite good. Knowing his clientele, the last thing the villagers did when they left us was restock our Chang supply.
The bathroom, oh the bathroom. [Anna's journal: "Bathroom = tragic"]. Obviously minimal running water at the top of the mountain, so no showering. The toilet was a standard Thai squat toilet, but we had to bring our own toilet paper; Anna and Sam dropped the tp in the water in their first trip to the bathroom, but thankfully Kevin and Andre were able to bail us out. The bathroom was wet, dirty (dirt floor), and had a profusion of spiders and ants.
In the morning, Sam made breakfast (scrambled eggs with carrots, onions, and pineapple, plus toast) under the cooks guidance, and we headed off the mountain. Hike downhill was worse, and I developed blisters on the top of my feet. At one point Sam slipped and may have gone all the way down the mountain if she had not caught herself at the feet of Kevin, with Anna standing helplessly above, "Kevin! Stop her!"
Near the bottom we arrived at a waterfall which we were able to swim in, including sliding down the main fall, incredibly refreshing. We then hopped into a pickup truck (not ever converted to a songthaew) for a bumpy ride to the beachhead. We suited up for white water rafting, and Anna had her first rafting experience. The rapid were not difficult but were challenging enough to make it fun. We actually spent most of the time on the river out of the boat floating on our backs down the river; Anna kept falling behind because her skort would fill up like a parachute. For me, rafting down the river with the jungle flowing past was another one of those Indiana Jones / wow I'm in Thailand moments.
We finished with bamboo rafting; the raft was a single, long craft made entirely of bamboo and mostly submerged when we all clambered on. Not particularly exciting, or comfortable. We had Pad Thai for lunch, then a far more comfortable songthaew ride back into the city (~1 hour); on that ride we met a girl who had been traveling for 8 months, mostly solo.
***
When we got back we showered (glorious), for the rest of the evening see http://ajstravelingadventures.blogspot.com/2011/06/chiang-mai-morning.html
Rest of this post was finished early morning, Sunday June 5.
The rest of the afternoon was spent marching uphill. Our guide did a good job of stopping to show up various plants of interest as we walked by. We had a raw peanut, which was pale w/ a bit of purple, and basically tasted like a peanut if you stripped away all of the salt from roasting; it was moist and slightly crunchy. I was the only one brave (stupid?) enough to bite into a chili, which was painfully hot and gave me a strong case of the hiccups. We were taught how to "pop" leaves, where you take a fresh leaf and place it into your slightly clench hand, and smack down w/ the other hand, causing a sharp crack. Anna excelled, and appeared to have discovered a new party trick for herself.
Eventually, we hit a ridge line which we followed for the last thirty minutes or so. The ridge line had gorgeous views. Our guide cut us some fresh sugar can to munch on as we approached our village. We passed the spirit house for the village and entered the village. After dropping our stuff in our hut for the night, we wandered about the Hmong village and saw many cute children, chicks, and piglets. The village was not that big, and apparently everyone lets their animals roam free, and each household simply remember whose is which animal. Not that one black piglet looks different than another. We tried out our token Hmong word, "abuyya," hello/thank you, to minimal success.
Our sleeping quarters was a bamboo hut situated at the bottom of the village, affording stunning views of the valley below, especially when a rain storm blew in and you could hear the rain crescendo at it approached. The floor and the sides had enough gaps for you see through, to toss scrap food out, and for Andre to occasionally fall through, but amazingly the roof did not leak, including under a downpour. We slept on wooden pallets; no one slept well, which meant that I slept like normal.
Dinner was cooked inside of the wooden hut, which was initially alarming. We were led by a local village, a young man who we think was deaf, and would be constantly grunting and hooting. He was incredibly expressive, waving his hands about and making noise, and he had a few hand signals that he and the guide understood. It took a bit getting used to, but eventually Anna and Sam were able to follow his instruction to make our dinner, cucumber soup (served hot) and stir fried veggies w/ egg. We also marched our way through 2 bottles of rice whiskey, which our cook was constantly offering to us, and he was quite tipsy by the time it was done. We played some mind games using twigs with our guide, and then after we were alone we played a round of 21 with Chang, the local beer [Chang = elephant. Chang is the cheapest of the few local brands, and given that, it is quite good. Knowing his clientele, the last thing the villagers did when they left us was restock our Chang supply.
The bathroom, oh the bathroom. [Anna's journal: "Bathroom = tragic"]. Obviously minimal running water at the top of the mountain, so no showering. The toilet was a standard Thai squat toilet, but we had to bring our own toilet paper; Anna and Sam dropped the tp in the water in their first trip to the bathroom, but thankfully Kevin and Andre were able to bail us out. The bathroom was wet, dirty (dirt floor), and had a profusion of spiders and ants.
In the morning, Sam made breakfast (scrambled eggs with carrots, onions, and pineapple, plus toast) under the cooks guidance, and we headed off the mountain. Hike downhill was worse, and I developed blisters on the top of my feet. At one point Sam slipped and may have gone all the way down the mountain if she had not caught herself at the feet of Kevin, with Anna standing helplessly above, "Kevin! Stop her!"
Near the bottom we arrived at a waterfall which we were able to swim in, including sliding down the main fall, incredibly refreshing. We then hopped into a pickup truck (not ever converted to a songthaew) for a bumpy ride to the beachhead. We suited up for white water rafting, and Anna had her first rafting experience. The rapid were not difficult but were challenging enough to make it fun. We actually spent most of the time on the river out of the boat floating on our backs down the river; Anna kept falling behind because her skort would fill up like a parachute. For me, rafting down the river with the jungle flowing past was another one of those Indiana Jones / wow I'm in Thailand moments.
We finished with bamboo rafting; the raft was a single, long craft made entirely of bamboo and mostly submerged when we all clambered on. Not particularly exciting, or comfortable. We had Pad Thai for lunch, then a far more comfortable songthaew ride back into the city (~1 hour); on that ride we met a girl who had been traveling for 8 months, mostly solo.
***
When we got back we showered (glorious), for the rest of the evening see http://ajstravelingadventures.blogspot.com/2011/06/chiang-mai-morning.html
To clarify, the villagers were not Hmong. We did visit a Hmong village when we drove up Doi Suthep, but not on the trek. Trying to find out which other hill tribe they were, but I don't think any of us remember.
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