THE HILL TRIBES

1st Brunch
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The next day was an early rise as we had decided to exit the city for three days and head for the every intriguing Hill Tribes, located in the Doi Pui National Park. After an hours driving in the back of a converted tray truck we were finally dropped off in the hills north west off Chang Mai to start our hiking. Packs hitched onto our backs 12 of us headed off into the jungle after our guides (Robbie Tarzan and Mango...I kid you not) for an initial hour and a half trekking before stopping at a farmers station which consisted of 1 hut, a sheltered raised platform and a toilet shack to hook into some pre-prepared lunch of stir fried rice and vegetables. Upon settling ourselves on a bench we were greeted not only by the Tribe farmers but also there live stock, being Chickens, Dogs and a sort of tamed wild pig(with piglets(they were so cute)!?

Enter the Jungle
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Once lunch was over we picked up the packs and headed off into the jungle again for a further three hours hiking up very steep hills to a waterfall, thought physically exhausting the walk was worth every step, the surrounding jungle and views were spectacular. After the waterfall we did another quick but steep hike before arriving at the first Village. A small inhabitants of about 8 families living in basic accommodation on stilts with views to die for. Our host family showed us our rooms and then proceeded to make the most delicious Thai curry I have every tasted (to our friend Shyama, please note that we said Thai).

Definitely a must do for the adventurous types.....

Village Life
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After a session of drinking and playing traditional tribal instruments we waggled off to our beds which consisted of a mosquito net and bamboo matting...(a traditional experience), surprisingly a good nights sleep followed before being awoken by the roosters crow and Tarzans "up and AT them".... Don't know which was worse....!? We gathered our wits and the remnants of last night before re-energising ourselves with breakfast and setting off on the trail again back into the jungle.....

After another half hour of walking up yet another hill, we stopped to rest on a wide track that we had stumbled across. From here our guides (now only Robbie and Mango) gave us the option of going:

Village Family
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A: the hard way or B:The not so hard way As the majority of us had an ego that was determined to override logic 80% of the group decided to head on the hard trail while the wiser among us decided to take the not so hard trail... Lets just say it was done for the waist line....:)

After another 2.5 hours we finally arrived at our lunch destination, another small village with breathtaking views and hosts ready to fill our bellies. Packs off, we chowed down on lunch and had a little rest for about half and hour. Once rested we set off again, through the village and onto a neighbouring village where we were shown a typical Hill Tribe school which housed around 100 students. The majority of who were out on the playing field and were just as intrigued with us as we were with them. Leaving the school we headed off down the trail for about an hour before finding our base camp right by a water fall.

Village School
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After a refreshing dip we hooked into food beer and whisky (the preferred drink of the locals) a grand ol' time had by not just the guests but also the guides.

The next day we shook off our hangovers with another refreshing dip under the waterfall, packed our bags and headed off. The first incident of the day was watching Robbie(one of our guides), running around the edge of a rice field trying to identify a number of cattle that had disappeared from his village and re-appeared in this village, at least a good solid days hike away. Once he had consulted with the village elders and agreed that these were in fact his cows, he bid us farewell, claimed that he would catch up with us by lunch and then set off with his cattle to try and get them back home. This of course left us with

Anne on the Trail
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Mango as our only guide (Tarzan had taken a separate group away the day before). Well, not to perplexed by this we all headed off into the jungle again for one and half hours hike before being picked up by a local tray truck who then drove us to a small roadside open aired restaurant for lunch. After another good feed(including frog legs for those who were game) we set off in the truck to meet up with a group who were going to take us bamboo rafting down the local river... The best description for this would be YAAARRRRR HOOOOO.... With a pole in hand and guiding the rear of the raft I felt like Huckleberry Fin

Refreshing Dip
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on an adrenaline rush... Definitely a must do for the adventurous types.....

Once the rafting was out of the way the adventure did not stop there.... We then were driven to an elephant sanctuary where we climbed atop of these magical beasts and trundled our way through the jungle for about an hour. Believe me, after an hour of riding on an elephant you start to get a little keen to get back to solid ground, definitely a must do, however at times you are hanging on for dear life. The Elephant that Anne and I ended up riding on was a huge beast by the name of Mumba, who in the end decided to show me her gratitude for my Banana giving by raising her trunk and sneezing all over me.....(I'm sure the rider secretly instructed her to do this for laughs..:))..... Still it was definitely a lot of fun...

Trekking Friends
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Once our backsides had recovered we set off for Chang Mai again to gain a little bit of RnR before heading North for the Golden Triangle. The Hill tribe adventure would be amongst the top two activities I would recommend for Thailand.

Great food, Great people (such as our travelling counter parts Fergus, Ross, Claire, Caren and Joanna, look forward to meeting up again) and a great time had by all.