Jungle Book
Trekking through the jungle that is the Mae Tang district of Northern Thailand is probably one of the craziest things I’ve done. And I loved every sweaty moment of it.
The two villages we stayed at were the Karen village and the ____.
We had another local guide Sammy join us for the trek and was our hiking leader.
We saw poisonous catepillars crawling up trees, tarantulas creep out of the hiding holes (when poked at by a bamboo stick by Sammy and other boys, typical), banana trees and wild fruits such as figs. I tried a bite of a goose berry - it was so sour I had to spit on the one bite I had. Apparently, they are used medicinally in the area to stop coughing, especially with pregnant women. Fun fact.
We saw water buffalo roaming around, eating and cooling off in random swamps of water. We even saw a few elephants passing us in the village at some point.
The actual trek was rough. It was dry season and so going downhill, especially at the super steep parts, was tough sometimes when you were slipping on sliding leaves. The sound of someone on leaves behind you always speed up your heartbeat. Then the really steep uphill points were tough too. But the trek was also beautiful. We passed rice patty fields, saw people working on their farms.
Staying at the two villages was a really special experience that definitely made the trek worth it. We got to walk around the villages once we got there. Karen village is only about 250 people and the __ village is slightly more than 300 and is considered a mid-size village. As we walked, chickens and wild dogs were running around, and penned up pigs snorted. I got to watch a woman weaving a shirt, something that can take up to 10 days. Every woman learns how to weave from their mother, and I think it’s really neat that it’s an art that gets passed down generation to generation. The men in the villages still hunt. I got to help cook dinner by frying up some chicken, while my friend Emma got to stir fry the vegetables. It was neat seeing what their kitchen looked like, and sitting on a stool cooking on the floor. Quick note about how amazing all the food there was!
When we arrived at the second village, we had some free time to go swim in the river and cool off. It was so refreshing after trekking 10km that day. I found some really long bamboo shoots floating in the river that I laid out on. Closing my eyes, floating in the river with the sun beating down on me, I was at peace with the world. Until some local men showed up at the river holding their fishing rods and stared at us! We wondered if we were in the fishing spot, if they were trying to tell me to get off their bamboo, or were just staring at Westerners, but they ended up leaving. What was more interesting was after that, a big group of young boys came down, threw their shirts off and ran into the river. They climbed up the rocks and jumped off into the water (which was only slightly deeper than my full height at its deepest point) and also played on the bamboo. They sat cross-legged on it, stood up with each leg on a different bamboo shoot, sometimes jumping off of it into the water. Then when a little cart came around ringing its bell, they all ran out of the water to buy what looked like pink popsicles. They eventually ran back into the water after I went back on the bamboo and was sitting on it (it’s actually harder than it looks to balance yourself on multiple bamboo shoots). We smiled at each other as they joined me on the bamboo and continued their games. It was really interesting to interact with the locals in a way, just sharing the same spot and enjoying the afternoon and company of friends and each other without having to speak.
At the second village, we got to learn how to make spring rolls from one of the women in the family we were staying with. We then all helped to make the spring rolls for dinner that we would be eating! We also got to watch how to make a bamboo basket from scratch, which was absolutely fascinating, and then all take a turn in doing it ourselves. The guy made it look pretty easy when he did it, but we all learned when it was our turn that it was more intricate and detailed than it looked; we all missed areas that he pointed out and we had to go back and redo them. I actually got to keep the bamboo basket we all made and bring it back to the US with me, which was a really special souvenir since we all made it together, and I’m glad I have that memento to remember my trip by. After helping to make the bamboo basket, some boys went off to watch how they collected ant eggs from a tree (that actually got used in soup for dinner — that was the one item of food in Thailand I didn’t try!) but a couple of us went down to the river to watch how bamboo rafts get made.