Elephants, Spiders and Roosters oh my!

Today we returned from a 2 day trek in the North Thailand mountains and it was incredible! We departed early Saturday morning in a group of 10. There were 4 dutch travellers, 2 Italians and 2 New Zealanders. We travelled about 1 hour outside of the city to visit a traditional Karen[Ku-ren] Hilltribe village, which is one of the many different Hilltribes that live in the Thai mountains. The Karen Hilltribe migrated to the Thailand mountains hundreds of years ago from Burma due to civil unrest in their native country. They live off of the land, and survive off of cash crops such as flowers, fruits, vegetables and of course rice, which is Thailand's biggest agricultural export. The Thai Monarchy has helped the rural communities such as these Hilltribes by implementing agricultural programs that provide research and resources to the Thai people, so they do not have to rely on crops such as marijuana or opium to make a living. Much of the rural communities suffer from debilitating opium addictions, and this was one way for the government to resolve their addiction problems and the volatility and danger of harvesting illicit crops. The loyalty of the Thai people to the Monarchy is absolutely overwhelming. Due to programs such as these, the people here revere and basically idolize the King. There are yellow banners with the King's picture (the colour of the King) everywhere and every Monday (the day he was born) the Thai people were yellow golf shirts as a show of support for the King. They also wear yellow rubber bracelets that say "Long Live the King" not quite "Livestrong" as Lance would have it.
Anyways, this Karen hilltribe was beautiful, with thatched roofs of straw and some sort of waxy leaf. They are all built on stilts because of the flooding caused during the monsoons. And like most rural, agricultural areas, each family has their own share of dogs, chickens and pigs that roam around the village, yet somehow everyone knows which belongs to which family.


After walking around the village we got back into the truck, stopped for lunch and finally were dropped off at our trailhead. We walked for about 15 km up and down hills, over streams and through paddy fields, and arrived at our night camp 3 hours later, which was another Hilltribe village. This one was quite similar to the one we visited earlier in the day, but here there was a large hut for the tourists that stopped for camp. It was on stilts as well, but had no door, and the floor was about 2 feet lower than the sleeping surface and was structured sort of like a gangplank. The beds had large mosquito nettings, but that was about it in the way of comfort. We all had baths with ice cold water. And were treated to a remarkable dinner cooked by our tour guide, on a single gas stove. He made us bean sprout and tofu stir fry, green curry chicken, vegetable soup and white rice! It was really, really good. The hilltribe also had a large cooler stocked with Fantas, Chang beer and water, and for like 1$ each drink we drank like fishes! We ate by candlelight and then headed off to bed since there wasn't muc else to do.

The stupid village roosters crowed almost 2 hours before sunrise, so we were all up and ready to leave very early, sans any type of alarm clock. When we awoke, we saw that a gargantuous spider had made a home in the hut where we were sleeping, so we all wanted to get the hell out of there anyways! (This picture is just for you Danika! I hope you can see its hairy body and beady eyes, and very gangly, fuzzy legs!)

After leaving the village in the early morning, we had to hike a lot of tedious uphill terrain. And I know Ray will hate me, but he was dying! I think he sweated more liquid than he drank that day! But he made it, with a sprained ankle to boot.

By midday we arrived at the elephant camp, and there were 4 majestic elephants and 1 baby waiting for us. There could only be 2 on the saddle per elephant, so that meant 2 out of the 10 of us had to ride on the neck, and I was one of them! It was freaking scary, but so incredibly fun.
The elephants walked very slowly and seemed almost gentle knowing we were on it's back. Everytime it flapped it's ears it would slaps my legs and it kept pointing its trunk it my face like it was going to sneeze on me, like that nasty walrus scene in 50 First Dates. We rode the elephants for about a half a kilometre, through streams and next to cliffs, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Only in hindsight Did I actually think it was fun!

The last thing we did was take a bamboo raft down the Mae Ping river. The rafts were about 30 feet long and were tied together with cut up pieces of rubber tires! It was more like white water rafting since we went through rapids and got soaked, but it was nice to not have to walk for a while. The trek was so much fun, and the group of travllers we were with made it that much more interesting. Needless to say it was nice to come back to a hot shower and air conditioning, but it's an experience I will certainly never forget.