Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai is Thailand’s second largest city, and we’d spoken to so many people recommending doing a trek there, that we just couldn’t refuse. On reflection, we’re glad we listened to them as it made the start of our second visit to Thailand so much more enjoyable than the first!

However, our arrival in Chiang Mai was slightly frustrating. The minibus dropped us off at 11.30pm, and it then took us another half an hour of wandering around with our packs on - incidentally, I could now travel a lot lighter - until we found a guesthose with space. It was a real beauty! Alright, it was ok, and the staff were quite pleasant as long as you didn’t wake them up in the middle of the night!

Chiang Mai itself is a great city. The place has a really nice, friendly atmosphere to it, with markets, book shops and coffee shops (sounds real sad, but I missed these at times). The streets are fairly open, and not too busy. And wandering round, you come across the occassional temple. In the evenings, the nightlife is not too manic, and we spent most evenings in a Reggae bar believe it or not! And a word of warning, Chang is cheap, but my god does it get you drunk and give you a hangover!

But, the main purpose of our trip was to go treking, and we decided to book ours through the Eagle guesthouse, which puts money back into the tribes they visit. Our trip was what’s known as ‘Off the beaten track’, which meant a lot more remote, and no other tourists, just the local villagers. Sounds like heaven! We were visiting one of the more remote tribes, known as the Karen tribe.

The journey to the trek area took us via a local market for our food supplies, and then onto a cave full of bats, where we stopped for lunch. It was so strange seeing and hearing the bats flying around inside the cave, especially after my experience in Laos.

Carrying on, the minivan dropped us in the jungle - I had a small dose of travel sickness on the way, for the first time in the all the time we’d been away - and we hiked for about 3 hours to the village for our first night. Chai, our guide, cooked a superb dinner, which we felt we’d earned - Hey! You don’t do that much exercise backpacking! That evening, we went to visit one of the locals for some tea and a chat. It was amazing sitting in his house, with the open fire in the floor for his kitchen, drinking from Bamboo cups, sampling Rice Whiskey.

The second day, we set out, going past a local school where all of the children came out to greet us and get their picture taken - they hadn’t seen digital cameras before. Carrying on, the views were amazing, and you really got a sense of how far away from everything you are, except for 2 things that ruined the illusion slightly:

1. The villagers all have scooters
2. Mobile phones work

To me, that seems wrong, but I suppose that’s a sign of the times. We did meet a few villagers who’d been out hunting, and showed us their catch.

Then, we moved onto to feeding and riding elephants. They were really friendly - especially when you had food - and you could see from the look in their eyes that they are peaceful animals. Feeding them was amazing, and was only beaten by riding them. For such large animals, they can really move around the jungle incredibly well! There were times when we had to hang on for dear life as they walked down steep slopes that we’d have struggled on on foot!

On the way to our base camp that evening, we stopped for a swim in a river. Mainly to cool down before the hardest part of our trek. They weren’t kidding, and several people stumbled on the steep climbs and ascents.

Our camp for the evening was next to the river, which also acted as the playground and shower area, with the nearest village being 30minutes away by scooter! Everyone sat around the fire singing and playing games. At one point, lights appeared on the river, and it was locals doing a spot of night fishing. Then there was the spiders in the toilet… They were big, and no-one knew if they were dangerous or not.

The final day, we started with bamboo rafting. The villagers assembled the rafts next to the river there and then. They were surprisingly strong and nimble on the way down the river, especially as it was dry season so the river was low. I was the aft oarsman on our boat, and I have to say, our boat took the least damage! It was great fun though, just a shame it didn’t last longer.

Returning to Chiang Mai, we stopped at two very grand Stupas - a present from the air force to the King and Queen - and a waterfall. In the evening, we all met up for some great food and drinks (once again in the reggae bar).