Treking in Chiang Mai

The first of many waterfalls on my 3 day trek
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After yet another night train, I arrived at the more reasonable time of 12:30. I met a couple of very fun Irish travelers and we ended up playing the card game "shithead" in the restaurant car until quite late with a british guy. The train workers literally sleep on the tables in the restaurant and we were kicked out when they wanted to get some sleep. I wasn't too happy to be woken up at 8:00 by the workers wanting to convert our beds back into seats but I got up anyhow. I was at the end of a very good book, Smila's Sense of Snow, and for once I was motivated to put it down at the suspenseful parts to watch the scenery pass us by as we were going through the mountains and past rice fields and it was really beautiful to see.

I love the dragons that they use to line the stairs at the temples!
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Because I paid (way too much) for my trek package in Bangkok I had someone waiting at the station to pick me up. James and Claire (the Irish people) ended up coming along to the hostel and getting a room. I had a briefing in the evening to learn what we had to bring with us and answer any questions we might have. There was a nice Danish couple that were also doing the 3 day trek so I felt reassured that there were some nice people on the trek at least. I met up with James and Claire for dinner at, of all places, a Mexican restaurant where I had some bean nachos and two margaritas. Margaritas just aren't the same unless they are the americanized version I am used to (and spoiled by?) in a big glass. These were rather small glasses but at least they tasted somewhat okay. We decided to check out the night market and after being a bit overwhelmed with all of the vendors I got sleepy and we all decided to head back instead of hitting the bar as was our original intent.

These were carved into the side of a cliff at the temple
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The next day we were supposed to leave at 9 AM but after picking up 4 other people from around the city and then heading out to the office where we had to register that we were heading off for a trek (makes you feel a bit safer) we were already pretty crowded in the sangthaew but we then turned around and picked up 3 other people back where we had started from! Talk about a waste of time and an uncomfortable ride with all of us squished in the back of the truck. I was a bit peeved at this point over the apparent lack of coordination. On the way to our first stop we hit a local market where my sole purpose was to use the toilet. When you are about to head off into the woods you like to try and make sure you use every toilet you can get, you know? Our first stop was a very beautiful waterfall where everyone, except for me because I was feeling lazy and didn't want to change my clothes, went swimming. We had picked up lunch on the way, fried rice with egg and they had bought some fruit from the market so I got to have my first taste of dragon fruit. It is very tasty but sure looks strange from the outside! The rocks were extremely slippery and I saw at least 3 people take some pretty bad falls.

Crossing the rice paddys on the trek
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From here we got back into the truck and headed off to a Wat (temple) on a hill, a brief stop on our way to the start of our trek. There were some good views from the top of the hill but the guides didn't come along to explain anything so I was clueless as to what meaning this particular Wat had. After our brief temple visit we all geared up and hit the trail. We passed by a village and then we had a good hour and a half of walking in the wilderness until we reached some rice paddys. This was the first time I have ever been so close to these and we were basically walking across the tops of the mud walls that are used to dam the water. It's quite the sophisticated drainage system once you start walking through it. Our guide had a slingshot and on the way he would find fruit trees where he would shoot down mangoes for us to eat. I had a very tasty fresh one until I bit into a worm. Then I decided not to eat the fruit unless I cut it up and checked it out first. So it took 2 hours to reach the village where we would be spending the night. There were 12 of us and after a great dinner we had a nice time sitting around the fire while one of the guides played the guitar and we all listened to him sing. The local villagers turned up and were teaching us games. I didn't find out until the next day that after teaching us some tricks they asked for beer as payment. I didn't like that. I also didn't like that as soon as we reached the lodge where we would  be staying we were overwhelmed first with groups of children trying to sell us bracelets then with women trying to sell us almost the same thing and lastly by a man trying to sell us chips. It didn't make my village visit that authentic. I wanted to learn how they lived, not how they used us tourists to support their economy.

The place where we slept, with the village women trying to sell us stuff
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The next day 6 people set off on a different path from the 7 of us who were on the 3 day trek. This was a test of my endurance. I should mention that I was using a pack provided by the company as I didn't want to use my big pack and it was the most uncomfortable thing to carry. The straps had absolutely no padding and about 2 hours into carrying the thing my shoulders were going numb. Unfortunately I had a good 4 more hours to go as this was our day of walking all day. We made 3 stops at waterfalls along the way and I went into the first 2 as I was so disgustingly hot and sweaty I had no other option but to use the opportunity to cool down for a bit. I had a bit of a scary experience when I was swept downriver at one of the falls. I had to climb up a rocky cliff and cross back over a rickety branch bridge (in my bathing suit without any shoes mind you) to reach the safety of the other side. I learned that the water is flowing a bit faster than you think and from that point on I was super cautious as I am not the strongest swimmer. I was finding it difficult to get my balance back. After breaking my toe in Australia I have not been walking quite the same way but I didn't notice it much until I really needed to have a sense of balance. I forgot to mention that I was now part of a group of 3 Dutch, Danish, and French couples. This was the first time that I felt a bit out of sorts on a tour, I was certainly the odd girl out! Ha!

A local village man
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So for the entire second day, other than passing through rice paddys where there were people working and stopping at a little shop where a woman was using a weave to make some scarves we didn't interact with any local people. It was definitely more about the trek, less about the people. Not that the trek wasn't fun, I found it challenging and difficult terrain at times, it just wasn't quite what I was wanting. I was further disappointed when we reached the village where we were staying the night to find that it wasn't really a village but a camp where there were little villas that we could upgrade to and we weren't really surrounded by any local people.

Crossing the river (one of many crossings on the trek)
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The next day we set off for our last waterfall where all of the insane members of the group jumped off the cliffs to dive into the water. After my bad experience from the previous day I decided to sit this one out. From here we walked for an hour at the most to reach a village where we had lunch and were immediately surrounded by many groups of tourists as we were taken via truck to our bamboo rafting experience. There were two rafts of us and the guides were certainly doing their best to make sure we were nice and wet. I can understand why you can't bring your camera on this excursion. Once again I didn't really feel that it was an authentic experience but it was geared more towards the adventure side of things.

The thai version of take away food - bannana leaves! Yum!
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Next we were taken via truck again to the elephant camp where we were taken on a ride. I was seriously conflicted at this whole experience. Although the elephants seemed to be well taken care of, the guides use of a vicious looking metal hook to control the elephant was a bit too much for me. My elephants name was Miguel and he was 40 years old. You really move around a lot when you're sitting on top of an elephant, and you realize what large animals they are. My only reassurance was that once we were done riding the elephants they got the seats off from them and they were given mud baths and some food. So from here it was back to Chiang Mai, where I spent some time walking around the city in the evening deciding what I was going to do the next day. As I was feeling a bit disillusioned with the whole trek experience and as a result Chiang Mai in general, I decided to leave and head off to Pai the next day.