by Lauren and Jodi
Day 3: December 30, 2007
Adventures With Tony
Our tour guide for the day, Tony, took us on a long day's excursion to the southwest of Chiang Mai, in the Sanpatong area. For $24, we hiked straight up a mountain to a Hmong/Meo hilltribe village, rode (or didn't ride) elephants through the jungle, ate an authentic Thai meal in an authentic Shan village, visited the Karen people and watched them weave beautiful cloths and made friends with sweet children, slipped and slid and swam under a waterfall, and finally coursed down a swiftly moving Mae Win River on bamboo rafts.
We got more out of this adventure than we ever would have expected. We got culture and physical challenges, learned about animal rights, met friendly Thai people, saw beautiful sites, and had a whole lot of fun.
Starting out, we didn't know what to expect--and many of us weren't prepared. But when Tony told us to take the bamboo walking sticks by the van, those of us wearing flip flops knew we were in for an adventure. For 45 minutes we huffed and puffed and slid, the highlight being the rickety bamboo bridge with missing slats.
At the top of the Mae Wong mountain in the Hmong village, Tony gave us a brief history. The people were originally from Tibet and adopted Christianity from missionaries. They used to get their income from opium and marijuana; now they grow rice and sew handicrafts which they sell to tourists, some of whom climbed the mountain as we did, others who took the road.
Next stop: elephants. As we watched our beasts approach us, we noticed they looked sad and overworked. Many had holes in their ears and one had a bloody cut on his head. Most of the young Thai men driving them carried metal picks. But we decided to hop on anyway, two to elephant.
Most of us told our guides not to use the sticks or hit the elephants as we made our way through the jungle. The elephants seemed fine, and we were glad that the guides honored our requests.
Yoshi's and Jodi's elephant, though, refused to move and we wouldn't let them hurt him to give us our money's worth. After about 15 minutes of our elephant stalling, breaking off huge branches from trees, and cajoling from the guide, we just told him to turn back. Our animal got to rest and eat--that was the most we could do for animal rights today, but at least we did something.
Seeing the elephants in those conditions gave many of us second thoughts about the extent to which tourists are willing to exploit the local environment to have a good time. Some of us plan to return home and do further research into the treatment of elephants in particular.
Lunch was all local vegetables served by the Shan people in an open-air wooden building. The pineapple and watermelon dessert ended one of our best meals so far.
Next: Karen village. There are three sects; this was the white Karen, so called because the single women wore white to represent their availability. These people originated in Burma. The men work in the city, in construction, or cut teak in the forests. With this income and money from tourists, they are able to send their children to a local school where they learn English and Thai.
Next stop: Mae Wok waterfall
We approached the waterfall with caution, thinking it was too cold, the rocks were too slippery, and it was pretty just to look at. But once Lauren got splashed and slipped into the pool under the falls, all previous hesitations went out the window. Soon we were all climbing rocks, standing under the freezing falls, splashing around and screaming like kids. We made such a scene that a Thai onlooker began taking pictures of us. He took us up on our offer to take pictures of him with his wife and adorable daughter in return. We look forward to exchanging pictures by e-mail.
Finally, already wet, we embarked on the final leg of our journey: bamboo rafting. Our guides playfully terrorized us, splashing us with cold water and jolting the rafts to give us an exciting ride. What at first seemed like a lazy float turned to almost white-water rafting. Among the highlights: Poor Yoshi was flung from his float and held on for dear life.
When we got back to the guesthouse, Yoshi immediately collapsed on his bed and was out for hours.
The rest of us went to the night market for dinner. No sharing tonight. Delicious food including (shared) ethnic appetizer: Take a small leaf. Drop in ginger, red onion, baked coconut flakes, dried fish, peanuts, spoon in tamarind sauce.
After dinner, we walked through the overwhelming neon touristic night market. Not quite done for the day, some of us went off to Bubble for dancing.
And we went to sleep anticipating tomorrow: New Year's Eve day Thai style.
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