Back To Civilization

Saturday 14 October

Our last day in the jungle. The sun was still shining – we had been very lucky to escape the rains, which would have made the trip very miserable. Anan’s breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs (like a huge omelette cut into sections) and even I enjoyed it, along with piles of toast and jam and pineapple chunks.

Whilst we were munching, a group of local boys joined our porter making two more rafts, to the same design as yesterday’s craft and soon we were all changed into our “wet” gear with life jackets on and loading bags and ourselves onto the three rafts. Anan had ‘employed’ four local boys to assist with poling the rafts down river. We set off at a good speed as the current ‘hurried’ us along, and met our first set of rapids just around the bend. These were much larger than those experienced yesterday, and waves surged towards and over us as we floated downstream. It was great fun with lots of shrieking and laughter as we bumped up and down in the current and the local boys performed somersaults off the rafts into the water and leapt back on like acrobats in a circus. At one point we had to ‘land’ and walk along the rocky riverbank as the rapids were too dangerous for us all to stay on the rafts. The boys poling sped by as we crawled along – only a few hundred yards – and picked us up again as the waters calmed. We stopped half way along our journey – for another ‘ciggy break’ (I am not sure how they managed to keep their cigarettes dry, as we were totally soaked from head to toe) and those of a more adventurous character took a swim – but the current was very strong and it was hard not to get swept further downstream. We continued to ‘bob’ along passing several more areas of white water rapids, everyone enjoying the challenge of staying aboard. About an hour and a half later we arrived at our final destination. During winter and summer months this trip would have taken double this time, but as the river is in flood, and the current very fast, we arrived early.

Once on dry land, it was time to change out of our wet clothes in what was to be our dining room for lunch at the local café’. In the heat of midday it didn’t take long for us to dry, but we loaded our sodden clothes into our back-packs and which suddenly felt much heavier. Lucky we didn’t have to carry them any further. As we finished changing, more ladies arrived with their trinket trays and this time I bought a necklace of turquoise stones set in a sun-ray design. It was very pretty and cost just over 1GPB!

Lunch was fried noodles with vegetables and pineapple and we also had the opportunity to try deep fried bamboo grubs – these looked like white caterpillars, stiffened with cooking so that their little feet (or suckers) stood out from the crispy bodies. They tasted of not a lot – just like a thin crispy nibble.

We tipped the local boys who had paddled us downstream as they waved goodbye and started out on their three hour trek back to the village. When the local people want to go to market or into the larger towns, they raft to this village, pick up the local bus and on their return have to walk upstream back to the village with their purchases – it takes them about three hours to get back to the village where we stayed last night,so goodness knows how long it would take us.

The tut-tuts arrived to transport us back to Chiang Mai – a two hour drive over bumpy and pot-holed roads, often close to steep sided ravines dropping down to the river bounding along in torrents and much larger rapids below us. Driving on level cement roads into the city was very unexciting after our experiences of the last few days. We had two rooms reserved for our use to shower and change at the Suan Doi House Hotel, so we took it in turns as couples, to return to feeling like civilized human beings again and reclaim our cases that had been left with reception. All too soon it was time to leave for the station, to board a train taking us back to Bangkok overnight. We arrived at Chiang Mai station about 16.45 and the train was already standing at the platform, ready to leave at 17.50, giving us just enough time to stock up on goodies to munch and sup on the journey. The train advertised as the “Bangkok Express” left exactly on time and we all settled into our seats to watch the sunset as we left Chiang Mai. During the first few hours, as we chugged along, I spent time writing the blog for the last few days – until both batteries collapsed. Attendants came along the carriages selling food and drinks (we had been told to be wary of the food, but some of our party braved it – only to feel slightly off colour the next morning). Colin and I ate crisps and biscuits and a tray of mixed fresh fruit we had purchased on the platform and drank Singhas and orange juice. The train is not “express” in our terms – it just rattles along at a steady pace which is why it takes more than 12 hours to do this journey of about 900 kms. We each had a ‘double’ size seat by British Rail standards, which were comfortable, and when the attendant came along to make up the beds - one upper and one lower bunk - they are as comfortable as many of the beds we have slept in at the hotels. A good night’s sleep is possible as long as not too many people chat, or sing or snore throughout the night.

As I said at the beginning of Thursday’s entry – you forget about the pain and the grimmer aspects of the trip, and remember the high points of the tour , as well as the camaraderie of the group and the laughs we had together. We definitely enjoyed the elephant trekking and rafting, and even some of the less arduous trekking was fun. We have seen first hand the jungle life in Northern Thailand, met the local villagers and seen their culture and way of life – no technology or modern day equipment here, even electricity is not always available, although solar panels are becoming more widespread. We have seen television programmes on the lives of primitive peoples in the jungle, but we have now encountered their way of living first hand – if only for a couple of days. Even Pok who comes from Bangkok, says he could not live in that manner for more than a couple of weeks at a time. But the steep ups and downs were not pleasurable – even the fittest amongst us found them hard – and I don’t think anyone was prepared for the very primitive level of accommodation we experienced. But overall it was great fun, and we all gelled together as a team, only too ready to help each other when it was needed. It has been a great challenge which we have met, fairly successfully, I think.

Tomorrow we will have 36 hours in Bangkok to recover before we start on the second part of our Thailand tour. My toe nails are not good and may need more attention tomorrow – at the hotel in Chiang Mai, the second nail became detached and is fairly painful, despite good doctoring by Colin. But we are looking forward to the next challenge as we travel south.