I signed up for a 2 day/ 1 night trekk that goes into the jungle outside of Chiang Mai. It is a 9k (5.4 miles) trekk into the jungle and spend the night w/ the Karen Tribe "Ka-Rin"..
My guide's name was Yut "Oot", he came to my hotel the night prior to our departure to prep me on what to bring and where we will be going etc. I was running late of course the next morning but got picked up and headed out to pick up the other guests on the tour. There were 12 of us total, a group of four from the Czech Republic, 4 girls from Holland--all 21 yrs old, and a family of 3 also from Holland, but they didn't know each other before the trekk.
We all sat in the back of a truck like how soldiers ride, w/ a roof, but the back is open, very cramped. We got associated quickly....
First stop was to swim in a waterfall, warm water, pretty deep as well. Windy at the bottom bc of the force of the water. The guy from Holland banged his head on a rock and started bleeding, minor wound. After our swim, Yut handed out fried bugs....Myself and the girl from Czech were the only ones who DIDN'T eat them. Maybe if I wasn't so scared of food now from being sick, I may have tried one, but ummmmmm, no thanks. Apparently they are salty and my new little friend from Holland said she liked the crickets better than the maggots!! I couldn't help but laugh. Stopped at a market for last minute supplies: toilet paper, bug spray and a watch. $9 watch, I can't stand not knowing what time it is. US Marine water resistant watch. Which after the first swim already had condensation in it and the compass doesn't really know which way is North. Good thing I'm not lost. But hey can't beat 9 bucks.
We drove to the trail head and headed out. The trekk started out straight up. Now we are in the jungle, very wet, very humid and very warm. So basically EVERYTHING is wet and we are sweating like crazy!! Clothes drenched, shirt, shorts, socks, everything wet, we all smelled like bug spray...definitely an experience.
The trekk itself was actually quite a workout, we also had to do an extra 2k bc the first village was already occupied w/ other tourists. So we had to trekk on to the next village, we were all whipped pups, the terrain is thick and very much up and down, rocky and muddy. Got to see a tarantula barely peeking all it's eyes and hairy legs out of his hole, that was cool.
I need to explain Yut. He has enough personality for 5 people and was joking all the time, jumping out of the bushes to scare the girls, chasing them w/ grasshoppers, singing, made the leaf hats for the guys. He was also very attentive and made sure everyone had water, felt ok etc. Yut is actually from these Karen tribes as well. He picked wild mushrooms along the way and a cucumber for our soup at dinner. He also had some funny phrases that caught on during the trip....instead of "oh my God!" it's Oh My Buddha!! which became our theme. "Same Same but Different" when he tries to explain things so that clears it up.
Each village had supplies like water, beer, snacks for the tourists to buy if needed, so it was good we didn't have to pack in our own water. Each village inhabits about 40 people or so, 8 families....
Our accommodations were very primitive, bamboo shacks with leaf-thatched roofs. No running water or electricity. We all slept in one big room on mats w/ mosquito nets. Sleeping pads, pillows and blankets were provided but they smelled like pee. yucky. The toilet was a ceramic hole in the ground for going both number 1 and number 2. You basically crouch and hover. Then a large barrel has clean water dripping into it and you scoop out the water w/ a plastic cup and wash it down the hole. I tried to hold it as long as I could, but that's not gonna work. The first thing I thought of when I walked into their toilet area is, "My dad would HATE this!" I had to laugh, not his kind of holiday....the world's biggest spider lived in here too, so I just asked Charlotte if she could just hang out on her web and not bother me....
Growing up in Colorado, my mom would take me hiking, camping etc and taught me how to "go" in the woods, ok fine, I can handle that. But this? yucky, didn't care for it. Additionally, if I would have had my own camping gear, it would have been clean and I can rough it, but the stinky pillows and blankets made it worse. I was thankful I only signed up for the 2 day, not the 3 day!
Yut told us, No showa, no dinna. We had to bath in the Cucumber River. Dinner was cooked by the tribal women who remained in the background the whole time, barely made a peep, but were nice and served us well. Dinner was kind of like fried rice and fresh vegetables, chicken, mushroom soup....after the long haul, I didn't have much of an appetite and barely ate half of my dinner.
Yut brought out his guitar and played all American songs to which everyone sang along. The Dutch girls knew every word, better than I did! If Yut didn't know the words, he made them up to fit our journey, insert jungle things, our names etc. He was a riot!! Busted out his own moonshine as well, took a sip, like a rice wine, sake, but didn't have more than that. One cold beer was all.
Yut says that his tribe does not like the "lady boys." "When lady boy come to our village, we climb trees and shoot rock w/ sling shot at their head. Toughen them up. Lady boy not right."
He also played games and made up puzzles for us. He was very entertaining.
I woke at 6:30am thanks to the multitude of roosters having a conversation that it is morning now.
Elephant Safari--"MaHoot" is the keeper of the elephants (weigh 2 tons), the elephants work during the day on the trails for the safari and are let go to roam free during the night in the jungle to feed. They eat alot! They have a short chain around one foot that drags behind them which is how the MaHoot tracks them and brings them back to the village in the morning. Very smart and can learn a command w/in 2-3 times. I liked the fact these animals got to roam free in the jungle and weren't caged. I didn't learn as much about them as I would have liked, but they only sleep for 4 hrs, have an 18 month justacion period and raise their young until it's about 15 yrs old.
I rode w/ the woman from Holland and one of the younger girls from Holland. 1-2 hr ride, our elephant was named Matador. I was a great experience through the river, through the jungle, very cool.
After the elephants we got a 2 hr bamboo raft trip down the Cucumber River. Few small rapids and had to sit down for those, got to swim and float in the river as well. Yut guided the raft from the front, not the back, w/ a long bamboo pole. (bamboo grows very fast, like 10 feet in 1 yr or something)
The Dutch guy is in the Holland Air Force and spent 6 months last year in Afganistan. He was in a mix of different nationalities w/ the troops. He said most American soldiers are very arrogant and point their guns at the civilians. Not all are like that, one American was his best bud over there. His preconceived notion was that the American Army is a bunch of yahoo's who act like they are superior and more experienced in comparison to these smaller armies. He said the English act that way as well, but after his time there, he said the American Army isn't as bad as he origionally thought. He is the one who fell down at the waterfall....and also during the trekk, the other Holland girls were slipping and sliding, falling on their knees etc. I was a little mountain goat from Colorado, sure-footed and I made a joke at their expense. Asked him why the Dutch people keep falling down? Is their land so flat they can't keep their balance on terrain like this? He laughed and said when I do a faceplant, he will laugh first then help me up. I never fell. :)
All in all, I was glad I did it, but glad it was over. Hello shower. Hello clean bed. Hello pretty toilet :)
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