Khao Yai National Park Part 3: The Departure

The second nights sleep was a bit better. I woke up before the others (we were down to just the four of us as everyone else had left the day before). Since light was pouring in from the open windows on the tent, I grabbed my book and read a few chapters, unti Jeniffer woke up and I had someone to go to breakfast with. At breakfast we met two people, Sam and Sam, who were both working in a small, ethnically Burmese village with some NGOs. They were on a weekend vacation at Khao Yai. They were fun to talk with, when we got done eating we went to go wake up steve and Johnny, and sent them to go clean up and go eat while we took down the tent.

When we were checked out and ready to get going we walked over to the road to start hitchhiking and ran into Sam and Sam, who were also on their way. At first I feared that a group of 6 would be too big and no one would stop to pick us up, but my fears were proven wrong when an extended bed pickup pulled up and said they were headed to the park entrance. In fact they were headed to the park entrance...and through the park entrance and on down the road. We werent sure if they were taking us to town or had forgotten about us, but we were down for the adventure.
About halfway to town the truck pulls over and the two guys just get out. Across the road their are some food stands under thatch roofs, but other than that there is nothing but the road. The driver says some stuff to us in Thai, but we dont understand, and think that maybe there is a bus that goes past here for us to catch. We all grab our bags and hop out, and he looks at us confused and tries to explain again. We eventually figure out that he is waiting for a friend. We tell him that we are students at Thammasat, and he says that his friend works there. Pretty soon, the language barrier slows the conversation till it is no more.
After a few minutes of waiting a pickup truck pulls out and the driver hops out and start chatting with our driver. We ask him if he works at Thammasat, and he laughs like its the funniest thing in the world. I guess not. We stand around waiting some more and a car pulls up behind us. The driver of this vehicle comes up and talks to his friends, and then tells us that he is an Ajan of Sociology at Thammasat. As we are talking to him (he has the best english of the group) another car with a family inside pulls up. At this point we have no idea what is going on, and figure that These people want to know why a bunch of Thais and Farang are chilling on the roadside. We wai to the mom and she smiles Wais back and drives off.

After a little more chitchat between the thais we all jump back in the back of the truck. The Ajan says that they will take us right to the bus station. Perfect. As we drive back into town we notice that the mom we saw earlier is actually leading the caravan into the city, and then when we get in the city limits another driver pulls into the front. As we pull up to the bus stop (and really in this town its a bus stop, not station, just a little roadside stand) there is a bus about to leave, but it waits for us to buy our tickets and board and it was smooth sailing home from there.

Khao Yai National Park Part 2: Waterfalls and Hitchhikes

By the time I awoke some people were just comming back from haveing seen the first waterfall. I was kind of disappointed that i missed it, but with a group of 20 of us they werent going to bother rousing everyone to see if they wanted to come with. A nearby shop was sold breakfast, and i walked with a group over there and got Fried Rice with chicken and a Fried Egg on top(and i ordered it in thai).

As I finished breakfast people were talking about starting to hitch down to the visitors center and see the 5 tiered waterfall, but at this point neither me nor Jennifer had seen Steve or Johnny. We found them still asleep in thier tent and roused them and told them to go eat breakfast. By the time they were ready to start the day most people had gone down to the visitors center (#5 keeping track of everyone). We decided to splinter off from the large group and check out the nearby waterfall that people had seen earlier in the morning.
We thought it might be fun to hire a guide to show us the way and maybe point out things that we wouldnt notice. Our guides name was Yai. He looked about 12. and spoke no english. It was a bit of a waste of 300 baht.

Anyhow, off we set on the clearly marked trail to the waterfall. After a bit of a hike, we reached the first waterfall, which wasnt exceptionally awesome, but had rocks that were quite fun for us to climb on. Midway up I pulled out some of my oranges that I didnt share the night before and shared them.

Before we made it to the top, however, Yai beckoned us to continue on a trail. We grudgingly descended and continued onwards. Eventually we emerged near a different campsite, he took us accross the site to another bigger waterfall that was nice to look at.

We walked back to the campsite and sat down at a pavilion. After a while Johnny asked me what happened to my foot. I glanced down and saw a bit of blood on the top. No worries. I shrugged it off. Johnny then asked again "no, dude, the other side". Taking off my sandal and looking at the outside of my foot i saw it was covered with blood and still bleeding. It was at this point steve had taken off his shoes and noticed he two was bleeding from the top of his foot. We hobbled over to the souvenir shop and purchased water, soap and bandaids, and patched up our leech wounds. We also thought i had wounded the bottom of my foot, but that was the leach. I smashed him. Serves him right for drinking my blood.

We were offered a ride arranged to take us back to the campground for 200 baht. It was only 3km so we walked back to the campsite (Steve and Johnny were able to hitch a ride, which seemed to upset our guide who was hoping that we would buy the ride so he wouldnt have to walk) When we got there and regrouped we decided we should head down to the visitors center and figure out how to get to the cave to see the bats at dusk. We walked along, and no one seemed interested in helping us out. Then when we were close to giving up hope a badass pickup truck with an engine snorkel and lift kit pulled up. We asked if he was going to the visitors center. He said he was goign to a big waterfall. We hopped in.

This dude liked to drive. He flew accross the national park, and the hills kept getting bigger, and the speed greater. At one point we had to slow to a near stop because there was a troop of monkeys in the road, but after that it was back to adrenalin inducing cruising. We pulled into a parking lot, hopped out and headed down the path. The path was a nice walk through the woods, crossing a bridge that had seen many repairs, causeing its surface to be uneven with the boards tacked ontop of the originals that rotted away. As we walked we saw many people returning from the waterfall quite out of breath, and we werent quite sure why. Then we came to the stairs. Many many steep stairs going down to the viewing platform. But the sight was totally worth it. It was the biggest waterfall in the park. The sight was awesome.

Going back up the stairs took a bit of effort, but didnt seem as hard as the people we had passed made it seem. We saw the guys from the white pickup get ready to leave, and asked them where they were headed now. They said the visitors center and we hopped aboard. Another joyful ride later we were at the visitors center with our stomachs rumbling and grumbling. Luckily they had a variety of vendors, and we went to order some noodles and meat (possibly because we can order it in Thai). After chowing down we went to ask a ranger about the batcave. He told us that the bats will emerge in a half hour, and taht the cave was an hour away. Although this was a major bummer we decided to instead sign up for a Nighttime spotlight safari. (the greater bummer was that the ranger was wrong and teh bats dont show up till 630. hes not on my good list anymore)
We had a few hours till night fell and the safari began, so we thought we would take a quick hike to the small waterfall only 100 meters away. Well, as it turns out their are two trails, and we ended up taking the more scenic of the two, that was over 1000 meters. After enjoying that for a little bit, we sat for about two hours in a gazebo waiting for the night tour. Steve succeed in calling a deer over to say hi to us, he stuck his head right into the gazebo.

The night safari was...disappointing. We saw 67 deer. and a porcupine.

After the safari a lady who had safaried with us offered us a ride back to our campground, where at we studied Thai for a bit, and then passed out.

Khao Yai National Park Part 1: The First Night

Last weekend we decided to tag along with a large group going to Khao Yai National Park. After class on Friday we met in the lobby of our apartment at 1pm. and then hailed taxis to take us to the Bus Station. We would meet a bunch of people already at the park who hadnt had classes on Friday. We had to take two cabs to fit everyone in. Our cab seemed to go really slow, traffic was not cooperating (which is how it usually is in bangkok). It was interesting to see armed guards around government buildings and institutions. Many buildings in bangkok are fenced in and have a guard or two at the gate. This is a normal sight. Now those guards are in battle fatigues and are holding automatic rifles.

When we finally arrived at the Bus station we looked around for Emily, who was meeting us there. We called Jeff, who was in the other cab to see if he was there yet, and he said that he had had to turn around and grab something from the apartment that was forgotten. (reason i dont like big groups #1. More waiting). After a while all 8 of us were finally together an organized we bought tickets and headed to the bus. Somewhere along the way to the bus we lost someone, and the bus had to wait. (#2. more waiting) A short time later he showed up and the bus went on its way.

Whenever the bus would stop to pick up more passengers, people would get on the bus to sell us food. I had stocked up well at the train station 7-11 so i didnt need to buy anything from them, but this was the first time ive seen people boarding a bus to sell things.

When we arrived at Pak Chang, the city from which we would travel to Khao Yai from we were told that the public transport to the park stops at 5. Unfortunately we had arrived after 5. Therefor we had to go find a songteau to hire. Jennifer went into the nearby 7-11 to ask where to find one, and was told that there should be some at the other 7-11. Off we went, in the direction that we were told, asking other people every so often to make sure we were going the correct way. As we walked down a backstreet we were greeted with the surprising sight of an elephant sauntering through town with his Mahout riding leisurely on its back. It was a very Thai sight.
We walked through a market, that seemed to be shutting down, but there was still a fruit vendor open, who some of us purchased fruit from.

When we arrived at the second 7-11 we took some time to stock up on supplies, and then went to bargain with the driver. I let everyone else do the bargaining, when the price was settled on, we all clamored into the vehicle. All but one of us. who had to use the bathroom. So we waited. (#3).

As we rode to the park, the darkness descended on us. Eventually we could only see outlines of treelines dark against the black sky. Our driver stopped at the park gate, and we pulled out our student IDs so that we could get in for 40 Baht instead of 400 Baht. We paid up and then our driver started driving accross the park to our campsite. Mist started to swirl around us, and gave us an interesting show as the headlights from corners behind us would be outlined by the waterdrops floating in the air.

Eventually we arrived at the campground and walked over to the ranger station to purchase tents. As we headed towards the other tents we heard the voices of our friends who had arrived a few hours earlier and started setting up. It quickly became evident that not everyone was all that prepared for camping. Many of the other people asked how much food and alchohol we had brought with, since they had assumed there would be a 24/7 convenience store on the campground, and there seemed to be no more than 3 flashlights for a group of twenty. (#4 babysitting). It wasnt too much of an issue and luckily most people were willing to share.

After we went to bed, most of us awoke to sounds of a thunderstorm bearing down upon us. Luckily the tents were in good enough shape to keep all of the water out of the tent, but that combined with the hard ground made for a fitful nights sleep.

The Year of the Tiger

Last weekend was Chinese New Year. It was also Valentines day, but I thought celebrating Tigers was way cooler than celebrating hearts, so I went with New years.

New years is a multiday celebration. On the 13th, we went to Pii Maa's house to participate in one of the rituals. (Pii Maa is the iSep coordinator here). On the day before New Years an offering is given to the spirits before every meal. We were there for the days final offering which was for wandering spirits.
A buffet table was set outside, with many foods on it, each with a special meaning that i dont recall. The table had to be outside, and the gate to the house and yard open, so that the spirits could come in. A incense stick is then lit for each food, and when the stick burns out the spirits are done eating. Then comes my favorite part--We get to eat!

Pii Maa is a great cook. And according to Thai custom there was enough food that we could have each had an extra meal! (in thailand if you are financially able, when you host guests you should cook enough that the most gluttonous is not able to eat everything. If you are the guest of someone who is not as financially sound, you should not eat everything on your plate because then it shows that they served you more than enough food and they save face).

we learned that Pii Maa's culinary skills were no fluke, her family owns and runs a curry paste making factory (it was right by the house, we got to tour it). She also told us that they are the suppliers to the king. We also had eaten rice from the same company that supplies the Royal Family, so I ate like a king.

After the feast a Pii Maa's we were taken to a Thai market. This happened to be the same one that the Thai family had taken me and Jennifer to last month, so we felt pretty neat already knowing the layout and what yummy goodies to look for.

On the day of Chinese New Year me and Jennifer first headed out to the Dusit Zoo. It was a so-so zoo, but it does hold the worlds only known albino barking deer. It was geared towards families with children, it even had an area with kids rides. But it def wasnt up to the standards of any other zoos that ive been too.

After the zoo, we went to a very intresting and unusual shrine in bangkok. The majority of the offerings were craved penises. The nicer ones, some carved of stone, were standing around the shrine, and all the rest were lined up against a fence. It was very much a sight that i wouldnt expect to see anywhere but southeast Asia.

After the penis shrine it was time to head to chinatown. The hamlet was awash in Red and gold, the traditional celebratory colors. lanterns were strung across the streets, and traffic was blocked off. The streets were packed incredibly tightly, making walking very hard, but there was a feeling of festivity which made it okay. There were street vendors everywhere, set up on the sidewalks, and in the middle of the road. Shirts, Toys, paper Dragons, and food galore! We would have to duck down side streets when we bought food, because there really was no place to sit down to eat it.
When we emerged from a side street back into the main street, we found many people sitting on each side of it, with what looked like space for a parade in the middle. We sat down, and a nice drink vendor handed us a piece of cardboard to sit on. Eventually we found someone who spoke English who told us that the princess was coming through.
We sat there for awhile, but eventually we were rewarded by her walking hurridly by, waving and surrounded by security. She didnt look all that regal, but it was obvious that everyone loved her. Unforutnatly haveing her around really cramped the places style, it brought what was already slow going traffic to a grinding halt. So we turned around and walked the other way. We passed a lion dance procession, which was really neat, and made me feel like it really was chinese new year. We then came across the stage, where there was a Thai pop star singing. I dont know what his name was, but i recognized one of the songs from the radio, which was pretty cool. I cheered along with the crowd and pretended taht i knew what was going on.

The Political Time-Bomb

There is a time bomb here in Thailand, and it is set to blow on February 26.
I'm going to try to give a simple summary of a messy situation here, so please bear with me.

Thaskin is the former prime minister of Thailand. He was deposed in the 2006 military coup and convicted (while in exile) of conflict of interest. He was very popular in the poorer areas of Thailand such as the North and Northeast.

Abhist is the current prime minister. Its important to note that he is not squeaky clean (what politician is, really?) but as far as I can tell seems to hold office legitimately.

King Bhumibol is Thailands monarch who is almost universally loved. At least thats what everyone says. He is currently ill and in the hospital. I walk past this hospital every day on my way to school. Although Thaskin was accused of wanting to overthrow the monarchy, that was never really proven. The king is often considered 'above politics' although he does intervene every now and then.

The Red Shirts, members of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, are Thaskin supporters who want to overthrow the Abhist lead coalition government. They want revolution to bring true democracy to Thailand, which they believe is sullied by non-elected people interfering. This is many times construed as anti-monarchy.

The Yellow Shirts, members of the Peoples Alliance for Democracy, oppose the Red-shirts. They regularly invoke the King during their protests, and wear the Kings birth color. They are in power right now and are fighting for the status quo.

Thaskin has been accused of gaining assets and wealth illegally while in office. On February 26th, the Supreme Court will rule on if the government can seize those assets. This will lead to massive protests by Red Shirt supporters leading up to, and after the rulings.

It must be remembered that Thailand really hasnt gotten the hang of Democracy, as evidenced by their frequent coups. Therefore, when the redshirts say that they are asking for revolution, they really are going for a revolution. So next week Bangkok is going to be as close to martial law as it can be without being martial law (and there is the possibility of martial law happening if things get bad enough). There will be 200 checkpoints throughout the city, and 5000 extra security forces will be mobilized.

There has already been two grenade attacks, and one C4 bomb found (no casualties). In Thailand foreigners are never targeted, and the police generally ignore them during riots and such.

Me and Steve live on the other side of the River from any points of intrest, and therefore our apartment is perfectly safe. School, however, is pretty close to where things can get messy as Thammasat is a historically important place for political change.

The Army, for its part, has assured people that it had no plans on staging any coup during the political turmoil.

Dear Mother Dinger and Mother Labedz,
If you come to us with your panic and worries after you read this it will merely annoy us. We are keeping well informed on the situation and are not stupid. We wont go partying in a protest or sight seeing at a riot. We know where the American Embassy is. Might we watch a rally? Yes. Will we stay for the riot? no. Worrying is a fruitless activity, which Steve and I choose not to participate in, so do not expect to hear that from us. Preparedness is a fruitful activity which we have engaged in, and that is all that can be done or should be expected. We both just had our birthdays and are big kids now.

Steves Birthday

The Eve of Steve's birthday was spent on the roof of our appartment building, having a chill relaxing time with his bottle of Jameson. At the stroke of midnight we, being me and Jennifer and Johnny, sang him happy birthday, and I handed him my gift to him, which was DVDs of Ong Bak and Ong Bak Song (which if you havent seen, I highly recommend. The first one is my favorite, although they are very different cinematic styles, I think). This gift was well received.
The next morning we had Thai class, and I asked the instructor how to say calamity in Thai so that I could tell Steve that this day was a Calamity. "haay-ya-na" so Calamity day, as i tend to call Steve's birthday, is "wan haay-ya-na". Our Thai class happens to be on the 8th floor of the building. On this day the electricity was out, so we had to walk up all the stairs and there was no air conditioning. This was on steve's birthday. Since the word 'coincidence' isnt even in my (thai) vocabulary I think it was more likely a result of the Wan Haay-ya-na.
After class we went to eat with our TA and a group of people from the class. The TA was there to help us order in Thai and it gave us a great informal time to pester her with questions about the country.
We then got to wander a market, that was rather big, rather close to where we live and none of us had ever noticed it. Bangkok is interesting like that, small alleyways are often the gateways to wonderful markets and vibrant neighborhoods.
When we got done with the market we walked back to the apartment, and after some delays, went to go see the movie Wolfman. I thought that it was good, but didnt really live up to my expectations. Steve thought better of the movie, so good for him, I suppose. We then returned back it was time to watch Ong Bak. Unfortunately, there were not English subtitles. Fortunately, it was still awesome. When Ong Bak was over, it was time to go eat. Steve wanted Indian food, so off we went to Khao San Road to get some. We are certain that we know the best Indian restaurant on that road. There are many young men of Indian decent that sell suits on the road, so we just asked one of them where the best places is. Without hesitation he pointed to the best place on the street, and we have gone there ever since.
As usual the food was quite delicious. When we grabbed the cab to get back to the apartment however, we quickly found ourselves in a slog of motionless traffic. Turns out there was an accident. Wan Haay-ya-na. Eventually, after paying more for sitting in traffic than for actually moving we got back and started planning the rest of the night.
Steve wanted to dance, so we hung out in Johnnys room for a bit, and he invited some attractive Thai friends to come with us and off to Narcissus we went. The place was great, and had a good DJ spinning. Had some great fun dancing. A bit earlier than I had planned to leave one of our friends got kicked out for being to drunk, so I bit the bullet, escorted her home, and made sure to watch out for signs of alcohol poisoning so that Steve could continue to party. (I also had an event to go to at 10 the next morning so didnt mind the chivalrous exit that was offered to me)

My Birthday

My birthday festivities started on the eve of my birthday when we went out to a discoteque for a goodbye party for our friend Maya. At first they didnt let me in to the club because you have to be 20 to get in. (which is odd because steve is two days younger than me and they let him in) but luckily Marco came and talked to the bouncer and pointed to the large group of people and said "they all came for his birthday, if you dont let him in we all leave" so they let me through.

Then it turns out that i got a 20% discount for it being my birthday, so all the money was handed to me to buy the first bottle. There were two clubs right next to each other. One called Demo and the other called Funky Villa. Funky played hip hop, but it was WAYY too crowded to really dance, so i spent more time at Demo which played House and Techno.

The next morning I had wake up for class
It was Thai class, so they taught me how to say its my birthday in Thai and taught everyone how to tell me happy birthday. I also learned how to ask girls out on a date, and got promptly told by my TA that she had a boyfriend. But it was all in good fun. Then a few people took me out for ice cream between classes and we demolished an ice cream cake. We then had cuisine class, which was boring as hell, but luckily i picked up Time, Newsweek and Readers Digest before class and i read those.

After class i went to get my haircut. I figured a birthday was a good day for that. Its just shorter now, no really big style changes. Then i returned to the apartment, grabbed my mountain dew from Johnnys fridge and took it to the roof to consume it. Great view, low smog that day. And it tasted heavenly. You may or may not have already known that i am a Mountain Dew addict. They dont have MD here. at all. cannot be found. Johnny picked up a few cans in the airport when he came back from the Philippines. The Philippeno Mountain Dew tastes slightly different than American, it has a slight after taste that is akin to the taste of diet MD, but that didnt ruin the magic of the moment.

Then we went out for Mexican food. I dont know why we hit up Mexican when we were in thailand, but its what i was craving and it was good. There are very few mexican places in the city, so the one nearest us was in the Khao San area, which I'm not very fond of, but it was a short cab ride and the food is inexpensive. So about 10 of us headed there. It was a small place, so we filled it up.
They had a big sombrero on the wall and i asked them to take it down so i could wear it. They let me :D they also put double tequila in my margaritas. I had never had a margarita before, and they werent bad. I think the salt on the rim is odd, but strangely enjoyable.

After the Mexican place we went back to the apartment, and headed up to the roof. I had some moonshine whiskey that i purchased from a tribe that is a days hike from any roads and near the Burmese boarder that i was saving for the occasion. Its quite delicious and very sweet tasting. its also at least 100 proof. Because of its sweet flavor it mixes very well with soda, and actually adds to the flavor, rather than needing to be hidden by flavors. We played the card game Yanif until the early hours of the morning.

Lop Buri

Last weekend we went to visit the Monkey Temple in lopburi. It is about a 4 hour train ride from Bangkok. There isnt much to see in Lop Buri besides a small temple, which, along with the few blocks of city surrounding it, is overrun with monkeys. I loved it.

Steve got chased down the road by a vicious monkey within a few minutes of arrival, and that kinda ruined the trip for him, but Me, Jennifer, and Johnny were able to get monkeys climbing over us, trying to open our backpacks, and grooming our hair. I made a video, which i shall post once youtube cooperates and lets us upload.

The condensed version of the next 5 days.

Well, as im sure you can tell by the three days that took 10 posts to cover, i am woefully behind in my blog postings, so i hope a quick summary will suffice.

After the trek:
We went to some of the Wats in Chaing Mai
We saw Wat Doi Sutep, it is entered through a 200+ stair staircase. We got in free because we were Thammasat Students. It had spectacular views of the city. A monk blessed me and Steve.

Then to Wat Umong, which is a forest monastery (city monasteries study the Buddhist texts, forest monasteries focus on meditation). It had some shrines dug into a hill, and had a rare starving Buddha image. very beautiful and peaceful.

We went to Monk Chat at Chaing Mai University (where Ar graduated from) and got there an bit early so i got an hour long reflexology massage. Ill stick with the Thai Massage, it hurts less. And the massusses tried to teach us Lanna, the northern language that is similar but more distinct than a dialect from thai.

Monk Chat was not as enlightening as one might hope. Kinda disapponited and the guy who started it was a pompous jackass. We meet him on our way out, he was a westerner. When we asked him if he recommended any resturants in the area he said that he ate at places that we wouldnt like. He really upset me and I think he will be reincarnated as a lowly animal.

I found out that they Bus we had hoped to take to Khon Kean was not leaveing when we needed it to, so we grabbed a bus back to Bangkok, and then to the Island of Ko Samet.

We had lazy times on Ko Samet, reading on the beach. We met a thai family that spoke less english than we spoke Thai and they invited me and steve to have beers with them. I sipped mine politely. They, and steve, teased me for not enjoying beer. They then invited us to lunch, they cooked us great food. Next time you are at the grocery store check in the produce section for the cost of starfruit. We had some fresh picked off the tree near us for free.

Later,I tried to finish a 20 inch pizza on my own as part of an eating contest and that ended in a regurgitation.

Back to Bangkok we went to get back to school on monday.

The Trek Part 10: All good things come to an End

By the time we had woken up our bamboo raft had already been constructed by a few of the village men. We ate breakfast, and packed our things into plastic bags, just in case we were to overturn in the water. Our bamboo raft was about 10 feet long. Song stood in the front with 2 bamboo poles, one for steering, one for fishing. Ar stood in the back with another pole to help steer. When all 8 of us were standing on the raft it floated about and inch under the surface of the water. We pushed off and waved goodbye to the village, and started on our journey downriver. Song never did catch any fish, but not for lack of trying; he would end up steering the raft straight into rocks in order to dip his bait in what he thought were good fishing areas. Sometimes we would go through small rapids and have to sit down on the raft while song and Ar steered.

For the most part this was just a lazy day floating down the river. We stopped on sandbars and skipped stones and found banana leafs that were taller than any of us. When the water was deep we could jump off the raft to cool down. Eventually we started passing buildings up on the hills around us, and came to stop in what was really just a village of outfitters for treks and rafting. We went to the local restaurant for our meal, and predictably we saw a parade of traditionally dressed tribes women coming to bug us. They were polite and waited until after we were done eating.

After that we got into the truck which Song had driven here when we parted ways with him before the cave, and drove back into town. We made one stop however at Tiger Kingdom.
Jennifer expressed much interest in touching a tiger, so Ar offered to stop at Tiger Kingdom on the way back to Chaing Mai. It was definitely a tourist trap, and I had no doubt that the Tigers were sedated (although they had enough tigers to get to rotate them in and out of days of sedation, which I suppose is a nice thing). I figured I might never get another chance to touch a live tiger, so I also paid to go pet a tiger. Jennifer and I got 15 minutes which was split between two cats, one sleeping, one drowsy. It was really cool to be right next to such a strong beast. Even asleep you could tell how much muscle and power they had in them.

We then made our way back to Chaing Mai. The guesthouse we had stayed in before the trek was full so we had to find another one, and were able to get one in the same area, although not as cheap. It was however conveniently located next to a delicious pizza place that was run by a friendly Ex-pat from the States.

The Trek Part 9

The Lahu village was right on the river bank and was much smaller than the Karen village we had stayed the night before. There were maybe ten buildings in total. Almost all of the buildings were raised on bamboo stilts. We had a table on the porch this time, and also a firepit. The room we were staying in was much bigger than last nights, but had a similar set up with hard mattresses and mosquito nets. Predictably the village women descended upon us with their baskets of trinkets. However, they offered something that none of the others didn’t: Massage. After the hike I thought I deserved it and purchased one. They were quick to point out that it was a Lahu massage, not a Thai massage. Either way it felt awesome. It was an hour long massage, and there were two masseuses working on me. The only difference that I could notice between a Lahu and a Thai massage was that the Lahu massage doesn’t use elbows, and uses thumbs more.



While we waited for dinner to be ready two children from the village came to play on our porch area. They showed off their muy thai skills to us and we tried to talk to them in broken Thai. Unfortunately they didn’t speak Thai, they spoke Lahu. The dinner that night was not the most delicious that we had had, but it was still good. After dinner some people were tired and went to take naps before the festivities of the night, I went to take a shower before it got too dark out to see. The water was unsurprisingly frigid as I sluiced it over me.

Soon after, it was time to light the fire. In the black distance we heard the trumpeting of an elephant. It was very exciting. The trumpeting grew closer and we became more excited. An older man came over to Ar and squatted down and talked to him hurriedly. Ar informed us that he said he was afraid that the elephant would come and try to eat the bamboo buildings. He said that if the elephant does come we should not point any flashlights at the creature for it will likely feel threatened and charge. If it came to that we were supposed to run in a zigzag pattern. It turns out that at night elephants are rather unruly creatures at night and even their owners are unable to approach them. I followed one of the village men down to the riverside, where I could hear the elephant and see flashlights cutting through the darkness. One of the men shoot of a gun and the elephant retreated away from the village.

Back in the village, when we had a good blaze going a dog came and climbed into the firepit, a bit outside of the flames. We sat around, and although Ar didn’t have a guitar Ashton brought out his iPod and we sang along to that. Eventually Song brought out the Jungle Juice. The Lahu moonshine was very potent, theres no saying what proof it was, but I would wager far over 100. It had a rather sweet flavor, and mixed well with the cola that they also had for sale.

Ar wanted to show us how great the whisky was, so he poured a small glass, and splashed it into the fire. The fire ball that it created was quite impressive, and sent the dog scampering away.

We partied till what felt like late in the evening, although i have no clue what time it actually was, before heading to bed and praying that the roosters would not be too bad tomorrow morning.

The Trek Part 8: Journey to the Lahu Village

Song was leading our trek for the next part of our journey. As we set off, we started on the dirt road that connects the Karen village to the surrounding areas. A black dog from the village followed us. We soon turned off onto a footpath, and were soon plunging again into the vaulted halls and courtyards of the forest. Our dog ran in front of us on the trail as if showing the way. He wasn’t the best guide however since he would often run off the trail in search of food. Song explained that he used to be a hunting dog before it became illegal to use dogs to hunt on the mountain and he was just doing as he was trained.

Song lead us over some rather rough terrain, exclaiming “oh my Buddha!” when he approached a steep incline. Song was a wonderful guide, pointing out different plants of interest as we walked along. Over the course of the day he pointed out a plant whose leaves retract when you touch it, (but more slowly than the similar one in the movie Avatar), an edible berry that was rather sour, until you took a drink of water which then made the flavor sweet, and teakwood and bamboo.


The second day of the trek felt considerably warmer than the first, so it was quite nice when we finally saw the village that we would be lunching at. It was across a river, but since the river was down in a small gorge there was a bridge going over it, rather than us needing to wade across like the day before. This bridge however, didn’t seem to be of the most sound construction. The planks across it were not spaced evenly, with there being openings from 1-1.5 feet between pieces of wood. The dog that had been with us all day did not go across the bridge with us. The bridge swung quite a bit as it was traversed. The old adage of ‘don’t look down’ definitely did not apply, given that looking down was essential to figure out where to step.

Although our dog didn’t cross the bridge, one of the village dogs ran out into the middle of it to greet us. I was certain for a while that this canine was going to take the plunge, but luckily he did not. In the village we were approached by villages ladies hawking the same trinkets that had been offered to us at the other village. Its interesting to note that the two villages are different tribes, this one was a Lahu village, and if they were genuine crafts there should have been some differences, but they were all the same. The hard sell techniques that many Thai people, both in the villages and in the markets employ is fairly annoying. It seems they try to make people feel guilty for window shopping.

Lunch took a while to be completed, but was quite delicious when served. We spent a good deal of time just lazing around the village. Steve tried fruitlessly to get the black dog that had followed us to cross the bridge and Jennifer was chasing the baby chicks around so that she could hold one without getting pecked by the hen. Song showed us how to “make a bomb’ by slamming his water bottle into his knee hard enough for it to loudly rupture.

When it was time to begin our journey again we had the option of taking the short route (around the side of the mountain) or the long way (over the mountain). We asked if there would be picturesque vistas on the long route and were told that there would be, so off we went, up and over. This was a rather steep climb, but by turning around every so often and looking at the view it was totally worth it. The dog that had greeted us out on the bridge came to accompany us on this leg of our trek. Steve and Song had the great idea of racing the dog up the slope, while the rest of us carried on at a more comfortable pace.

When we were walking down the mountain we happened upon a bunch of thick vines that were clinging to the trees. These vines, were strong enough for me to sit in, which was really quite fun. When we got to the bottom of the valley we had to again ford a river. There were some water buffalo enjoying the river right near us as we crossed. From there it was a short walk to the Lahu Village where we would be staying the night.

The Trek Part 7: Elephants

Ar had told us before we went to bed that the roosters would crow at 4am. Okay, no big deal. What he didn’t tell us was that they kept up the racket until dawn. Fitfully we slowly awoke to start the day. The Chaing Mai nights are cold and misty. The fog still hung over the town when we awoke and the chilly air made us not exactly look forward to jumping in a river with the elephants. We were served toast and hard boiled eggs for breakfast, and then headed out to meet the pachyderms.
A short walk later we were waiting on a hillside, while the remains of a fire smoldered in a nearby firepit. The fog was only letting us see a few hundred meters still, and we heard the wooden bell on the elephant before we saw it, then out of the mist walked the elephant, with a young baby elephant in tow and its Mahout on its back. It walked over to the clearing we were in and the Mahout jumped down. Some time passed, and from a different direction, another grey behemoth emerged from the fog.
We were hopping to have 6 elephants, one for each of us, but Ar told us that one of the elephants got ill and had to go to a conservation center.
Soon a 3rd and a 4th elephant appeared. The Mahouts went out to find the fifth, but eventually we were informed that it had roamed too far away (yes, these were free-range elephants) to let us ride today, so two of the elephants went to get fitted with seats so that we could have two people on it, one on the neck, one on the seat attached to the back.
We walked with the huge mammals down to the river and tentatively entered the current. Predictably it was ridiculously cold. However, the fact that there were elephants in the water with us made it worth it. Water was splashed on the animals to clean them off and we got to sit on their necks as they stood up and that when it stood up in the water Will got a refreshing dunk as he fell off.

I was perched on the neck of my elephant when he stood up. I luckily, didn’t take a plunge, but I realized how at the mercy of this creature I was. When it was time to ride the elephants back to the village Ashton got into the seat behind me and we started riding. The elephants moved rather slow, which is not surprising for the size of the beast, but they did walk with a certain amount of grace and surefootedness on the mountain paths. The mahout in charge of my elephant informed me with a laugh that I was riding on ‘Katoey“. That translates into English as “Ladyboy”. From our elevated positions the backs of the elephants the scenery was even more epic than when we had walked through the same areas the day before. We could see over trees, and further into valleys to the rivers cutting through them. The only issue is that when you are perched on the neck of an elephant, the shoulder blades of the beast alternate digging into your bum, which for an extended period of time causes quite a bit of discomfort in the bottom regions. It was not unbearable however, and it was a bit of a disappointment when they delivered us back to the ‘hotel California’ so that we could start walking.

The Trek Part 6: The 'Hotel California'

Our hotel was a 3 bedroom house, with a large porch and outdoor dinning room. It was undoubtedly constructed as a place for trekkers to stay. There was a kitchen and bathrooms in separate buildings. The family that owned the building lived on the ground floor and all of the accommodations for us were located above them.

The large porch and outdoor kitchen were staples of any village home. The porch was where shoes were removed before stepping into the ‘dinning room’ which was merely an open area with a bamboo mat where we sat to eat. The bedrooms were down the hall (Note, the bedrooms were the only real rooms, the rest was open to the elements, and the only difference between the ‘porch’ and the ‘dinning room’ was that the dinning room was a step up and covered by the roof.) and consisted of hard mattresses with mosquito nets over them.

The bathrooms were out the ‘back door’. They were two outhouses, with a oil drum full of water, with a bucket floating in it, and a western style toilet. The toilet was flushed by scooping water into it. You showered by scooping water over yourself.

When we arrived, we climbed the stairs and sat down on the porch to admire the village. There were chickens squaking about, people passing on the road, and Water buffalo lounging around. There were also 2 cats and their kittens, who were also residents of the place we were staying. A cooler near our dining area had soda, water and beer for sale, with a notepad to write down how much you took. Needless to say we all went for the water.

As we relaxed some young girls, ostensibly sent by their mothers, came to sell us ‘traditional tribal crafts’. They looked strangely like any crafts we see in the market. Jennifer made the mistake of looking at them for more than a split second and was swarmed by 4 or 5 little girls, all selling the same things, but making it known that they didn’t share profits. Eventually we got them to leave, but it took quite a bit. The goods were overpriced, as one may expect. Meanwhile Ar went to cook us dinner.

After a short bit he came out with spring rolls with sweet spicy sauce as an appetizer. They were greasy as a fastfood burger, and tasted even better. A little later, and we were getting settled the bowls of rice appeared on our ‘dinning room table’ and we all went to sit on the floor. The food was plentiful and delicious. The leftovers would be given back to our hosts, which if they didn’t need them would give them to the animals. The cats begged for the food, but we didn’t concede more than a few grains of rice to them.
As the sun set while we ate there were no lights to turn on. Out came the candles, that were put on top of empty soda cans to light our evening. After walking for the day, and with no remedy to the darkness that seemed to encase us fatigue started to wash over me.

When all the dishes were cleared away Ar came back out (he had eaten with the family and snacked while cooking) and gave us a lesson on the village. We were staying in a White Karen village, one of the 4 different Karen tribes. This village was quite prosperous, with a school and a church. Yes, that’s right, a church, not a Wat. Ar told us that a monk once passed through the village and converted most of them to Buddism, but having no money, he wasn’t able to give them a Wat. Then when the Christian missionaries came through they had the money for a small church, so the people converted to that.
The village is prosperous because of a deal that they made with the Thai government. The Karen, who are all formerly from Burma, prospered with their opium farming. The government, in exchange for them to cease farming the poppies, taught them how to farm other cash crops and built them a school. At the school they teach the basic subjects, plus skills that are unique to village life, such as foraging in the mountain forests. There is also one teacher, who is also an army officer. It is his job to make sure that no one in the village is in the opium trade. Because it is the only village in the area with a school, the school serves as a weekly boarding house for all of the children form neighboring villages that attend there.
After the little history lesson Ar brought out his guitar, and started playing us almost all of Green Days singles. Song returned to join us. We sang late into the night…or at least it felt that way in the darkness, but it was undoubtedly before midnight when most of us hit the hay.

The Trek Part 5: Walking to the Karen village

After the cave we said farewell to our cave guide and thanked him for his help. It was then time to start hiking. We were told that the hike took about 3 hours for us to finish, but that an average hill tribesman would be able to complete it in about 2 hours. Setting out the path was well worn, but slowly the path petered out and it seemed like we were just walking through the woods, hoping that our guide knew where he was going. The going wasn’t exactly quite, as the leafs that had fallen were huge and they crunched with a lot of power. When we were no longer on the trail and merely walking across the path, the ground was covered with dried leaves the size of dinner plates. The trees stood all around us like pillars holding up the sky. From time to time we would emerge from the forest onto the side of the mountain and see for miles, looking at layers of mountains shielding the valleys from our prying eyes.

As we walked along through the forest, the leaves at our feet making quite the racket, Ar found us a bug to look at. Its body was about the size of a thumb, and its legs extended to about the size of my hand. It was a creamy white color, and when Ar handed it to me, its head started jerking up and down and it made almost a barking sound as it twitched in my hand. After having tasted bugs at the market a couple weekends ago I wondered how this little guy would taste, but I had purchased oranges earlier so we let him go.

Eventually we came to a wooden fence and passed through the gate of it. Ar informed us that we were in a ranger station. There were about 4 buildings in the area, and many animals running around. There was a cat that was very affectionate, and a bitch being chased around by her thirsty puppies. A handful of chickens ran around, attempting to wrangle their respective chicks. There were a few picnic tables set out which we sat on for a few moments to let our feet rest and admire the sounds of the nearby river.

We were soon all handed bamboo walking sticks and told we should take off our shoes, it was time to cross the river. Rolling up our pants we hesitantly plunged into the cold mountain water. Luckily after walking as far as we had, it was quite refreshing both in temperature and on the feet. Unluckily, the current was rather strong in places as made balancing on algae covered rocks, with a moderately heavy pack on our backs a bit more challenging than I had expected.

The river was maybe 10 meters across, but the crossing took quite a few minutes. Bringing up the rear was Jennifer, who may have been disadvantaged by here small size, as the river was a bit deep in certain spots. On the shore we all rolled down our pants legs and those who had taken off their shoes washed the sand off their feet before putting them back on (I wore teva sandals so it was no issue for me).

Heading off again we worked our way up and down the hills, mostly sticking near this river. Eventually we started to pass people in the river or on the trails to the river. There were fishermen, perched on rocks in the middle of the river, throwing their weighted nets into the current; there were people swimming, and others doing wash. I of course had the expectation that we were right near the village, yet 20 minutes later we still had not reached it. 20 minutes later however our hike had taken us out to a wonderful lookout point. From this vantage we could see mountains behind mountains, hiding the valleys we hiked through. Ar pointed to one that was about 4 valleys away and was too indistinct to be captured by our cameras and said that that was where we had started our trek that morning. I felt rather accomplished as the distance was literally as far as the eye could see, and pulled an orange out of my backpack to celebrate. (both me and Jennifer purchased a kilo of oranges since we are so used to eating constantly from street vendors in Bangkok). After a short breather it was time to press on, and so off we went. We walked across some dry rice paddies on a hill side and went away from the river, hiking up and down small valleys.

As we started to see signs of civilization (such as a dead water buffalo) we saw up on a hillside an elephant. At first it was rather hard to figure out what was behind the trees, as the elephants gray coloring is actually quite wonderful camouflage for it. We were all very impressed that it was able to get where it was, as the thick brush looked hard for us to navigate, much less the large boulder of a beast that the elephant was.

A past the elephant we walked past banana orchards and then the village school, before long we were on the main road of the village, where we were invited to the ‘Hotel California’ by a villager.

The Trek Part 4: Bear Cave

The forest gave way to a sheer dark grey cliff untill we were surrounded by rock on 3 sides. The light was different here, not dimmer than the rest of the forest, but more restless, as if it was being sucked into the mouth of the cave that stood to my left. We all had bought small handheld flashlights at the market, but these were to serve as more of a backup to our highpowered headlamps that we all wore, looking like some kind of space tribe from the future. I have not yet discussed our professional cave guide, and I must say he was not quite what I had expected. He was a little shorter than the average Thai, although I think that might be in part do to the shrinking that is typical of people in their later years. His face was creased with smile lines, and the veins under his skin were clearly visible. On his feet he did not wear hiking boots or any other protective footwear that one would think an avid and professional outdoorsman would favor, but rather flip-flops. And this man, rather unassuming and humble looking, humbled us all with his ability to climb over rock formation and scamper through the harder parts of the cave with ease. He spoke no English, so after we finished our caving adventure we requested Ar to ask him his age for us. He replied that he was in his 60s. Brete had Ar ask him the secret of his staying youthful and he replied that it was his consumption of healthy herbs throughout his life. But again it seems I have gotten ahead of myself, as that conversation happened after we exited the cave.

The cave started as a small room, open to the forest, and quickly shrunk and headed downwards. The first part of our decent was down an old wooden ladder. I could feel it bend under my weight, and I was not the largest of the group. Below the ladder was hard rock. We each went down the ladder separately, and luckily it held. The first part of the caving was much of the same. We would walk for a short time and then have to squeeze down small shafts, most without ladders. Loving the thrill of rock-climbing, this was a most fun experience for me. After the first ladder we left all traces of natural light far behind us and the world was only lit in areas that we would look at with our headlamps. The cave went up and down and we scampered, at times graceful, but more often than not, gracelessly over rocks.

We came across a species of spider, about the size of the palm of a hand that dwelt in the cave. Like most creatures it was more scared of us than we of it. The tight areas we were climbing through soon opened up and we wandered through vast caverns with stalactites hanging down from the subterranean cathedral ceiling. The rocks were mostly gray, but at times a sparkling white mineral would run through and across it. We had no clue how far under the mountain we were, but after joking about getting lost in the cave we were all glad that volunteer Tourist Police officer Dan Kelly had our itinerary.

In one large chamber we all turned off our lights to see how dark darkness really is. Dark really is dark. It was so dark I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. In fact I couldn’t be completely sure if my eyes were open or closed.

Most of the cave formations were formed by Stalactites rather than stalagmites. (The former being the hanging down kind, the later being the growing up sort). Man of them hung nearly to the ground. Ashton had the misfortune of walking straight into one with his face. How he missed it, I’m not sure as his headlamp illuminated the collision quite nicely. Fortuitously he was uninjured.
Another Stalactite hung down rather phallicly. Our guides had a good chuckle when they came across it. We all rubbed its head in order to gain virility.

There was only one stalagmite of note, which the guides seemed to hold in reverence. Ar translated that our cave guide said ‘most of the rocks hang down from the ceiling but only this one grows up like a flower. It is very special”

This cave, of course had what all good caves should, and that is a healthy supply of bats. Luckily we didn’t have too much problems with guano smell or gasses, as the cave is open too the air on both ends, and not a dead end cave where the gasses could be noxious.

After walking through the cave for what I think was over an hour, we could see light up ahead. As we approached it, we could see a wall of green filtered light, coming through the trees. This mouth of the cave opened up to about 20 feet tall by 10 feet wide. A gaping hole in the side of the earth. Turning around I watched the last of our group emerge from the orifice, leaving only blackness behind.
Our caving guide squatted down and pulled out tobacco and banana leaf to roll a cigarette. I pulled out an orange to eat, and we all just took some time to relax and marvel at the underground world we had just experienced.

The Trek Part 3: First Foray into the Forest

Its been a few days since I last tried catching up on the blogging, our travels took us to Koh Samet (Samet Island) for a few days where I spent most of my free time reading rather than blogging. However, I am getting ahead of myself again and now that I am on the bus back to Bangkok, which is not nearly as nice as the bus I described earlier in this chronicle I shall continue writing of our trek.

The 2 hour drive into the mountains held some of the most breathtaking sights. The road winded up into the forest, its switchbacks hugging the side of the mountain where we could see deadly dropoffs on the side of the road. Sticking my head out of the side of the truck I saw a huge rocky mountain raising above us. Every so often a break in the trees would allow us spectacular valley spanning views. At first we were able to see civilization nestled in the bottom of the valley, and eventually as we progressed into the wilderness all we saw was the wild flora of northern Thailand.

We traveled to the eclectic soundtrack provided by Ashton’s iPod and speakers. The noise of the truck shattered any peaceful sounds of nature that we might have been enjoying, so our sing-alongs to regge, pop-punk, alt rock and contemporary country just added to the feeling of adventure.

Our ride on the truck ended in a storybook mountain village. On all sides we saw nothing but mountains rising up across the large valley we were in. Further down the road from where we had stopped was a nice looking bridge, upon which flew the yellow flags of the king and the blue red and white strips of the flag of Thailand. We all walked over to the bridge, stretching our arms and legs after the relatively cramped journey. Looking down into the waters below the bridge we saw a school of fish, seemingly eager to feast upon scraps they thought we would throw to them as they swam around our shadows hitting the water. To the side of the river were a couple of water buffalo, wallowing in mudholes. The water buffalo are very valuable to mountain farmers as they are used as both a draft animal and a source of food. Walking to the other side and looking over, we saw an entire herd of the beasts, milling about in and out of the water. We weren’t quite sure what it was about us, maybe they were not used to seeing people with skin as pale as our own, but we seemed to startle the herd and I was glad we did not start a stampede, as almost all of them ran for a few meters when we looked down at them from the bridge.

When the novelty of these animals, which looked like skinny cows with big horns, wore off I went over to Ar and Song who were sitting underneath an awning talking with one of the villagers. Eventually the rest of the group joined us and Ar explained that we were waiting for a professional caver to come and join us to lead us through the cave. I’m not sure how long we waited for him to show up, it was at least a few more minutes, but it could have been a half hour. Time seemed to pass at a different pace in the sleepy town. People walked past us on their way to somewhere, and others drove past on their way somewhere different, and it seemed they would all get there at the same time.

The group grew larger as a few motorbikes pulled up and chatted with our guides. After a few minutes it was revealed that these were the men that we were waiting for and it was time to hike onwards. One of the men drove his motorbike onto the trail, and we followed a second one who went on foot. Song drove off with the truck to join us later. In good spirits we all walked into the woods to begin our trekking part of the journey. At the trailhead the path was well worn. We walked out of the woods and we were in a large terraced clearing.

The terraces were for rice farming, but at this time were dry. Our guide marched us across the clearing and we chatted about how much we felt like we were trespassing. Further down the valley I could see some men working their field, and midway through there was a creek. Two men were fishing it and we waved at them as we passed. At the other end before we rentered the forest I looked behind me, and realized that I had walked through what almost seemed like a movie set. It was a scene from a book, the small farm under large mountain, with a few men and a water buffalo off the side, and a thatch hut dropped in for good measure. And yet, it was real, I walked through it feeling the sculpted terraces under my feet, heard the chatter of the men fishing, and smelled the smells of the farm and the forest.

Into the forest we plunged, walking for only a few more minutes, which took us over another farmers fence, then across a small brook to an old saalaa (an open structure with a roof but no walls) that was in quite the state of disrepair. The frame for the roof was still there, but there was no roof to speak of, not that it was necessary as the ancient trees provided any shade that was needed. It was here that we lunched. The six of us sat at a table, while our guides sat separately. We never really did truly eat with our guides, which was a constant source of disappointment for me during the trek. Ar handed us all Styrofoam containers of chicken and rice which he had picked up at the market and we dug in. After we had finished we walked up the hill to the looming entrance to the cave.

The Trek Part 2: The Morning Errands

Wake up for the trek was at 7 since Ar would be picking us up at 8. I was probably awake from 6 just laying in bed for Jennifer’s phone to start alarming. I suppose it was a good thing since her phones alarm was quite wimpy and did not wake her. The shower was bearly above room temperature, but that’s about as good as can be expected from dorm accommodations for 100B a bed. As we all got ready we dragged our bags out to pack what we were bringing on the trek. The rest we could leave in the guesthouse office. Ar arrived early at about 7:45, and by 8 we had all piled ourselves and our gear into the back of the songtau. The songtau was driven by our second guide and Ar’s friend, Song. Our first errand to run before heading on the trek was to stop by the Tourist Police offices. Volunteer officer Dan Kelly, from Northern Ireland talked to us and was given a copy of our itinerary and passports, and basically assured us that if anything bad happened he would come find us. He made some quip about our proximity to the Burmese boarder during the trek but said not to worry; he was from Northern Ireland and they are bomb making experts. (The closet we came to the boarder was 60km, but that is a measure by trail rather than as the bird flies)

We then drove off to our second destination of the morning, a local market. At this market Song and Ar went off to buy the food supplies that they would need to cook for us during the trek and we found water, bug spray, suntan lotion, flashlights (or torches as they call them here, british influence I suppose) and oranges.

Back into the Songtau we started our long drive into the mountains. Slowly but surely the landscape we were driving through changed from urban sprawl with majestic emerald mountains in the distance to forest surrounding us on all sides, stretching as far and as high as the eye could see. Ashton brought his iPod and a set of external speakers so we rocked out and sung along to the songs as we ascended the mountain through winding switch backs and epic views of towering forested monoliths. We made two stops before reaching our final destination. The first one seemed like a boarder checkpoint, although we hadn’t crossed any boarder that I knew off, and Ar handed our itineraries to a solider and after a short discussion he let us through. Our second stop was at the Chang Dao National Park Headquarters. This was the last western toilets available to us for the next few days. I didn’t take advantage of it, I just got out to stretch my legs, but both of the girls made sure to make a quick pit stop.

Then it was back into the vehicle for more driving. By the time we had reached the picturesque mountain village we had driven for 2 hours, although it was 2 hours of the most wonderful scenery.

The Trek Part 1: The night train and Kantoke Dinner

Our time in Chaing Mai is coming to a close, as I start to write this up; I am in a double deck coach bus (on the second level of course). On the TV screen I can see Thai Pop music videos, and the volume is at an annoying high level. The interior of the bus is mainly purple, but it also has day glow accents on the upholstery of the seats and the ceiling. The bus is the perfect place for a rave (which unfortunately we are not having) and the worst place for someone with a hang over (which fortunately I do not have).
In any case it looks like it will be a more comfortable, if more boring trip than our train ride to Chaing Mai.

Steve Jennifer and I arrived at the train station to meet Ashton and Will. We thought we had come early enough to get a second class sleeper car on one of the night trains, but such was not the case. We were able to get normal second class seats on the last train out. This gave us a few hours extra to sit around and chill. We first stopped by the Train stations KFC and found an out of the way corner on the second floor to chill. Ashton and Will ordered some food from there, and eventually we all went over to the 7-11 across the street to buy food and drinks for the trip. Still having time to kill, and feeling we had overstayed our welcome at KFC we found a spot in the middle of the terminal floor and someone took out a deck of cards. We played the game Yanif, which a group of Israeli travelers taught Ashton and Will when they were in Pattaya.

When we got on the train we found our accommodations not bad. It was at least better than the 3rd class trains I was used to riding in to Auyttaya and to Samut Songkram. The seats were upholstered and kind of reclined and we had air-conditioning. The car in front of us was the dinning car, which we had heard was where the real parties were on the night train, so after awhile we decided to check that out. Rumors were true, the place was loud and boisterous. Part of that might be the cars policy of kicking you out unless you were consuming either food or alcohol. We played more Yanif and chatted with other travelers. There was a group of Brits who said that they would meet us at the train station to see if we could trek together. (they never did, either they were just being polite or they were all too drunk to remember having said that), There was a group of Spaniards from Madrid who taught Jennifer a new card game (which she has yet to share with us, so either it sucked or she forgot how to play) and there were a couple of undercover Thai cops, who were too drunk to stay undercover. They were a joy to chat with, and insisted on sharing their beer. I do not altogether like beer, however it would have been rude not to drink with them (and they were cops, which made it a bit more important to not be rude to them) and it would have been ruder to not toast with them (“chaio!”). My polite manners, coupled with the fact that that they never let my glass stay less than half empty led to me consuming an uncomfortable amount of alcohol, which I will not bother to elaborate on.
At 2am the dinning car closed and most of us went back to our seats while some people stood on the areas between cars to smoke. I heard later that one of the cops was trying to sell Will and the Spaniards some weed. Luckily everyone was in a clear enough state of mind to realize that that would have been a very bad idea and angrily declined.

Upon waking up the next morning I saw a landscape out the window quite different than I see in and around the central plans of Bangkok. Our train chugged along in large valleys, with forested mountanis in the distance, and we ran through and occasional tunnel to punctuate our continued progress into the northern provinces.
We were served an American breakfast for 100 baht. I tried to eat the eggs, but that was quite unpleasant so I just stuck to the toast. After breakfast a Canadian traveler sat down to chat with us. Her name was Brette and she was traveling alone through Southeast Asia while her husband worked in the oil fields. She said that she didn’t yet have a place to stay in Chaing Mai and was hopeing to go on a trek. I had booked beds at the dorm for 6 people, since we were originally traveling with that many, but since we were down to five we invited her to come with us.

We finnaly arrived at the Chaing Mai train station sometime after noon. We found a Songtau that would take us to A Little Bird Guesthouse for 20 Baht each. We loaded our bags onto the top and pilled in the back. At the guesthouse, we checked in and were shown to the ten person dorm room that we would be staying in. I set to calling our trekking company to work out payment and confirm our trek and finalizing arrangements for our traditional Northern Thai Dinner that I had been trying to book for that evening. The rest of the group went to make copies of their passports and grab a bite to eat.

Chaing Mai is quite a ways away from Bangkok and unsurprisingly has a different culture. A northern banquet dinner is called a Kantoke. On the website I was booking from it was quoted at costing 200 Baht per person for transportation, dinner and entertainment. My email confirmation however listed the price at 350 Baht. I called the company and explained that I was very set on the website price and the lady on the phone conceded. Later, while I was busy dealing with something else, some body else called and when Jennifer answered explained that it had to be 300 Baht. When I was told of this I was rather frustrated and again called the company back. They offered me a ‘deal’ at 270 Baht, but I explained to them that 250 each was the highest my group of 6 would go. They agreed to that price.

The trekking company sent someone to the guesthouse to collect the money for the trek and then later they sent our trek guide to provide us with an orientation and a question and answer session. Our guide introduced himself as Ar. However, we all heard his name as Ah, and called him that until the second night of the trek. When we had run out of questions he took his leave and said he would see us at 8am the next morning.

Shortly after Ar left the minibus to take us to the Kantoke arrived. I made certain that we were only paying 250 each, and then we all paid and climbed aboard. We drove to an expensive hotel which had a space set aside for such events. It was an open air space, with a performance area in the middle, surrounded by rugs and pillows. We all had a triangular pillow for our backs and sat in a circle. We were brought out two communal platters of traditional, delicious, northern food to eat from, with sticky rice. The best part was when we finished a dish, more was brought out to us. It was all you can eat!!

Part of the way through dinner the dancing started. People from the different local tribes came to perform traditional dances. They ranged from the rather boring to exciting sword dancing. After we had eaten untill very full and told our waiters that we were done, we were served platters of fresh fruit. Luckily there is always room for more in my stomach, and in all of my friends stomachs it seemed. The fruit was delicious. (I’m rather certain that ill never be able to eat a supermarket purchased fruit when I return back home without thinking about how much better the fresh Thai fruits are)

After Dinner and dessert was done the night still was not over. We had a change in location to go see the Hill Tribe show. As we walked to the stage, we deduced that the only real reason for this change in local was so that we had to walk through a small marketplace. And of course they had my least favorite of all goods found in Thai markets. Wooden frogs.

The wooden frogs are frog carvings, with a stick that when you rub across its spine makes a kind of croaking noise. The vendors seem to think that by annoying you with the noise from these infernal devices that you will want to buy one of your very own. I personally would not be opposed to destroying each and everyone one in Thailand.
The Hill Tribe show was just an extension of the dinner performances, with the very boring old Hmong ladies chanting, to the much more exciting fire dancer.

After the hill tribe show we returned to our minibus and were driven back to the little bird to get some rest before the start of our trek.