Trekking The Hills Of Chiangmai

Well, it's official - JM and I have masochistic streaks in us. And I more. Here's why.

On Thursday night (May11), we found ourselves stuck in a bus for 11 hours. It was supposed to be a pretty comfortable ride - the roads were perfectly paved, the seats were reclining so we should be able to sleep well, right? Wrong. The airconditioning got so cold late in the night and the vent above me was missing one flap so I couldn't close it fully. I kept tossing and turning in my seat, trying to find the most comfortable position possible (read: as far away from the draft as possible) - would you believe sitting cross-legged was it? In all, JM and I only had 3 hours of sleep, and that's not even for a straight 3 hours!

We finally arrived in Chiangmai. We boarded a sawngthaew that took us to a guesthouse where we were supposed to wait for another sawngthaew that would take us to another guesthouse from where our trekking guide was supposed to pick us up. Thank goodness we were allowed to shower at the second guesthouse. We ordered breakfast and then walked around the area to check out the place. There was a nearby temple so we decided to take a peek. Going back to the guesthouse, we tried to catch some sleep. I fell asleep on a garden chair, my legs stretched out to the bottom of the table and my head hanging over on the back of the chair. Obviously I woke up with a crick in my neck.

The sawngthaew picked us up promptly at 9AM, as advised, and we proceeded to pick up the other participants of the trekking tour. We found out JM was to be the only guy in the group, the rest were all girls and all westerners; the tourist police kidded him that he must now feel what heaven is like. Well, not with the wife heavily guarding. Then again, not. I fell asleep again on the way to the market where our guide purchased our food supplies, and then I slept again on our way up the hills.

When I woke up, we were almost at the elephant camp where we were supposed to enjoy an hour of elephant riding. But having done this before, I can't really say that I enjoyed the ride. The 1-hour ride seemed to take ages moreso because our elephant was a particularly stubborn one that did not respond to our guide's proddings to keep walking - she only wanted to eat, eat, eat. But what was cute and entertaining was the baby elephant that kept following us around, I believe he was the baby of our elephant.

After the elephant ride, it was time for some trekking. We headed to a waterfall where we had lunch and a dip in the waters. Imagine, JM in the pool surrounded by 7 ladies in two-piece bikinis - now that is what guys would call heaven! Heck, I was the only one wearing a tankini and boyleg bottoms, which made me feel really prudish, not to mention fat. But the dip in the watefall was refreshing, the water was so cool.

We changed back into our trekking outfits (using the trees and plants as cover up) and the real trekking began. They should have told us it wasn't just hill trekking, it was mountain climbing! And JM and I are sooo not fit for something like that. At first, we found ourselves in the lead of the tail end. Later on, we became the tail end and a very far tail end at that. Even the girl with a deep cut on her foot (from the waterfall) overtook us. We were sweating and panting and every step was pulling so badly on my hamstring muscles, I was tempted to stop and just camp in the wilderness. Apart from the uphill terrain, the heat of the mid-afternoon sun was unbearable. So I said to myself, to hell with trekking porma! and whipped out my purple umbrella to shield myself from the sun. I wouldn't be surprised if I was suddenly labeled as "The Girl With The Purple Retro Umbrella" and I didn't care too if I appeared like a primadonna who was trying too hard to rough it out in the woods - I needed to find even a little respite from this already hellish trekking journey.

After 3 hours, we finally reached the tribal village where we were to spend the night. And surprise! There was some problem with their water system so there was to be no shower for us! Well, it's not all that bad for me. I'd had enough experience of water shortages during college at the dorm. And I'd already experienced bathing on two bottles of mineral water before. So I made the most of what little water I had. And I'm not even going into the details of what I was able to do with the half bottle of water - it's enough to say that I managed to clean the essential body parts. =D

I felt refreshed after having changed into my sleeping clothes. And then we were called for dinner, a surprisingly delightful dinner. There was green curry tofu (i love green curry!), stir-fried veggies, and stir-fried beansprouts. They were all delicious, or was I just too hungry? Nah, I didn't even eat much as sleep was more beckoning than hunger. But before we could get to our beds, the children of the village entertained us with some local songs in front of a bonfire. Charming, really. And this cute little girl standing on the far side of the group close to me, kept gazing at me in a really cute way. Cute!

After the mini-concert, I don't know what else the rest of the group did coz I conked out. That was the earliest I slept in months - at 9PM. I didn't even stir when JM lay down next to me or when the other girls came in. By the way, we all slept in one hut - lucky, lucky JM huh! At midnight though, I woke up feeling cold and needing to pee. Since the toilet was an outhouse, I woke JM so he could accompany me. The full moon was shining so wonderfully bright! We didn't even need to turn on the flashlight to see the path to the toilet.

Sleep was fitful after that midnight break. The cold got to me, and every muscle was aching from both the trek and the hard bamboo floors of the hut. I woke up at 4, and then at 6 and finally at 8. We had an American breakfast of toast, scrambled eggs and fruits. There was coffee and tea as well. Then it was time to pack up.

We left camp at 9AM and trekked for two hours. This time it was a downhill trek so I was able to keep pace with the guide, except when I had to wait for JM to catch up. See, JM thought it was going to be an easy trek like the one in Kanchanaburi (well, we both thought that) and only brought sandals for footwear so pebbles kept coming in to his sandals, sometimes cutting skin. I was actually thankful I brought my trainers instead of sneakers as I'd originally planned. But as a whole, the 2nd day was a lot better than the first. We even had the pleasure of taking pictures along the way, and I bought a wood carved buddha head at one of our pit stops! By the way, I also bought a beautiful turqouise hand-woven cloth from our village camp.

When we got to the end of the trek a sawngthaew was waiting to take us to lunch. Lunch was ladna noodles (flat rice noodles in "gravy" with chicken and broccoli), which is another one of my favorite Thai dishes. We rested a bit before moving on to bamboo rafting. This one I totally enjoyed. It wasn't at all like the bamboo rafting in Kanchanaburi where the river was peaceful but the sun was pounding on our backs. This time, there was more shade but the river was quite rough with huge boulders along the way. JM was asked to help steer the raft from the back, which I must say was quite a challenge for him. Our raft bumped into boulders and ran into low-hanging branches of trees, it tipped to the left and to the right that, by the time we got off we were drenched from waist down. No wonder our guide specifically told us not to bring our cameras as it would get wet during the ride.

The end of the raft ride signalled the end of our trekking adventure and we were delivered back to the guesthouse where we finally washed off two day's worth of filth on our bodies.

But for me and JM, our adventure was not yet over. We had another overnight bus ride back to Bangkok. I thought it was going to be an easy ride this time, what with the fatigue that would help me conk out once again. But no! The bus's aircon was condensating, so, every so often, just as I would feel sleep taking over me, a cold droplet would bring me back to my senses and make la-la land seem so far away. After a while, I gave up on trying to sleep. Instead, I "daydreamed" of getting home, having a nice warm shower, getting in bed, comfortable under the covers, and sleeping the whole day off - which is exactly what I did as soon as we arrived home.

Here now is the explanation of why I'm more masochistic than JM.

After mass late Sunday afternoon, we went for a massage as originally planned from day 1 of the trek, after we realized how back-breaking the trek was going to be. The masseuse asked me if I wanted the massage strong, I said yes. And how strong the massage was! It's a surprise I didn't end up with bruises. But the masseuse didn't hear a single complaint from me. By the way, it was the real traditional Thai massage were the masseuse steps all over your back. I loved it!

To add, I was actually a bit disappointed with this trip, not because of the transportation issues but that this trip was promoted as a trekking and hilltribe visit activity so I was expecting that we would be able to witness how the tribes live and go about in their daily manner. I was expecting that we would be sleeping in their huts and dining with them. But as it turned out, the trip has been very much commercialized they've even built a special hut for the tourists to sleep in. Why, except for the kids performing for us, we really didn't get to interact with any tribe member except for one of our tour guides who I believe came from that tribe. Maybe I could blame it on us booking just an overnight trip, maybe a 3 day trip would have allowed us to witness more - but I don't think so. I think these hilltribe treks are more about trekking than hilltribe visits, so I can't say I'd like to do it again, not even a 3-day or 5-day one, not even when I'm fit enough to climb mountains. But I would like to go back to Chiangmai (again!) and stay for a while in the city. It is quite a charming place, with the remains of the old city walls and the moat and the little narrow streets. It's such a shame that after 2 visits we still haven't been able to explore the city itself. Next time...there'll always be a next time...