Chiang Mai – 3 Day Trek

The crew busy trying to make plans.

In the morning, I woke up to find that Chris and Cheryl had arrived. Now the crew was complete. Sabine, Aaren, Christoph and myself had already signed up to do a 3 day trek and now Chris and Cheryl were coming too. Our trek was to consist of an elephant ride, hiking, two over night stays and a bamboo rafting trip. We were told we should probably bring long pants, suitable hiking shoes, swim suit and a decent hiking bag. I didn’t have the long pants or hiking bag. We went back to the night market and this time actually had a goal in mind. We were all looking for things pick up that might help us with the trek.

On our way through the market, I got easily distracted. We came across some more food vendors selling different kinds of sausages and meatballs. Everything was cooked right there in the open market and handed out in a bag. A word of warning, things that come off a stove are hot.

Fire + Food = Burnt tongue

I burnt my tongue trying to take a bit of my sausage. Who would have thought it. Well, since my sense of taste was shot I moved on to some more exotic foods. Right next to the sausage stand were the fried insects. I could decide which ones would be best so I got a mixed bag that was a little bit of everything. The curious thing about fried insects is that no matter what kind of bug it is, it will always taste like a frying oil. As I bit into my first bug, which I think was some sort of cockroach, I noticed that the frying oil seemed to replace it’s innards. There was no real taste of bug and in fact, if I was blind folded, I would have probably only known that I was eating a bug by the crunchy exoskeleton and wings that get stuck between your teeth. This was the same for the grasshopers, mealworms, silk worms, crickets, whirl wigs and whatever else was in my bag. I ended up feeling sick after a few different kinds. It wasn’t because of the thought of eating insects but because the grease had long since dried up. It would be similar I think to take all the grease left over from cooking burgers and then taking a bite out of it when it set up and became solid. Make sure that if you are ever trying something like this to have a lot of your favorite type of drink around. You will need something with strong flavor and preferably something with some carbonation to break up the grease.

If you listen carefully you can almost hear the crunch.

Moving on after the bugs was easy. I definitely was not hungry anymore and could concentrate on the task at hand. We found a store that specialized in travel bags. Most of them were still 10-15 dollars but when you see it in Baht, you think 320 – 475, and that was way too much for us. We were used to spending around 40 Baht for a half decent meal and were only spending around 130 Baht per day on lodging. Cheryl and I were both looking at the same style of bag. It was a single strap, over the shoulder style bag. They were 250 Baht each and we were able to talk the store owner down to 225 Baht. We were to find out later why they weren’t worth the investment. The last thing that I need was a pair of pants. It was very hard to find any pants what so ever in that market. We ended up finding a small vendor that had a few pairs. Everyone there all seemed to be wanting the same thing and supplies were short. I quickly grabbed the last pair of men size large and didn’t think twice about arguing over the 50 Baht price tag. With every ones shopping complete we headed back to the guest house. As soon as I got back I tried on the pants that I had just bought to make sure they would fit okay. I then realized the difference between a westerners men’s large and an Asian men’s size large. These pants were so tight that while wearing them my voice could only be heard by dogs. I first tried them with boxers on and them with nothing. I was afraid to bend or stretch too much in them otherwise people might be getting a show that in Thailand should only be found in Patong or Nana. I was feeling a bit dejected. This was my first bad purchase so far. I was low on room but couldn’t bring myself to throwing anything away. I decided that I would take the pants with me and hopefully find a use for them.

The next day, everyone was buzzing around trying to get things settled before leaving for the trek. We all packed our day bags with the essentials, smokes, lighters, cameras, insect repellent, sun screen, memory cards and money. A few people also made sure to have first aid packs. We locked up all of our backpacks and put them inside the owners house for safe keep. After a few last minute photos we were on a mini bus headed towards the mountains. We picked up a couple other people who were all doing a day trip that included an elephant ride and one day hike through the jungle. The first stop was to be the elephants. Immediately, this trip started off feeling like a tourist trap. You seemed to be ushered everywhere and everything was very regimented. You get off the bus and have five minutes to take pictures and figure out who is riding with who. We must have been running a little behind because our five minutes was very short. We decided that Christoph, Aaren and myself would be on the first elephant while, Sabine, Cheryl and Chris were on the second one. I got the pleasure of riding directly on the elephants neck/shoulders. It was very uncomfortable.

Trying to balance and get more bananas at the same time. Notice the wedgie inducing seating style.

I had the worst wedgie of my life plus there isn’t a good place to hang on so I ended up rolling over “my boys” a couple times. As soon as we started going I realized why they were so strict about the first part with the elephants. They are massive creatures and are very powerful. It wouldn’t be too much for one of these gentle beasts to turn on you and end your life. We had trainers there the entire time making sure that everything went as planned. The ride itself wasn’t too bad once you got over the fact that you are just a passenger and that the ride was going to be bumpy. Before the ride started you had the opportunity to by bananas. The bananas ended up being the sole reason for our elephant to move. If you rated the elephants in bananas per yard the same was you rate cars in gallons of gas per mile then my elephant would have been turned into scraps in California for failing to meet efficiency standards. My elephant had more than once refused to move because we weren’t feeding it often enough.

We finished the ride without any major incedents and moved on to the next place. We stopped at a local market that had plenty of fresh fruit and even had a clothing store with good quality clothes. It didn’t take long to find another pair of pants that actually fit. There was no bargaining here as it was obvious that we needed the pants and there was no other place to get them. Everyone wandered around the market with the warning that we needed to stay in groups so that we wouldn’t get kidnapped. I am not sure if there was any truth to it but no one seemed to test it. Once our guides had all the food they needed, we got back on the road and found ourselves a a quiet villa near by. We had to keep ourselves entertained for a couple hours while we waited for food to get prepared. The best part of the meal was the fresh pineapple and watermelon that was picked up at the market. The rest of the food must have been very good as well because I can’t recall a single person speaking until the plates were empty. After the meal, the two groups split up. The one day trek left first for their hike and we stayed behind to wait for our guides to return. We were all thankful to get the extra time to let the food settle and even catch a quick nap before our trek started.