Two day trek...
We just got back from a two day trek. The plan was to hike about 12k the first day, sleep at a small hill tribe village and then trek about 12k the next day.
These paid services can go either way. You can get pouring rain, making the trek miserable. You can get a group of slow or annoying co-trekkers who you are stuck with for several days. You can can get a guide who doesn't speak English or doesn't have context for what you are seeing. You can get too large of a group, which almost guarantees that you will have at least one slow or annoying person. Everyone can get food poisoning and so on...
The people were as interested in us as we were in them. They would sit down and just stare at us, talk to each other and giggle. The hill tribes still speak their own dialects and have their own way of doing things. They are in a constant partnership/struggle with the Thai government. The basic idea is that the government gives them medicine and money for projects. In exchange they aren't supposed to grow drugs. If they do they get visits from the narcotics suppression helicopters who burn their crops. They also struggle over forest protection issues while trying to let them keep their traditional way of life.
Each tribe has a Chief, who is elected for a four year term. The Chief makes the decisions and acts as the village judge, jury and peacemaker. He meets with the government once a month to pitch projects for funding and to get news.
Two years ago the village we stayed with got a few solar panels, marine batteries, charge controllers and inverters from the government to power some basic lighting. Prior to that they were on candle power.
We had dinner on the floor of one of the villagers homes. He is a rice farmer today. He used to grown opium. We slept in a small room with the four other trekkers. The bathroom was an outhouse just past the hog pens. We slept on thin mats a few feet above the roosters that kept us up all night. We all got a terrible night of sleep, but it was interesting :-)
A lot of people say that Thailand is played out as it has been overrun by backpackers. I agree that some places are, but staying with the hill tribe was no show... it was the real deal.
These paid services can go either way. You can get pouring rain, making the trek miserable. You can get a group of slow or annoying co-trekkers who you are stuck with for several days. You can can get a guide who doesn't speak English or doesn't have context for what you are seeing. You can get too large of a group, which almost guarantees that you will have at least one slow or annoying person. Everyone can get food poisoning and so on...
We got lucky and had perfect weather, a great group and a really interesting guide. The trek wound through the mountains and across a few rivers. We kept a good pace so it was a sweaty work out. Everything was as lush and muddy as you would expect in a tropical place, including the two leeches I pulled off my foot.
The most interesting part was the stay in the village. It had 
seventy homes and about 220 people. They were a hill tribe who grew rice and corn. The village had dirt roads, houses made of bamboo and illegally cut teak, complete with chickens, pigs, dogs and cows running around.
seventy homes and about 220 people. They were a hill tribe who grew rice and corn. The village had dirt roads, houses made of bamboo and illegally cut teak, complete with chickens, pigs, dogs and cows running around. The people were as interested in us as we were in them. They would sit down and just stare at us, talk to each other and giggle. The hill tribes still speak their own dialects and have their own way of doing things. They are in a constant partnership/struggle with the Thai government. The basic idea is that the government gives them medicine and money for projects. In exchange they aren't supposed to grow drugs. If they do they get visits from the narcotics suppression helicopters who burn their crops. They also struggle over forest protection issues while trying to let them keep their traditional way of life.
Each tribe has a Chief, who is elected for a four year term. The Chief makes the decisions and acts as the village judge, jury and peacemaker. He meets with the government once a month to pitch projects for funding and to get news.
Two years ago the village we stayed with got a few solar panels, marine batteries, charge controllers and inverters from the government to power some basic lighting. Prior to that they were on candle power.We had dinner on the floor of one of the villagers homes. He is a rice farmer today. He used to grown opium. We slept in a small room with the four other trekkers. The bathroom was an outhouse just past the hog pens. We slept on thin mats a few feet above the roosters that kept us up all night. We all got a terrible night of sleep, but it was interesting :-)
A lot of people say that Thailand is played out as it has been overrun by backpackers. I agree that some places are, but staying with the hill tribe was no show... it was the real deal.Tomorrow we go back to Chiang Mai and start working our way towards the Laos border.
[Here are the rest of our trekking pics]
Labels: Hill Trekking, Pai Thailand
posted by Eric Stahl @ 10:00 PM
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