Career Break Central

Feb 26-28

There were two things that we had wanted to do in Chiang Mai. One was to take a Thai cooking course and the second was to do a hilltribe trek. Thanks to the state of our gastrointestinal tracts, neither Claude nor I were remotely interested in cooking or eating spicy Thai food. However, we were determined to see the hilltribes and had booked a three-day trek as soon as we arrived in Chiang Mai. We had debated between the classic 3-day trek which included an elephant ride and a bamboo raft trip and the more expensive eco-trek to a remote area in the hills where we would walk more and learn jungle survival skills (no elephants or rafting). Normally we would have chosen the eco-trek, but we thought the kids would enjoy the elephant ride and rafting more. In the end, it was probably a good thing that we chose the classic trek, because, in my weakened state, I wouldn’t have survived the eco-trek. On the third day after I got sick, I was still feeling very weak and nauseated, but our trip was already booked and the thought of spending three days alone at the guesthouse while Claude and the kids got fresh air and exercise did not appeal to me. So I sucked it up, took a couple of Imodium, said a prayer that the worst was over and we joined our group.

Day 1 of the trek was a bit of a blur for me as I kept my head down and concentrated on not falling over in the 35 degree heat. I was still feeling rotten and wasn’t in the mood to be very sociable, but we had a great group of people who did everything they could to make me feel better. Our guide, Pong, and his girlfriend (the kids nicknamed her “Ping”) kept a close eye on me to make sure I was doing okay. There were a total of 12 in our group – a young couple, Tim and Julia, from Germany, who spoke perfect unaccented English, two older couples from France, who spoke almost no English, and Mary and Candice, best friends from Melbourne, Australia, who were absolute darlings.

Alexa and Simon fell in love with Mary instantly and the feeling appeared to be mutual. The first part of our trek involved a ½ hour elephant ride and we had to split up into groups of three or four. Alexa and Simon insisted that Mary ride with us, so Claude volunteered to go with one of the French couples. One person in each group had to ride on the neck of the elephant while the other two rode on a seat on its back. Tim, Julia and Candice went just ahead of us and Tim didn’t seem to enjoy being on the neck at all (once again, I think the feeling was mutual). After fifty feet, Tim was screaming like a girl (sorry, Tim, but it’s true) as the elephant sprayed snot all over him and tossed her head in agitation. When they reached the first platform where they were selling bananas for the elephants, Tim declared that he’d had enough and scrambled onto the platform. In the end, Julia calmly took his place on the neck while Tim sat at the back and everyone, including the elephant, seemed much happier. Back on our elephant, I was in no shape to ride on the neck, so the task fell to Mary, who was extremely apprehensive. However, she bravely climbed aboard and hung on for dear life as we lumbered through the jungle. Our elephant seemed to be extremely hungry and kept raising its trunk and blowing in Mary’s face until she gave him a banana. If she waited too long, she would get sprayed with elephant snot, so we had no choice but to keep her well-supplied with bananas. I think it was a bit of a racket, because every 100 feet or so there would be a platform with people selling bananas. By the end of the ride, we had spent over a hundred baht on bananas.

Next, it was time for our jungle trek. We walked for about two hours in sweltering heat before arriving at a beautiful waterfall where we went for a refreshing swim.

Then we walked for another hour and a half to the Karen hilltribe village where we would spend our first night. We were hosted by one of the village’s families and slept on the second floor on mats under mosquito nets. They served us a huge meal of traditional Thai food and I was sorry that my shrunken stomach wouldn’t allow me to eat more. After dinner, Pong built a bonfire and told us more about the Karen hilltribes and their way of life. Around 9 o’clock, I went up to tuck the kids into bed under their mozzie nets and after lying down with them for a few minutes, I was out like a light. The French couples slept next to us and the two men took turns rattling the rafters with their snoring for most of the night. The next morning, I awoke in time to see a beautiful sunrise and felt like I was at about 75% capacity.

I was able to eat a full breakfast and was actually looking forward to our second day of trekking. We said goodbye to our host family and the French couples (they were only on a two day trek) before heading out. Simon had quickly distinguished himself as the leader of the pack by joining Pong at the front of the line and soon everyone was calling him the tour guide. He put most of the adults to shame by gamely climbing hills that left most of the adults huffing and puffing and sweating profusely. Whenever we stopped for breaks, Simon would amuse himself by running around and jumping off logs like a little Energizer Bunny. Alexa, who is not such a big fan of trekking, was very well-behaved, as well, as she and Mary passed the time by making up songs and stories. It was nice to have such a huge gang of babysitters along and to be able to enjoy the experience without having to constantly amuse the kids.

At the end of Day 2, we arrived at another waterfall and the camp where we would spend the night.

We all enjoyed a refreshing swim under the chilly waterfall before enjoying another delicious Thai meal. That night, we again sat around the fire and enjoyed each other’s company. We couldn’t have asked for a better group of people and felt like we’d known each other for years. Tim and Julia, the sweet young couple from Germany who were mature beyond their years, were already well-traveled and had lived in both the US and Australia while studying. Mary, the beautiful and bubbly young event planner from Melbourne, had never been anywhere but was bravely striking out on her own and moving to London to gain some work experience in a foreign country. Candice, the successful young career woman who had accompanied her best friend to Thailand to say goodbye before heading back to Melbourne, was desperately missing her “Boy” and was constantly talking to him on her cell phone. Somehow, it was too cute to be annoying. Some local villagers came by to visit us and teach us how to play their local flutes (of course we all bought one).

Later, we compared notes on the differences between our cultures and the things we missed about our home countries. When I mentioned how I would love a Bloody Caesar, but couldn’t find Clamato juice anywhere, the others had never heard of it. You should have seen the look of disgust on everyone’s face when I described it as a combination of tomato juice, clam juice and spices; I guess we’d never thought of it as a strange combination until now. I’m sorry, but it’s nowhere near as disgusting as eating barbequed insects.

On our final day, I felt healthy and strong as we hiked out of the hills and back down to the river where we rode bamboo rafts down the river for an hour. Once again, the kids wanted to ride with Mary, so I volunteered to ride with Tim, Julia and Candice. Tim volunteered to help pole the raft and proved to be much better at poling than elephant driving.

Our raft driver seemed to think it was amusing to splash us and the other rafts by slapping his pole on the water and soon, all the other rafts ganged up on us to take revenge and we ended up completely soaked. And now, our trek was over, but we had made four new wonderful friends and had enjoyed an experience that we would remember forever.

To see more of our Thailand photos, go to our web album:

Thailand

Mary actually took much better photos on this trek so if you want to see some great shots, go to her web album.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 1:55 pm and is filed under South East Asia, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.