Just spent the last three days strolling through the jungle. Had a fantastic time, in general, and got to know my Hua Lumphong friends a little better. Anja, Jo, Dafne and I were together for pretty much all of the time. We were joined for the first day of the trek by the lovely Chris and Sebastien (Germany) and sweet little Yuka (Japan). Yuka didn’t speak much English, but she made up for it with smiles.
The first day was mostly uneventful, but still interesting – riding in the back of a ute for a few hours, first to visit a Hmong community atop a hill, and a few hours walking through dry-tropical scrub. We spent the evening around a campfire in the Karen village of Maeto. The villagers produced a rather battered guitar, which Chris tuned with some pliers because the pegs had snapped off, and we spent the evening drinking local moonshine and singing along to The Pixies, Radiohead, and Oasis. Yuka played us a few of her compositions, which we couldn’t understand, but were very cute.
The next day, Chris, Sebastien and Yuka set off early because they had to be in Chiang Mai to catch a bus, and the rest of us carried on. After a few hours of slightly challenging uphill trek (and a lazy hour where we let a pair of elephants do the walking for us), we lunched in another Karen village. While Dafne and Jo napped, Anja and I tried some Karen cuisine. Had a rather spicy (but good!) fish curry, and a very interesting soup. Anja had a few mouthfuls, while I stared at the spoon and after a moment, tentatively asked “What kind of insect is this?”. Anja nearly died of shock. The soup consists of red ants and their grubs, and tastes delicious. Strong lemon flavour, which makes sense as the ants appear very much like Australian green ants, which have a definite citrus tang. Maybe not a dish I’ll cook for my housemates, but a good experience nonetheless. Also saw a traditional still where a Karen woman was distilling rice wine to make whisky.
We spent the night in a camp at the base of a waterfall with a few friendly dogs, our guide Den, and one of his fellow employees who mans the camp. Had a great night (rice moonshine again) playing cards and talking around the fire. Everyone sang a few songs from their culture (which for me, meant I was singing English and Irish folk tunes, and a bit of jazz).
Today, some more walking and then an hour floating down a river on a bamboo raft. Eventually, back into a minivan and an hour’s drive back to Chiang Mai.
Had a good few days. Got to know some Thais, which was nice. Interesting humour. Saw an amazing variety of vegetation in three days of walking – rainforest in gullies, pine forests on ridges, a bamboo forest around the waterfall, and finally cultivated fields of rice and maize.
Back in my favourite coffee house today. After doing it rough for three days, my 200B guesthouse seems more luxurious than a Hilton ever could.
Tomorrow, some more Chiang Mai exploration by bicycle, I think. I’d like to head up the hill to Doi Sothep, to see the temple and the stalls where you can buy deep-friend grubs.
Ciao!