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Trekking Northern Thailand

Saturday, April 2nd, 2005

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As soon as we returned to Bangkok from Bali Bob took a train to Chiang Mai for a trek in northern Thailand near Mae Son Hong. I stayed in Bangkok to have some dental work done. This entry was written by Bob.

Chiang Mai is Thailand’s second city and the jump-off point for experiencing the northern hill tribes.
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Mae Hong Son is in the trekking area–but quite a ways from Chiang Mai–drove there with several treks en route and spent one night in the town. There are many ethnic tribes–most renowned being the long necked ladies. When I was there not many tourists as it is hard to get to. We subsequently flew back to Chiang Mai–but that was included in the package. Did this on one of my early trips. On that trek we would walk for a day or two, spend nights in tribal villages and the van would pick us up at a designated site. Then onto the next trek–also did a little rafting but no rapids.

These peoples owe allegience to their ethnic group and national boundries are of no signifigance. They originally migrated from China and Tibet and now reside in southern China and in a geographic band across the north of Burma, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
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These tribes have taken taken advantage of the tourist influx and now offer their villages and homes as overnight lodging for trekkers. As they live in the hills there are no roads, autos and access is strictly by foot. So after a couple of days re-exploring Chiang Mai (its growing big time) I joined 5 other farangs (European and half my age) and a Thai guide for a 4-5 hr ride in the back of a pickup to the trailhead for a 3 day trek.

The walking is relatively easy but the heat/humidity combo is a killer. In 5 hrs we reach a Karen village, are given lodging in a bamboo slat hut and offered a “shower” from a barrel of cold water using a laddle to pour water on whichever body part is selected. A simple meal is offered–tasty but usually best not to ask what it is. Market comes to us as the local ladies show up with their handicrafts. The children run about and giggle at/with the strangers. During the night a pig was the victim of a noisy slaughter as the next day was a festival (new years).

On the previous trek along the Burmese border we had been invited to a wake for a child who had died that day (probably from congenital heart disease). But alcohol became the focus of the event and we made a hasty departure out a side door as belligerence unfortunately replaced festivity.

The next day of this trip offered many stream crossings over narrow logs and I was made suddenly aware that balance is one of the skills that diminishes with advancing youth. Oh well! But we made it to the waterfall for a rewarding swim and that night barbequed a suckling pig.

The last day offered a ride on a bamboo raft through several small rapids and the obligatory elephant ride (once is enough). My less than friendly elephant was named Toby with her cute baby following along behind. I kept thinking that I should have a seat belt. Toby, however, was sure footed, enjoyed the sugar cane and bananas that were sold at intervals along the route.

Mae Sai is just a border town in the far north I went to on another trip. Across the bridge is Burma. It is not a primary trekking destination. Used more for visa stamp-outs and Thais purchase stuff (primarily pornography I think that they cannot get in Thailand–or at any rate saw much of it being confiscated by Thai immigration.) From Chiang Mai it is part of a day trip –in a van–that also includes the Golden Triangle (people stand and have their picture taken under a Golden Triangle sign) and Mekong River/Laos border area. A boring trip.

Tip: The trips out of ChiangMai have become a bit too packaged and westernized–now include the obligatory elephant ride and a raft trip which is a token overcrowded experience. Ok if one has never done it but better if you are able to get off the beaten track like the trip to Mae Hong Son.

Jinghong China

Monday, December 13th, 2004

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Photos

While I was in Guizhou Province, Bob headed off for Putuashan Island and then circled back to Shanghai via Hangzhou…then flew to Jinghong to meet me at the Banna Hotel. We picked up Sarah, a trek leader at the Forest Cafe, who led us by bus into the surrounding mountains to visit some Hani, Dai and Jinguo ethnic minority villages.

In one village I ran into a Frenchman I had met in Guizhou Province (a thousand miles away) who had enlisted the services of a car and driver so Sarah took off trekking with Bob and I joined Marco (French-Italian) on a visit to several Dai village homes on the way back to Jinghong where I met Bob at the hotel that night.

Bob was to fly to Bangkok and I to Hanoi from Jinghong but planes were full so we flew the 40 minutes north to Kunming to catch planes…Bob to Bangkok and me to Hanoi.

Yangshau

Monday, December 6th, 2004
East China.gif Currently in a delightful city (Yangshau) that is on the Yangtze River about 100 miles north of Shanghai. China's autumn has been fantastic, the people interesting (and challanging) and the food tasty (most of ... [Continue reading this entry]

Tai Shan Sacred Mountain

Sunday, November 14th, 2004
East China.gif Located midway between Beijing and Shanghai, "Tai Shan" is probably the most famous of the five sacred mountains of China. According to legend Tai Shan represents the head of Pan Gu, who ... [Continue reading this entry]

Lao Shan Mountain Climb

Sunday, October 31st, 2004
East China.gif Spent 3 days in Quin Dao...one in new part of town, one in old town and one on a mountain north of town called Lao Shan--subsequently took train to Tai'an and climbed Tai ... [Continue reading this entry]

Great Days Great Wall

Sunday, October 17th, 2004
East China.gif Video E found the website (www.wildwall.com) and the adventure offered intriguing potential...off the beaten track, away from the Chinese tourist groups that follow a guide with a microphone and colored flag held high ... [Continue reading this entry]

Reflections on the Steppe

Tuesday, October 12th, 2004
GyTjn0QZP9l6Qu21TubskM-2006198062551304.gif We are lucky...days are brisk but sunny...the sun glints off bare hills covered in golden fall grass. This feels like fall in southeast Oregon where I grew up. I soak it all in ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hiking Olkhon Island

Wednesday, September 29th, 2004
Urr0g6ZfQ7ttYL19duYJfg-2006170133924757.gif Back at Nikita's "resort" I spend half a day taking care of monkey business while Bob goes hiking around the island. It is the end of September but Siberia lives up to it's ... [Continue reading this entry]

Young Czech Prime Minister

Wednesday, August 18th, 2004
NikaFEAe66TwIiJDaeZZ7w-2006198180634090.gif The Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Stanislav Gross, is 32 years old and looks 20! We are realizing how little information we have gotten in the US in the last ... [Continue reading this entry]

Big Noses In The Back Again!

Wednesday, December 18th, 2002
YUqE3FCf1Hd9CjfG1qqmt0-2006171132705308.gif Bus to Dali As we pulled ourselves up into the luxury express bus we felt that we were living large...we wouldn't have local color but we would have comfort for a change. Jana, ... [Continue reading this entry]

Conversations In Tiger Leaping Gorge

Saturday, December 14th, 2002
jWLtBzsBGHTUmbHjYHypj0-2006185073225366.gif Wednesday Dec 11 In Old Town Lijiang, Bob joined us for breakfast at our hotel at 9am; met Li at her hotel at 10:30 for minibus trip up the gorge. Bus had no shocks ... [Continue reading this entry]

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Saturday, December 7th, 2002
jWLtBzsBGHTUmbHjYHypj0-2006185073225366.gif China's greatest river, known by Westerners as the Yangtse, is called Jinsha Jiang by the Chinese. It's origin is in Tibet and runs through Tiger Leaping Gorge near Lijiang, east to Chongqing, on through ... [Continue reading this entry]

Zhondian to Baishuitai

Friday, December 6th, 2002
jWLtBzsBGHTUmbHjYHypj0-2006185073225366.gif Friday Dec 6 2002 There were no street lights so we walked the equivalent of several blocks to the Zhongdian bus station in the dark to catch the 7:50am bus for Baishuitai. While waiting for ... [Continue reading this entry]

Mobbed at Yangshuo

Tuesday, November 26th, 2002
YUqE3FCf1Hd9CjfG1qqmt0-2006171132705308.gif Southern China Guangxi Province Tuesday Nov 26, 2002 At Yangshuo we were mobbed by women selling hotel rooms. I stayed with the backpacks while Bob and Jana looked at a few rooms. We chose ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hanoi

Wednesday, September 25th, 2002
KtJTxGv4eiozwJxI0Lb6qM-2006216170118412.gif September 24 2002 Bob left Hanoi right away on the train for Sapa near the Chinese border to do some trekking among the colorful minority villages and then to spend three days in Halang Bay ... [Continue reading this entry]

Taunggyi…Last Frontier of Burma

Wednesday, August 28th, 2002
JTOL4njiflVtj5kLlwVbAM-2006175061519331.gif Taunggyi is the official end of the line for east-bound foreigners in Burma--at least if you are travelling by road. Beyond Taunggyi lies a world of black-marketeers, ruby miners, insurgent armies and opium and methamphetamine warlords. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Table Mountain & District 6

Tuesday, June 25th, 2002
S12J2pKbmw6zVZyRvmb7L0-2006193181305721.gif The geographical configuration of the city of Cape Town at the foot of Table Mountain is as beautiful as everyone has said it is. We took the cable car to the top of ... [Continue reading this entry]

The Dunes & Sarus Guest Farm

Monday, June 10th, 2002
t5vdleC6v9bjElbi1QdXwg-2006193172914229.gif June 10, 2002 After a night camping near Sesriam, everyone else is up at 5:00 to go hiking in the Dunes. No coffee and no "breaky" (breakfast). These are the largest Dunes in the world ... [Continue reading this entry]

Victoria Falls & Rafting The Zambezi In Zambia

Saturday, May 25th, 2002
t5vdleC6v9bjElbi1QdXwg-2006193164953338.gif Sun May 25, 2002 Up at 5:30 for the sunrise micro-light (motorcycle with wings) ride to view the falls and the geologic formation left by them over thousands of years. The half hour ... [Continue reading this entry]

Malawi Village Walk

Sunday, May 19th, 2002
PZmR20gwby0cg19rXgklIw-2006197131657399.gif Sun May 19th 2002 Village Walk Africa does not really exist. Africa is a geographical name for a continent. Africa is made up of countries but people, especially in rural areas, don�t ... [Continue reading this entry]

Santorini & Sifnos

Friday, April 12th, 2002
pjSwKsKjPzr5gOYYAx9PKM-2006172105305371.gif As the ferry approached the island through the caldera you see a red-brown black and pumice grey terraced cliff face that looms hundreds of feet above the water with brilliant-white buildings with blue trim ... [Continue reading this entry]

The Atlas Mountains

Thursday, March 21st, 2002
pjSwKsKjPzr5gOYYAx9PKM-2006172104421567.gif We took an excursion trip south and east past incredible green terraced fields and old Berber kasbahs (ancient Moroccan self-contained communities made out of the rust colored mud of the countryside)-seemingly idyllic-to the Atlas ... [Continue reading this entry]

Mt. Kailash Tibet And West Nepal Trek

Friday, September 1st, 2000
Bob circles the holy mountain. For the story and pictures of his experience go here. Bob mentioned that when he did his Kora (trip) around the holy mountain of Kailesh in Tibet you always knew who the Jains were ... [Continue reading this entry]

Bob Climbs Kilomanjaro

Tuesday, June 18th, 1996
HF0m0NezqDnitkljwNP8lg-2006188095850902.gif Kilomajaro.jpg Marengo Route.jpg BobatKilomajaro.jpg Bob's Report:
Curious how one thing leads to another. It all started at ... [Continue reading this entry]

Trekking in Kyrgyzstan

Monday, September 18th, 1995
7Z3XBdt3hLmJjqkmk2I6k0-2006190120654814.gif The fall of 1995 Bob and I joined an REI adventure tour company based in Seattle Washington on an 18 day trek in the highest and most dramatic part of the central Tian Shan ... [Continue reading this entry]

Na Pali Trail Kauai Hawaii

Wednesday, December 16th, 1992
After our son Josh graduated from Whitman College, he joined his former roommate and friend, Phil, in Kauai where they were to spend a couple years working and repairing some cottages that belonged to Phil's dad near Poipu Beach that ... [Continue reading this entry]