Ari's Planet

For my overnight trek in northern Thailand I signed up with Back Trax in Pai. In all we were 6 tourists and two guides. Our nationalities: Swiss, German couple, Belgian, Canadian, and American, Burmese and Thai guides. Quite a language mashup. The swiss could speak 5 languages. Switzerland is amazing. We met up in the morning, left our bags with the trekking company, and left at 0930 in a pickup truck. Any trip that starts with a ride in a pickup truck must be exciting! As we left the paved road we were chased by a 10 year old Thai Spiderman. We drove along a dirt road in splendid weather. In the distance one could see the trees had shed most of their leaves for the cool dry season. We drove through areas with pine trees, banana trees, and other tropical trees. This was a different forest than I had ever seen. We kept on sliding back in the pickup truck as the truck made its way up the loose dirt road. We were stopped for half an hour as the road was being repaired following the rainy season. Our guide said that it is impassable for trucks in the wet season.

We got out and started walking around noon. We stopped for a snack of banana bread and clementines. On a tree were dormant orchid buds. We got a bit lost. The main guide hadn't been out in this area for 5 years as he had just moved back from Chang Mai. We slid down a slope to a bamboo stand and the second guide cut us some walking sticks with his machete. We stopped for lunch by a lovely stream. Lunch was a delicious affair of rice, chicken legs, banana cake, and soft flower noodle cakes. We walked up and down the steep hills, followed the river for a bit, and came to a ~30 m waterfall. Then we backtracked, resumed our up and down trekking towards the Lahu village where we would stay the night. We walked through stands of wild banana trees, bamboo, and other tropical plants. The weather continued to be wonderfully comfortable.

We came to a cultivated area where the villagers grow rice during the wet season, July to October. There were traces of burnt wood. First the villagers fell the trees, then they set fire to clear the land. Our guide said these people had introduced opium growing to the region. I thought about the wilder times of the past, opium fields, burning fields. At the village we were greeted by many dogs. Most of the dogs are small dark colored with sharp ears and curled tails, stocky build, and some variations. The houses are thatch on stilts. Beneath the houses roamed pigs and chickens and around the houses ranged cows. Many children, 12 years and under, were outside playing. In total, the village had around 30 houses arranged on a gentle slope leading toward a river.

We came to the hut were would be staying in. Bamboo planks were laid across the floor. The hut was not sealed from the outside. On one side was a large cooking area with two platforms where foods could be smoked. The smoke just sort of curled around these platforms and escaped out gaps in the roofing. The hut was at first filled with smoke from the new fire, the smoke reflecting the shafts of light that came through gaps in the walls. Our guides set to work preparing dinner. A proud rooster strutted around after mating with a hen beneath the hut. We walked down to the river accompanied by some 10 friendly kids would wanted to play. What a pleasure not to be accosted with the routine "one pen one rupee one sweet" mantra. We fed the fish, then some went for a swim in the chilly water. Even more kids were having fun swimming, clothes optional. One boy was sending trapped logs down river, narrowly missing his friends at times. Another kid stood chattering away in the water, having too much fun to get out!

Afterward, the kids were playing outside again. They were divided into three natural groups. One was a group of girls, sitting by a tree. A second group was young boys, under 8 or 10, who were collecting all the plastic bottles, puting them on sticks, setting them alight in a fire, and then running around with the burning plastic dripping and spraying. The third group was older boys who were making a bow and arrow. One of these was an apprentice monk dressed in orange robes and having a shaved head, while another boy was wearing an army camoflouge outfit with a pink belt. One last boy was running around throwing loud caps all over the place, generally spooking the cows. We went back for a yummy dinner of rice, potato curry, chicken, and mushrooms. It was only 19:30 by now, far too early for sleep, so we played a camp game courtesy of the Belgian teacher, and which really would have made the perfect drinking game for our supply of local rice whiskey.

Around eight thirty it started to rain. Our guide said this was very unusual for the dry season. It really was wonderful, it was like getting the rainy season in the dry season, or so I imagined. Rain started dripping onto some of our beds leading to a flurry of rearrangement. It stopped raining after about half an hour. A full moon lay behind the clouds. I set up my mosquito netting, more to get to try it out than out of necessity, as there were no mosquitos in evidence. It got chilly at night. They provided us with blankets and old sleeping bags and we all slept fitfully on the hard floor. The moon was brilliant at night. At 04:20 the first rooster started calling. There were some 5 roosters in all and they took turns, cycling around the village over the course of a few minutes. Somehow I managed to sleep some more, with ever increasing signs of activity--dogs, cows, pigs, people.

Our hosts brought out a few handbags and bracelets to buy. We left around 9. Again, we walked up and down the hills. Along the way our guide got a bit confused about the correct trail. While he was off searching for the correct trail the other guide said that he had suggested asking a local village to show us the way, to which the former guide replied it was not necessary as he was "100%" certain of the way. We passed a torn black net in which a small dead black bat was caught. Our guide said they eat bats. A bit later we passed some bamboo arrows with colorful bits of cloth attached arranged in a V stuck in a tree. Our guide said when someone is ill they put these here to help themselves. Trees with brilliant red flowers, and trees that had dropped their leaves and which tropical, broad leaves were turning a reddish-purple. We walked through a small village--greeted by dogs again. The village seemed almost abandoned, no people in sight. The building that functions as a school one week a month was ringed by lovely lavender flowers. As we walked out a few sounds and faces were seen.

We continued another hour to a wonderful lunch spot just past a rice field and a small stream. White fragrant flowers grew from trees, butterflies flitted among the flowers. Bamboo surrounded us. A mass of daddy-longlegs spiders swarmed over a bush. Our guide used his matchete to make bowls and chopsticks from bamboo, and the other guide made a place setting of banana leaves and nicely carved--and delicious--pineapple. We had noodles and pineapple. A bee made its way into my shirt but left without stinging. A couple of minutes later a bee got stuck between my arm and shirt and gave me its stinger as a gift. Here was my chance to play boyscout: I quickly removed the venom sack, used my the tweezers in my handy Swiss army knife to remove the stinger, then used the Sting Extractor in my 1st aid kit to remove some of the venom (or at least some of the fluids), then put some cortisone cream, with the result that I had only minor irritation at the site of the sting; how exciting! We went on for another hour or so to our last village then met up with the pickup truck that took us back to Pai by 17:00.

I went by my old guest house, Baan Tawan, but they were full, so I went to the nearby Sunset House. They had a decent room with attached bathroom for 300 B. Since I didn't feel like searching any more I took the room. This turned out to be a good idea. I showered, did laundry, and met up with my fellow trekkers for dinner. I was starting to feel a bit week, but figured it was just hunger and fatigue. As soon as I had finished eating, though, I started feeling really nauseated, so I beat a retreat back to my room, stopping on the way for 3 L of water--just in case... well, turns out I had my 3rd case of food poisoning so far on my trip. One of the meals I ate on the trek did not sit well with me and it all pretty much came out, one way or another. So much fun. Not as severe as my episode in Nepal, though. I was a bit surprised as I'd hoped the doxycycline I'm taking for malaria prophylaxis would have protected me, but I guess it didn't do the trick this time. Not to worry, I'm feeling better already and should be fine by tomorrow. Now I just have to decide if I want to hang around the north for more trekking or go to Chang Rai (via Chang Mai) and on to northern Vietnam.