Chiang Mai, Thailand
One summer I traveled round Thailand for 6 weeks. Whilst there I decided to go trekking in the area north east of Chiang Mai in norther Thailand, and what a trek it was!
There was a group of 11 of us and we left at about 10 o’clock on Saturday morning in the back of a converted truck which had a covering and wooden seats. After driving for a short while we stopped off at the market to pick up supplies. Then we drove for about 2hrs to the start of the trek that was in at the base of the mountain in the jungle. After lunch we trekked for about 3.5 hrs which was mainly up hill and it was pretty hard going.
The Italian couple that were with us nearly gave up as did the English couple, Sam and Lisa, as they
hadn’t bought very good trainers and were slipping around alot on the wet mud. We stayed that night at a hill tribe village of the Lahu tribe, even though we had only been going for half a day we were ready to stop, we wanted to be broken in gently to all this walking.
After dinner we sat around and had a drink playing cards with our guide who was called Mr Whiskey, because all he drunk was rum and he drunk alot of that! As he got more drunk he told us some jokes and stories that were so bad they were funny. After he had sunk a bottle or so of the local rum and we all had a couple of beers we decided to go to bed as we had a whole day of walking tomorrow.
After breakfast we headed to a waterfall, it had been raining during the night and had made all the tracks slippery especially on the way down! Sam and Lisa were having real problems with their trainers because they had no grip on them and so kept slipping over. At one point Sam was sliding so
fast that he had to start running down the mountain and could only stop himself by somersaulting into the undergrowth!
When we got to the waterfall we had a swim while our guides prepared lunch which was noodles
served in bamboo dishes which they made from the bamboo trees nearby, they
also made the chopsticks from them as well.
We then walked to another waterfall that was even bigger than the last. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay there long because it started to rain and with it being monsoon season it chucked it down, and we still had a fair way to go before our next camp. We were following a river through the jungle and had to keep crossing to find paths along it, but there were no bridges so we had to jump from rock to rock, or tight rope walk over logs! This was made even more difficult by the rain making everything slippery and the river was deep from the rain hiding most of the rocks that would normally be used
to cross it. Even though the clothes were wearing were soaked through most of us had managed to keep our trainers fairly dry until we came to one bit where there was no option but to just wade across the river.
I’m sure this bit would be really easy during the dry season, will have to remember to
check the weather forecast next time!
After about 1.5 hrs of this we started heading away from the river and uphill towards the campsite. By the time we got there we were absolutely soaked with some, like Sam who had fallen over right at the end, covered in mud.
After dinner, Mr Whiskey cracked open another bottle of rum and one of the women with us joined him while the rest of us started on the beer. After some stupid drinking games and about 5 bottles of rum between us everyone was pretty drunk and it was obvious that this women, Fiona, and
the guide were going to get it on, which they did.
Later on we all went to bed. Now sleeping arrangements were a big hut with mattresses on the floor where we all slept together, separated in twos by mosquito nets. I don’t know what had been said between Mr Whiskey and Fiona but after lying there for about half an hour I felt someone grabbing my foot and trying to get into my mosquito net. I switched on my torch and found it was Mr
Whiskey climbing in thinking it was Fiona’s area!! He was hammered. This other girl and I took him back to his hut and told him to leave it and go to sleep. Within 10 minutes he was back trying to find Fiona, all this time she was either asleep or staying very quiet.
I ended up having to pick him up and carry him back to his hut cause he was so drunk, telling him if he came back again he would get into alot of trouble. We didn’t hear anything else from him that night.
The next morning Fiona wasn’t in her bed and at breakfast it emerged that they had slept together though we don’t know whether he came back or she went to him!
After breakfast we went for a ride on elephants for about an hour. You rock back and forth as they ride and it nearly sends you to sleep. You have to watch out when they walk over hills though, as they go up and down hills you really have to lean against the way they are going otherwise you nearly fall out!
After that we went white water rafting down the river. There were six of us in each boat plus the captain who was at the back steering. We got through most of the rapids fine but on the last set our boat went sideways into a rock at a fast pace and all but one of us were thrown out. We had life jackets on and helmets on which was lucky cause the rapids kept pulling us under and hitting us against the rocks! After a bit I managed to get back into the boat and help the captain get Sam in. One of the other guys managed to make it to shore. Two girls however were still going through rapids down the river. We paddled after them as quickly as we could and managed to get one of the girls, Lisa, in but the other one we didn’t get to till nearly the end of the rapids. It got a bit crazy for a while.
Once we got out of the rapids the river was flowing fairly slowly. Lisa was crying and Sam was comforting her, both girls were abit in shock. We had all been knocked about abit and had banged knees and ankles. My ankle was swollen but I could walk on it alright. We went ashore and met one of the cars which had our stuff in it cause the girl who went through most of the rapids didn’t want to stay in the boat. We then carried on down the river until we reached the place where we were meant to stop and had lunch. One of the women had some balm that we put on our bangs to ease them but
I don’t think it did much. Then it was into the jeep and back to Chiang Mai for a nice hot shower and change of clothes and alot of stories to tell!
I'm Doug Platts and this is my travel blog from my trips around the world. On my travel blog I speak about many places I have been to and include my travel photos of what I have seen. If you have a travel blog or have travel photos you want to share please contact me. Or if would like to write a travel article for my travel blog, or would like to share travel tips or advice to publish here please let me know.
