The Hill Tribes of Thailand

Tuesday was the first day of a three-day hike through the hill tribe areas north of Chiang Mai. The weather was incredibly muggy and oppressive and the walking was made harder because of the thickness of the mud! We walked through rolling fields of corn set against a back drop of limestone mountains. The jungle was thick and we made a couple of river crossings using bamboo poles as bridges. The first night we stayed in a village rampant with chickens and piglets and we had a good meal by candlelight in a thatched hut illuminated by a near full moon.

River crossing while hill trekking

We were woken early the next morning by a bunch of roosters and set off again through the rolling corn fields on our way to a small village where we road the next couple of hours on the back of an elephant. Our guide sat us on a little (unstable) platform on the back of a massive elephant and we took off through the jungle. While it was a brilliant experience, it was also pretty gross. Because it's so hot, the elephants suck up water from the ground into their trunks and then spray it back over their heads, covering us in elephant snot in the process. The first thing we did when we reached the next village was to de-elephant and jump in the river for a wash!!

An elephant ride!!

After another afternoon traipsing through the jungle (poncho on, ponch off due to monsoon), we reached our stop for the night and again, jumped in the river for a bit of a bath. Some of the local village women had set up their craft stalls and Glenn and some other guys ended up playing soccer with some of the (very competitive) village kids. After dinner the village women and girls put on a traditional song and dance around the fire. Along the way we had bought a pig as a gift for the village for hosting us and the villagers were very grateful.

Soccer with the village kids

On Thursday morning we left the village and headed past the village school. The buildings were very basic but the kids seemed very happy, although it must be difficult to concentrate if you're always a tourist attraction!! Across a few more fields and we reached the take off point for our bamboo rafts and were soon floating along to a backdrop of reeds and distant hills. Nothing too scary, but we did hit a rock in the water and our guide fell off the raft but was soon retrieved. We reached Chiang Mai late in the afternoon, just in time for a bit more market haggling.

Village school kids