Jungle Trek (the short version)

Hiking through the lush jungles of Chiang Mai's outlying north was a beautiful, relaxing respite from the hustle and bustle of Thailand's city life. It was a 3 day, 2 night trek as part of my TAT package. 9 other travelers and two guides made up our party of 13. Our guide was from the Karen tribe and very funny--his english was pretty good and he told stories about his first trip to the city (and his first attempt to use a western toilet) and his former jobs as a drug trafficer and forest policeman (catching drug trafficers)...good times. I learned a bit about back-strap weaving watching a Karen-tribe woman work. After the first day's 4 mile-ish hike, the first thing we did was start shopping the tribal goods. I spent no money on the trek, and felt a bit remiss in my duty as a tourist-trekker, but not remiss enough to buy. Chris, from San Francisco, bought a bamboo cow bell for a souvenier--it was a simple design and would make a good wind-chime. She hiked at the back of the group so we could hear when the stragglers were straggling too far behind.

Elephant riding and bamboo rafting was also part of the tour. I was really looking forward to the elephant ride, as the last time I'd been on one at Ren Faire in PA was really fun. Unfortunately, our driver was not very kind. He kept wacking our elephant on the head with his driving stick and was not patient. It ruined the experience for me. I pretty much wanted to flee Thailand and crawl into someone's familiar arms back home. The other drivers seemed kind, and 3000 of Thailand's last 4000 elephants are working (tourism and logging are their main jobs, I think). I cannot help but wonder if the working elephants' lives are worth it, carting farang around in a one-hour loop for half the day every day? Seems a sad existence for such a noble species.

I am greatful they took us directly to bamboo rafting, as splashing down the river on 30' long bamboo rafts tied together with old bicycle tires lifted my spirits considerably. It's low season, so the river was about 6 inches deep in many places and we nearly got hung up on many rocks. Our guide was very skilled and navigated us safely past all obstacles, including many "crocodiles" (as in: Look out, crocodile! and then they would hit the water with their navigation poles and splash us). We finished the river soaked, and begging to go again. But alas, the adventure was finished and it was time to head home.

My body tensed gradually on the drive back to the city--only then did I notice how relaxed I had been. The pain in my lower back was gone for 3 days! I hope Laos is more like this. I head there in two days.

I also got to stand on the highest point in Thailand: Doi Inthanon. I'll update the exact elevation later, but it's something like 8000' (pretty much the same as where I was living in Utah). There were a couple beautiful waterfalls on the way up. I had hoped to hike up to it, but it's a 2 hour drive out side Chiang Mai and the taxi was almost the same price as the day tour, so I just drove to the top like everyone else. So much for the sense of accomplishment. My cartwheel at the top was just as fun, though. pix to be uploaded soon.