Hill tribe trek day #1 - climbing up and elephant riding..

The paddyfields on the way to the hilltribe village
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Today all concepts of comfort, coolness and a good nights sleep went out the window - today I have been trekking in hilltribe country..

This morning my feet still felt sore and I went around to reception to ask the woman at hotel reception. Could I cancel and have my 500 baht deposit back? Her smile as she said "no" was amazing, in fact she hurried me along as the tour was due to go. I borrowed a canvas backpack and my valuables were sealed away, I packed one nights necessities - insect repellant, spare shorts, foot cream, cold water, toiletreis and spare long trousers. As it was only a two day trek I was put with some Scottish friends from Aberdeen - Tim, Kenny, John and Scotty - none of them more then 21 and none of them been outside Scotland before. Oh am I in for a fun time!

We were staying with a Karen family with father, baby and mother who was working on her loom and their extended family of dogs, cockerells, hens and tethered pigs

Elephant riding outside Chiang Mai
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Our guide was Soppong, a short-haired chubby guy with excellent English. He made us board a bemo (covered jeep) and sped us off out of Chiang Mai. The road got narrower and narrower and changed from tarmac to red earth surrounded by vegetation. After an hour we came to a river with a kraal (stockade)on the other side and for the next hour and a half rode on elephants (see review) through the jungle. Then it was back in the bemo and another hours drive to a small village at the foot of a mountain. The village was a roadhead for the Karen tribes who trek 8-20 miles a day from their village for food and supplies.

A Karen guide met us, he was a short wiry little man with a pencil moustache and he set an incredible pace uphill. We first travelled through emerald green paddy fields ringed by jungle. Then a higher incline over rice terraces and then plunged into sweaty humid jungle. The trail was at an angle and criss-crossed by stones and roots. We had to cross the river at numerous points and jump across logs and stones. This was an effort on my part as my foot was not proving supple - but I kept up the pace.

Then the jungle really closed in and the humidity was incredible. Sweat poured off us and our T-shirts became limp rags. After one and a half hours of struggling uphill in the heat we emerged at a paddyfield. The paddyfield was drained through a number of bamboo pipes and both Scotty and I slipped at this point due to the soaking slippery earth. After a waterfall, the final leg was the hardest twenty minutes of my life. Everyone found it hard - I could hear the Scots wheezing ahead of me - then we went through some trees and we were there!

A palmroofed longhouse stood at the edge of the village, the red earth trail wriggled round to pastureland where the lowing of cattle could be heard. At the edge of the longhouse was a ledge giving wide views of the surrounding green mountains. I had an overwhelming sense of wilderness. We were staying with a Karen family with father, baby and mother who was working on her loom and their extended family of dogs, cockerells, hens and tethered pigs. It was like being inside a BBC2 anthropological documentary.

The wooden longhouse was built on stilts and we were sleeping on mats in a room only reachable via a climbing ladder. There was not much to do for the afternoon but sit around  the main table and Soppong cooked us a delicious meal of curried potatoes and green beans. Night falls about five pm and for the rest of the evening I had to listen to how "wonderful" Scotland is and how "terrible" England is from the Scots. I climbed the ladder and curled up on my mat about 9.00pm - utterly exhausted.

This hill tribe village is an amazing place - I just wish I was here with better company..