We recently returned from a 2 day/1 night trekking trip through the jungle and mountains of northern Thailand and it was an incredible experience (sans the spider/bug bites, the lack of a mattress/pillow, the strange looks from villagers, the heat, the loud obnoxious chickens, the interesting food, the sweat, the dirt, the lack of drinking water). Did I mention we had a great time...
In all seriousness, it's from these types of experiences that you gain so much perspective and appreciation for the things you have and is one of the reasons we love to travel so much.
In all seriousness, it's from these types of experiences that you gain so much perspective and appreciation for the things you have and is one of the reasons we love to travel so much.
Our first day started with an hour boat ride down the Kok River in a small river boat. It was a nice way to take in the mountains and local river culture. From their we met our guide Mr. Parsit ("Pressy") for a short ride in the jeep. Unfortunatly we didn't make it very far as his old jeep broke down a few kilometers from the boat pickup. We hitched a ride to town from a 'friend' (we soon found out he seemed to known everyone in the area), had an awesome lunch of pad kapow and rice then set off on our trek. We walked for about 8k up and around the villages staying mainly on dirt roads...not the most exciting part of the trip and finally arrived at the Lahu village where we would stay with a local family for the night. This is where the experience began.
The village had recently obtained "running water" from the mountain spring 10k away. I use that term loosely as it was basically a central water tap they used to wash dishes and bath. They also had installed a solar panel (courtesy of a new Thai government program) that gave them a few hours of electricity each day. This was used to run a light on the main porch area. All cooking was done over a fire. Coming from a place where these "simple" things are taken for granted, it can be a bit of a shock to the system. Dinner included rice, veggies and fish caught from the local river, fish head/bones and all.
This gave us a little cause for concern as we weren't sure how our stomachs would react. Breakfast included sticky rice and various beans and corn (neatly wrapped in banana leaves) and turned out to be really good. They also gave us some local soy milk (warm) and again our stomachs flipped at the thought of a day of hiking with aching be,lies. Luckily we can now report that we suffered no issues from these food experiments.
We set out that morning for about 10k of hiking through the jungle (this time it included some really steep sections through pretty dense areas and a private waterfall we swam in). Our guide, by the way, did the entire trek in flip flops and didnt even break a sweat walking up the steep sections (he was wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt too). Needless to say, we were dripping with sweat as we climbed!
Overall it was a great experience and we were happy to get back to our guesthouse for some air conditioning, a nice shower and clean clothes.
This gave us a little cause for concern as we weren't sure how our stomachs would react. Breakfast included sticky rice and various beans and corn (neatly wrapped in banana leaves) and turned out to be really good. They also gave us some local soy milk (warm) and again our stomachs flipped at the thought of a day of hiking with aching be,lies. Luckily we can now report that we suffered no issues from these food experiments.
We set out that morning for about 10k of hiking through the jungle (this time it included some really steep sections through pretty dense areas and a private waterfall we swam in). Our guide, by the way, did the entire trek in flip flops and didnt even break a sweat walking up the steep sections (he was wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt too). Needless to say, we were dripping with sweat as we climbed!
Overall it was a great experience and we were happy to get back to our guesthouse for some air conditioning, a nice shower and clean clothes.
The village
Our house (the blanket covered my bedroom window)
The bedroom I shared with our guide (local tradition was followed so Kerry had to sleep in a separate room...even married couples do not sleep in the same room)
Water tap (small kitchen through the door)
Breakfast of sticky rice/beans and soy milk
Banana leaf carrying our lunch (the Ziploc bags of the jungle)
Lunch on the trail: fried noodles w/ veggies and banana (much smaller than ones back home but taste much better)
No comments:
Post a Comment