Trekking in Pai-radise

The idea:

A 3 day trek in the mountains of Northern Thailand. We wanted beautiful scenery, good traveling companions, interesting guides and a good work out.

The setting:

After a process of long deliberation and weighing of ideas about where to base our trek we finally settled on Pai, a small hippie town four hours away from Chiang Mai. The idea was to escape the crowds of CM and trek in mountains away from the masses. Pai is in Mae Hong Son province, a place that has been dubbed "the Switzerland of Thailand."

The decision:

Every one you speak to and everything you read tells you to be very careful about choosing your trek, your guide and your companions. After a few hours of visiting various agencies we chose Bamboo House Trekking for the professionalism of the guide Mon and the route that he mapped out for us.

The characters:

Our guides, Mon and his two brothers are members of the Karen hill tribe, one of the few hill tribes that has lasted in Thailand. Mon is a professional, energetic and enthusiastic guy with a love for the outdoors. Having grown up in the mountains, he's able to sprint up hills that take an average person 30 minutes or more to climb. He's fluent in 7 languages including English, Thai and the dialects of the tribes in Northern thailand. For these reasons we thought he'd be an excellent guide.

The other members of our group included a fun and adventurous British couple who have been together for 10 years, married for 5 and want to get out and see the world before settling back into rural England and having babies; and a laid back, charming Spanish girl whose entrepeneurial sister has settled in Pai with her Israeli boyfriend and 2 year old child.

The trek:

Day 1: We set off on a strong foot, energetic and anxious to hit the road. We hadn't even been walking for 20 minutes when we knew we were in for a hard time. Mon and his brothers had started up a sharp incline at such an alarming speed we didn't know what to make of it. Before long we were all panting, sweating and groaning with disbelief. After a large swig of water Mike lost his breakfast and I began to get worried about the rest of our day. 7 hours of hardcore hills and climbs later, none of us could manage another incline. Mon urged us on, putting us to shame during our breaks by climbing trees, running around and play fighting with his brothers. Finally, with much relief, at around 5pm we caught a glimpse of the Lisu village where we were to spend the night.

Night 1: We were welcomed by the Lisu people, a hill tribe originally from Nepal who fled Burma into Thailand and exist as non-Thai residents in the mountains. We were obviously not the first foreigners they had ever seen although they caught curious glimpses of us whenever we weren't looking and engaged in deep conversation with eachother while glancing at us from the corners of their eyes. Here we spent the evening drinking whisky made from rice, chewing on Betel nut, an addictive powder that has ruined the teeth of many people in Southeast Asia, guzzling down dinner and dancing a traditional dance around a fire to the rhythm of an instrument none of us had ever heard or seen before.

Day 2: We woke early to the sounds of pigs grunting, chickens crowing and dogs squealing right outside our bamboo door. After a brief meal of coffee and toast we hit the road again. Our second day was vastly different from the first. While the first day had been one of ascent, ascent, ascent, our second day was spent crossing 30 or 40 rivers, scurrying across river pathways, over rocks, through waterfalls, under logs and through a dense and lush forest. We spent most of the day bare foot with the soft carpet of leaves beneath our feet, stopping for lunch eaten out of bowls that our guides carved from bamboo. While the first day had been a race to the top, this day was energetic, tiring and kept us thinking 3 steps ahead to the next obstacle in our path.

Night 2: We stopped fairly early and made our grubby way to a nearby waterfall where we squealed and dipped in the freezing water, rubbing the dirt off our bodies as much as possible. When we returned to our jungle camp our guides had already constructed a leafy shelter for us to sleep under, three separate fires for us to warm ourselves by and bamboo everything to live off. With their machetes they had made candle holders, bowls, knives, pots, teapots, grilling skewers, anything imaginable from bamboo. We spent the evening playing games by the fire, marvelling at our guides craftsmanship and drinking more rice whisky.

Day 3: We woke up aching from the previous day's scramble. A morning was spent lazing away at the camp site while our guides hunted and killed a beaver for their lunch, making us breakfast (not beavers!) and boiling water in bamboo pots. We started late and made our way through yet another landscape. While the first day had been mountains and the second jungle, the third day was through forests with dense trees, empty river beds and soil. We stopped for lunch and watched the guides grill their beaver intestines while we munched on sticky rice and cabbage for the third day in the row. Slowly we made our way down hills, through rice fields, across more rivers and then arrived back in Pai, startled by our new "urban" environment where tourists, cars and shops stood out in contrast to our 3 days of jungle.

The consensus:

I cannot describe how wonderful our trek was. It was really was one of the best things I have ever done. We hit the road running, pushed ourselves physically, learnt so much about our environment and the people within it and never once did it ever feel like a tourist trap. Our legs are now aching, we haven't managed to get the grit out from beneath our nails, but the memories of the trek and the people we went with are too wonderful to describe.