Trekking in rainy season
Recently I had a long weekend due to a Buddhist holiday and with schools out on Monday and Tuesday it was time to get out of town and get outside. Another teacher from my school and I headed north to Chiang Rai looking to do some hill tribe trekking. There are about six different hill tribes scattered throughout northern Thailand, southern Laos, and Myanmar, each with their own language, customs and culture. We thought it best then to go with a guide who would know the area and people as opposed to wandering into people’s villages and homes unannounced.
Our guest house in Chiang Rai, owned and operated by a local Akha village, had a second location about 23km outside of town in their village which was famed for its treks. On the ride out of town to the village we met a couple of guys from Denmark looking to do some trekking as well. We joined parties and plans quickly came together.
We were really excited about the trip, especially after meeting our guide, Amae. Amae had grown up in the Akha hill tribe village and now lived there raising his own family, quite a contrast to many western families that can be scattered for miles. He had an intimate knowledge of the area and of traditional Akha skills as well. He spoke not only his tribe’s language, but also Thai, English, and various other tribal languages spoken throughout the region. It puts me to shame, I can only speak Amurikan English.
We set out shortly after breakfast as the clouds were already taking over the sky, reminding us that there was little hope of staying dry for the next couple of days.
One of the main cash crops for the area is green tea. It’s grown by two or three villages in the area and can be seen on many of the hillsides.
Amae showed us a simple fishing technique that requires no rod, reel, line or nets. We built a series of small rock dams near a fork in the creek and filled them in with mud. The goal was to divert the water to one fork and bring the other one to a trickle. Then it was relatively easy (relative of course to a full flowing creek) to see small fish and catch them with your hands. It was still pretty difficult in reality and I think I’ll stick with getting fish from the market.
Shortly after leaving the creek the sky opened up, the rain fell relentlessly and my camera went in my bag. It wasn’t long until we all felt as if we had jumped into a swimming pool fully clothed. Despite the rain and cold (yes it can get chilly in Thailand) Amae was hard at work cutting bamboo, building a banana leaf cover, having us fill bamboo tubes with water, and generally not explaining where any of it was going. He then proceeded to get a fire going with wet wood in the midst of a downpour. He worked silently as we watched in bewilderment and would only break his silence to point at the fire and say “easy.” Of course it is…”easy.”
Soon the rain let up and we enjoyed a modest lunch that had been prepared in the bamboo tubes Amae had cut down. It was a pretty simple process, one end was open and one wasn’t. Add water, add noodles and vegetables and a little salt, plug the open end with a bunch of bananna leaves and put it over the fire. Wait ten minutes or so and you’ve got a fresh warm meal.
As we didn’t really have any bowls or utensils, Amae showed us how to make cups and chopsticks from bamboo. He made five of the sets below in about ten minutes only using a machete. It was certainly impressive.
We packed up and got back to hiking after a rainy lunch in the jungle. The rain subsided a little in the afternoon, but it wasn’t gone completely.
We arrived that evening to a small Lahu village just before the rain started falling again. The village was set on top of a hill and was only accessible by trails that were suitable for walking or motorbike. All of the rainfall had left them over saturated and extremely slippery, in fact many of the motorbikes in the village had to have chains on the rear tire for traction.
The village is home to about twelve families who migrated around 40 years ago whom are mostly autonomous and self sustaining. On the hill sides around the village they grow rice only for themselves among a few other crops while pigs and chickens roam around just as freely as dogs. One quickly gets the impression that life is fairly strait forward within the village.
Lonley Planet mentions that Lahu food is generally the spiciest among the hill tribes and I was looking forward to see how I’d stand up to it. However at dinner time all that was served was a potato and coconut milk soup, some mixed vegetables and a couple of omelets. No spice to be found at all! Either Lonley Planet was wrong, or we we’re just served good’ole ferang food.
A couple of the kids from the village.
This little guy took a liking to using my camera after I showed him how to take pictures. He started working towards his masterpiece and took the picture of me below. He even got into giving good direction. Once he motioned to me that I shouldn’t smile, but rather have a blank face like his!
Starting on the hike back to the Akha village with the clouds just as looming as the day before. Fortunately they cleared out and it didn’t rain.
Amae had tons of tricks up his sleeve, this one involved stepping his entire body around a staff with out taking his hands off.
One of the guys from Denmark didn’t do as well.
This waterfall was about ten minutes from the Akha village. It was our last stop on the trek and the water was a welcome relief after hiking most of the day!
All in all a great trip, even if I did get really sick from all the rain a week later.
