Home » Thailand » Chiang Mai - Baltic Trekking

Chiang Mai
I arrived into Chiang Mai on the 22nd December. I’d like to note that by this point I was becoming a bit peeved at the lack of female action, especially since I was informed that most girls tend to be more ‘easy going’ as they don’t tend to meet people for long whilst traveling.

Chiang Mai - Baltic Trekking

Christopher Featherstone
2007-02-05 18:36:32

Displayed times (last time: )

Chiang Mai
I arrived into Chiang Mai on the 22nd December. I’d like to note that by this point I was becoming a bit peeved at the lack of female action, especially since I was informed that most girls tend to be more ‘easy going’ as they don’t tend to meet people for long whilst traveling.

Anyway, I digress. Upon arrival I got a moto to Banana Guest House, which I picked from my Lonely Planet. First impressions were not good. It looked dingy and had a distinct lack of foreigners. However, after 2 minutes of talking to Mr Neung I was on board and ready to go. He spoke amazing English and was uber friendly, and spoke the magic words of “100 Baht per night”, which is equivalent to ₤1.50. Albeit, I did get what I paid for. The unique experience of having to squat whilst reliving myself was an interesting one, though surprisingly comfortable! I booked straight onto a 3 day trek for the next day, not entirely sure of where I was going or what I would do.

It was bloody cold in bed that night, and so I packed a jumper and trousers for the trek.

On the pick up truck to the hills I met the 7 other people I was to spend the next few days with. 4 Germans (Roland, Sophia, Alex and Anna), 2 Canadians (Mark and Kelly), and a hot American woman called Victoria. They were all a great laugh and meant the experience was ten times better. Especially now there was a fittie on board too.
First stop was the Karen tribe village. The ‘Karen’s lived separate lives from Thailand, and had there own language and society. In particular, polygamy was ok. This was my kinda tribe - we could learn something from these people. The self sustained lifestyle was impressive, and everyone seemed so happy with so little! Especially the kids who were delighted when we took pictures of them. The only thing that detracted a bit was the occasional satellite dish and moped - not totally independent of society then!
Another short drive later and we started out trek. Two hours of walking in the jungle stopping at little, occupied huts which were in the middle of nowhere (how these people live is beyond me), and we reached our sleeping point just before sunset. We slept in a wooden hut in a hill tribe’s village. That night we drank Chang beer and chatted round the campfire. Even with three layers of clothes, a beer jumper, sleeping bag and two blankets I was still freezing. The next morning the general consensus was to do two days instead of three since we didn’t see much more and we couldn’t handle another Baltic night!

The second day was the best so far. Trekking on elephants, and swimming in waterfalls. The water was pretty damned cold, but we were all pretty sweaty after walking all day. To finish off the perfect day we rafted on bamboo rafts down some tame white water rapids! It was awesome. There were four on each raft; the Germans vs the World! And the world won, with the Germans falling in on at least one occasion!
That night we said our goodbyes. I arranged to meet up with Victoria later on that night for a quick bevvie since everyone else were couples and we were traveling solo. A cracking night it turned out to be getting drunk in a random thai club and looking around the immense Chiang Mai night markey, before she had to head back and meet her mother in law.

Christmas Day felt much the same as the others with a mandatory temple trip and ringing home. That evening I met the hot American again and we found a bar with a Christmas tree! It was a pretty surreal Christmas, ultimately ending in an hilarious trip to a thai live music bar, where the ‘singers’ were something else. A guy dressed like Bon Jovi and sang like Celine Dion, it makes you wonder what goes through these people’s heads.

On the 27th I headed down to Bangkok where I flew on to Cambodia.