Trekking in the Himalayas

I had a vision of the kind of place where I wanted to spend time on this trip. I imagined a tranquil town with a strong cultural backbone. I wanted to hang out in cafes, talk to other travelers and make excurisions to the outlying areas for hiking and sightseeing. I wanted to be forced into not doing much. Enter Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is a large city by Thai standards. The population is about 165,000 and it has the feel of a college town. There is a strong international influence and lots of young people. Chiang Mai is in Northwestern Thailand, not far from the "Golden Triangle" (the place where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Burma meet.) The elevation is higher than Bangkok and the air has a cool, crispness. The pollution and congestion are minimal, though, since there are no emissions standards anywere in this part of the world, you still occasionally walk into clouds of carbon monoxide.

I arrived on Tuesday after my 15 hour train trip. I had already scheduled a three day trek in a national park beginning on Wednesday, then leave for Laos on Monday. After walking around the town for five minutes, I knew I had to extend my stay. I'm gald I booked an open-ended trip. My travel dates are flexible, with no charge for changing. I've realized though, that I wasted a lot of money, as booking your travel here is dirt cheap. Another lesson learned, I guess.

We left on our trek early Wednesday morning. Taxi cabs and transport "busses" are both basically covered pick-up trucks. You cram in with 8-10 other people and sit on long benches. I never thought I'd take a trek where I'd get sore from sitting, but the first two hours of our journey consisted of running errands in Chiang Mai. I should have realized this was a harbinger of things to come.

When we finally arrived at a nearby national park, we took a fantastic two-hour hike. At the highest elevations, the terrain was rocky and loaded with evergreens. In the valleys, it was jungle/rainforest. The jungle scenes in "Platoon" or "Apocalypse Now" could have been filmed where we were. The trails were minimal and the hiking was exhilirating. We stopped to go swimming in a waterfall and had a meager lunch.

Our hiking eventually took us to a hilltribe village, where we would spend the night. Many of the hilltribe people of NW Thailand are refugees from politically hostile Burma (or Myanmar, as it's now called.) After meeting a few of the hilltribe people, I found it hard to imagine a regime finding them threatening.

Upon arriving at the village, the hilltribe people had their wares on display. Dozens of beautiful cotton tapestries adorned the dilapidated wood structures that would make for our eating and sitting areas. A very old woman and a bunch of messy little kids approached us by shoving handfulls of bead necklaces and bracelettes in our faces. The "salespeople" made there way around the group, staring at you until you said "no" emphatically. You ended up having to turn each of them away about 10 times. As there were probably 8 people selling stuff, this got a little old.

Part of the selling point of this trip was the promise of learning about the hilltribe culture. Once everyone had turned away the salesforce, the hill people vanished until the next morning, when we were subject to the same routine. One charming hilltribe fellow engaged us in conversations of pantamime and broken English. He led us on parts of our treks and hung around in the evening while we sat by the campfire, but this was the only real interaction we had.

I had been told these types of treks were "exploitive" and reduced the hilltribe people to beggars, dependent on tourists. I object to this characterization as the tourists are clearly the ones being exploited. Everywhere we went we had the opportunity to buy things. We typically followed our inadequate lunches with a quick trek to a tin roofed shack. These shacks, selling Western snacks (chips, oreos, coca-cola,) were out in the middle of nowhere; I'm talking no roads, no nothing. I'm not sure how they got supplies to the stores without an air-drop. It was clear that all of the trekking groups frequented these shacks to support the local economy. This would be fine if we weren't under the impression that all of our meals were included.

Our accomodations consisted of one large barn with two bamboo platforms running the length of the room (see photo.) Paper thin mats and filthy sleeping bags were intended as beds. While bamboo is soft, by wood standards, it doesn't make for a very good night's sleep. The bathrooms were filthy, but portions at dinner were fine (there must not have been a store within walking distance.) On day 1, we arrived at the village around 4pm. There was nothing to do but sit around, stare at the camp fire and buy the beer sold by the villagers. Not a bad way to spend the night, but not exactly "trekking." While our accomodations were rough, the hilltribe people departed in the direction of a large house with power lines and a TV antenna.

I was fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of very cool people on this trip. Our group had 17 people in it. The majority were Europeans, with no more than two people from one country. We also had a Japanese fellow, a couple of Israelis, two Maylasians and me. We all had the same objections to our accomodations, but developed a sense of humor about the whole thing and had great conversations about cultural differences and world events (I'm really tired of apologizing for George Bush. My god do people hate him!)

Day 2 consisted of a four hour trek and more swimming. Again, exhilirating hiking and fantastic scenery made the whole thing seem worth it. Our accomodations were basically the same as the night before, just in a different village.

Day 3, we got going late. In fact, we got going late every day and spent a lot of time waiting around. We had a brief trek, followed by very touristy elephant riding and a bamboo rafting trip. Elephant riding is about as comfortable as it looks. The animals are amazing, but they're not really designed for comfort or a smooth ride. I can see why they would make for useful transport in a muddy, mountainous terrain, but as for joyriding, no thanks.

We returned that night tired and dirty. I was glad I opted to pay the extra money for the nice hotel. The rooms were airconditioned, the shower water was hot and the TV had an American movie channel. Total relaxation was ahead!

Overall, I'm glad I took this trip as the hiking was great and the people were tremendous. If the accomodations are going to be rough, that's fine, but let's start hiking before 10 am. If the food is going to be basic, ok, but don't constantly extort money from us. This trip was another example of how tourists are little more than walking dollar signs in this part of the world.

I was excited to get back to Chiang Mai and start the next phase of the trip.