Chang Mai Jungle Trek

The rest of Phi Phi island wasn’t too eventful; I sunbathed on the beach, read my book (Life of Pi), walked around, nothing too spectacular. I left Phi Phi in order to take a 2 hour ferry to Krabi, a 12 hour bus ride to Bangkok, and another 10 hour ride to Chang Mai. Long day! Luckily, I got in in the late afternoon because when I tried to go to the hostel I wanted to stay in (without a reservation, as I do) they were booked! This is the first time this has happened to me; in fact, most of the guest houses were full. Luckily, a woman (Tee) stopped me and said she had a room for 150 baht (less than 4 dollars)—SOLD! I could even book a three day jungle trek with them for cheaper than I thought. I met two guys from New Zealand there and another girl from Seattle, Tegre. We sat outside chatting when T came out with tequila shots—uh oh. We all went out to eat at a nice Thai restaurant called “Good View” on the Ping river where I met one of the New Zealand boy’s mother who works in Chang Mai. She told me about some orphanages I could work at around the city, since I was looking for somewhere to do charity work.

The next morning, I got a motorbike ride to start my jungle trek. We got on the back of a truck bed that had benches and a covered back to go to a market for supplies. After, we drove to a temple basically in the middle of nowhere (the name of which, unfortunately, escapes me because we have gone to so many) with a ridiculous amount of stairs lined with a large dragon as the handrail. At the top there is a massive golden Buddha sitting overlooking the city. We trekked for a few hours to a waterfall and then to our campsite which consisted of three huts and a campfire between the jungle and farmland. The guides cooked a traditional meal for us of curry, rice, and fruit. Afterwards we drank and sang along while the guides played the guitar.

The next morning, we got up early and split off from the two day group in order to do a total of five hours of trekking, stopping along the way at a few waterfalls and a local village. The women wear brightly colored clothes to signify that they are married and they all have reddish black teeth because they chew a concoction daily of red tree bark and tobacco, amongst other things. The men won't marry a woman without this—black teeth are beautiful in their village; I wonder what they think of all of these tourists visiting that have paid for Crest White Strips and professional whitening. A group of children sell necklaces and bracelets; they hold up a handful and look at you with a sad facial expression in hopes that you will spend 20 baht on a few beads on a string. I went up to a small girl in back that had been pushed aside by the others and bought a tiny bracelet from her; she even let me take her picture and when I showed her the results she finally smiled. The children are very shy at first; they stop and stare at us more than we do at them. After a while, though, they start jumping around and open up, as children do. I have difficulty figuring out if what we are doing is disrespectful, parading around their villages, looking into their homes, taking pictures of their children—are we crossing boundaries? We went into a home and some people were taking pictures of a mother with her 15 day old baby; it just seems like a line is being crossed. I almost feel like we’re treating them like they’re in the zoo. Personally, I just want to see how other people live around the world, but I think there is a fine line between learning/documenting and exploiting.

We didn’t really see any interesting animals along the way, lots of trees and dirt and bugs. We did, however, see a plant which looks like grass with small red flowers. It has tiny leaves which move when touched like the legs on a millipede so that the water buffalo won’t eat it—genius.

The final day was absolutely amazing. We got up pretty late, around nine am or so. I didn’t sleep well, again. The first night it was because it was freezing and I’m a bit temperature sensitive, the second night was a bit different. I kept having a reoccurring dream that I was on an island and it was flooding and I had to keep dodging massive objects such as ships and trucks while trying not to drown. Also, my teeth were chipping away and falling out. I’ve also been having a lot of dreams about tornadoes and having to dodge them, as well. GUH! So stressful! Anyway, we went to the nearby village to buy some more souvenirs and play with the local kids. The night before a few little boys came to us while we were playing cards and started Muay Thai fighting—throwing each other around and kicking and giggling. Two dogs almost started fighting so the four of them picked up one and dragged it back to the village. It was absolutely hilarious. These kids really live basically in the middle of no where and are so happy! The dog’s aggression made no negative impact on them, whatsoever, they kept playing and defending each other. One little boy cut his foot open and it was gushing blood. He was so strong, he didn’t scream or cry or anything, just sat down and looked at it until we got his father over and he scooped him up to play doctor. These children are all so content and happy; Book, our guide, tells us that the people in the villages don’t care about money and material things; health and family are important; they are content with what they have, not greedy in desiring more. It really puts your life in perspective when you see a child with only a string and a rock who couldn’t be happier.

These same kids were helping sell in the local market, like kids will do, try and play grown up and haggle prices with us. After a while it was time to say goodbye. Richard, Maggie (the Canadian couple) and I went “white water rafting” which was more like slow stream paddling, down the river for about an hour to meet up with the rest of the group for bamboo rafting. WWR was a good time; it was relaxing and we got to see some water buffalo and local people eating and doing washing along the river. The bamboo rafting was much better; it is a flat raft made of bamboo poles roped together. Two people stand up and paddle by pushing a bamboo pole off of the riverbed or nearby rocks. The guide kept rocking the boat and making me run into the bank and rocks because I was in the back, so I almost fell off.

Our last adventure was elephant riding. I sat on it’s neck while Eliana (from Greece) sat on the chair on its back. It’s difficult to hold your balance because its back arches left and right with every step while it’s flapping its ears against your legs and blowing snot on your feet. The skin is so rough and wrinkly while it’s hair is like steel wool. However, despite its exterior, the animal is very slow and gentle, and mostly concerned with eating grass and bananas. After the elephant ride we had to say goodbye to the village Thais and headed back into the city. I slept like a baby that night in my 4 dollar queen sized bed private room ☺