Chiang Mai and Trekking

Chiang Mai

Well it seems that the further North we get, the better Thailand gets. The people up here are incredibly friendly, the food is amazing and the weather is perfect. They also seem to have really good taste in cars up here, since there are tricked up Suzuki SJ413 jeeps everywhere (most of them are used for the 4wd tours). The vehicles everywhere in Thailand are actually surprisingly new, probably a similar age to the NZ fleet if you take out the tuk-tuks. I have never seen so many new Hiluxes anywhere else in the world.

Chiang Mai is a really cool city nestled in the hills of Northern Thailand and the city centre is surrounded by a massive moat, complete with city gates. The thing to do up here is go trekking in the hills so that's what we did (see below). The climate is ideal up here since it gets nice and hot during the day but it's still cool enough to sleep at night. It's also not as humid as down South. We found our cheapest accommodation of the trip so far, at 250 baht (about NZ$12) per night for the two of us. Cold shower and fan only but you only really need a cold shower up here and the fan does enough to keep it cool. Also had the best meal of our trip for lunch the other day, Panang curry, a noodle dish and a rice dish. All for a few notes of Monopoly money. Chiang Mai is definitely going to take some beating...

Extreme Trekking!

Ok, so it wasnt that extreme, I just wanted to use the word somewhere! Managed to hunt around and pick up a 3 day-2 night trek for 500baht under the going rate which was all good. Got underway at about 9am in the back of some ute. Had a big night on the Chang beer the night before which I have found from extensive research gives you the worst headache the next day (havent confirmed these findings as yet, may need more in-depth experimentation). After an hour of our brains bouncing around our skulls we arrived at an elephant camp. Had some lunch and then had a ride on these elephants. The route was pretty tame and pre-determined but it was still cool to ride on one, they are incredibly sure footed, although my one decided to give itself a mud-bath halfway through (with me still on it).

Started on the trek after that, we had two awesome thai guides called "James Bond" and "Smith", I think this was easier than getting us to remember thai names. They were really cool guys, James Bond had a mohawk and was covered in tats. He was a real jungle boy, every now and again he would stop the trek and climb 15 metres up a vine, or carried an injured bird 3 hours to the village. Smith was a bit quiter but was a really nice guy and spoke very good English. Our party had a French family, a Swiss couple and a Slovenian couple who were all good sorts. Went straight up a hill for the first 40 mins which was pretty tough in the 30+ heat and stopped at a bat cave. Ended up in a really cool hill-tribe village for the night. We all stayed in a 1 room bamboo guest house (they use bamboo for everything up there, from buildings to coffee cups!) which was really rad. The hill tribe people arent as authentic looking as they appear in the brochures, most of them just cruise round in jeans and t-shirts. But they are super friendly, and pretty sharp on the old guitar (it seems mandatory for each village to have a village guitar). The way they live isnt stone-aged or anything just really basic which is pretty cool. They cook over fire and most seem to make a living growing cabbages, although our guides pointed out some opium poppies in some of the more obscure points on our trek! The govt has installed some solar power boards lately so they do have electricity yet it's sole use appears to be powering the radio or TV! The people at the village put on a show that night round the fire, some of their tunes are pretty catchy.

Next day kept going and had a swim at a mint waterfall which was gold after walking in the dust and heat! Split from the bulk of the group after that as most were on a 2-day package and blasted up-hill for a few hours to the next village for the night. This village was way bigger and noisier, these hard case little kids were charging round everywhere. That night all the kids in the village put on this show of singing and dancing which was quite neat. The coolest bit was the real small kids trying to get the actions right but just waving their arms around randomly. Our favourite was this little guy below who gave up half-way through and started tearing round up the front with his mate.

Next day got back on the trail for a couple of hours, mostly a slide down hill and stopped at a rafting camp. These young dudes running the thing were great guys, took us white water rafting down some rapids which was all good and then bamboo rafting down one of the calmer bits. Had a few hours to kill after that, ended up playing takraw (foot and head volleyball) by the river with Smith and one of his mates, bloody good times.

Had to give big high 5's to our guides Bond and Smith. They did everything, got up in the morning and cooked us brekkie, full of info on the jungle and the villages, made us lunch and when we stopped for the night promptly got underway cooking tea. Great entertainers as well!

Us with "James Bond"
Slavko, Griente, "Smith" and Marcus

In Chiang Mai for one more day (going exploring on motorbikes) then heading to the border with Laos tomorrow.