Trekking - Elephant Style - Is A Great Improvement

Friday 13 October

What would today bring after yesterday’s exploits – the date was daunting enough. We were all up around 06.30. Hardly anyone had slept very much (except Gustavo who had snored all night) as the cocks crowed in competition with each other for many hours, but the sun was breaking through the dawn sky as we appeared from the ‘bedroom’ – at least there had been no more rain during the night. I went with Colin to the river to brush my teeth – and used baby wipes to have a quick ‘wash’ – I would have to wait till tonight for a shower. Looking at my feet, my left big toenail was completely ‘blue’ – a rich turquoise blue that match my flip flops perfectly. The right toe, although a bit red and bruised, did not seem to have suffered as much. Colin became my doctor and applied plasters to my injured toe and my thumb which was blistered from holding my bamboo pole – obviously my hands have not been hardened by housework in the past!

Breakfast consisted of about five dozen hard boiled eggs, piles of toast, a tub of butter, a couple of large bowls of strawberry jam and a bowl of pineapple chunks. I gave the eggs a miss, but the toast and jam, followed by some very sweet fresh pineapple chunks was very welcome. Colin and I drank local jasmine tea, made in a large old and battered black kettle. It was hot and went down well. It was then time to repack our back packs, and set off on another trek!

Before leaving the village we stopped and watched a women weaving cloth on a very basic wooden loom in bright reds, blues and white, which would then be embroidered with intricate patterns and bands. Two of these strips would be joined together down the middle to form shirts for the men or longer ones for dresses. Women who were not married wore white dresses. Once a year a festival is held, where everyone in the village has to have new clothes, so there is lots of weaving to do throughout the year. One of the straps on Rob’s back-pack had come away from his bag during yesterday’s trek, and the woman kindly offered to sew it back on. She used tough thread and a large needle, which she had no trouble getting through the tough material with just her fingers. We also inspected the village rice mill – a stone pot with a pump-like lever lifting and lowering another stone on to the rice- up and down until it is powder. It was then time to start our ‘hike’ - upwards again.

We had not gone far when we met some children selling necklaces – they were aged between about 4 and 8 years old and smiled beguilingly at this strange party. Needless to say between us we bought all their stock. We continued upwards along the track, still very wet and slippery, our shoes often sinking in squelching mud. I found that if I walked at the front of the group, behind Anan, our leader, I coped better. The ground today was not as steep and challenging as that of yesterday, but it was still uphill an extremely hazardous and we had to concentrate on each step, many times reliant on our poles. Eventually the track led downhill again, and we used the large ‘potholes’ filled with water in the path as footholds - these were in fact, elephant footprints!

We had walked for about two hours to reach the elephant camp – a similar collection of wooden buildings to other villages, but this time right beside a wide, fast flowing river – we later found out it was the Maitang River. The people were members of the Lahu or Muser Tribe of which there are about 60,000 in Thailand, who only arrived in Thailand from the beginning of the 20th century. They can be distinguished from other clans by their elaborate traditional dresses – basic black cloth, decorated with rich colours and lots of silver baubles and coloured beads sewn close together all over. They wore black hats, similar to Dutch caps, also with silver baubles and beads. The women we met were probably in their 30’s, but already their skins were wrinkly brown, but their smiles were wide and welcoming. There were several young children playing and swimming in the river, wearing no clothes at all.

No sooner had we sat down with a drink from the coolbox (all the villages have a good supply of water, soft drinks and beer to supply to intrepid trekkers like us who pass by) than a couple of the local women came over with trays of trinkets, belts, bags and purses they had made. They showed off their wares, and needless to say, we all bought something – I bought a couple of bracelets, one metal and one beady for 150 bahts. The pressed us all to buy more, of course, but there is a limit. Anan cooked us another very tasty lunch – this time of noodles and vegetables, followed by more pineapple chunks.

It was then time to go trekking on the elephants. We had been on an elephant in Koh Samui, and this ride was similar, except that the path taken by the elephants wound up a steep rising stream, only just wide enough for the elephant to walk along, with lots of twists and turns, and large boulders and fallen trees along the way. There were five elephants in all, and they lumbered their way, one behind the other, slowly uphill, finding the best place to plant each large foot, before lifting the next. Sometimes we were holding on to the back of the chair as we dipped forward over the elephant’s head looking directly down at the ground, and at other times we were gripping the sides as we were almost vertical down the elephant’s back facing the ground as they negotiated the terrain. It was all great fun, with squeals and laughter and we would all have liked it to last longer than the one and a half hours as we returned to the camp.

If the water in the river had not been so high due to the recent heavy rains, the elephants would normally have transported us along the riverside to the camp where we were to spend tonight. But the waters had now flooded over the sandy banks and it would be impossible for the elephants to walk along in the river. So Anan had decided to build a raft to take all our back-packs and four ladies, downstream while the rest of the team trekked again. Paula, Donna, Mischell and I were the chosen four to raft. Anan’s assistant cut more bamboo poles with his machete from the surrounding trees and proceeded to lash them together by twisting thin pliable strips of bamboo around the poles. He also built a tripod on the front of the raft to hold all the bags, and cut some extra poles to punt with. The bags were all hung on the tripod – it just about held the fifteen back packs we had with us - but as we four girls got on, the raft began to sink!!! They just got another pole and attached it to one side of the raft and we were afloat. Anan’s assistant poled at the front, and Pok, our tour leader, at the back, with the four of us sat in the middle. We were warned not to put our fingers around the poles, as we held on as the poles might move and trap them. The water lapped at our legs as we floated downstream, sometimes gently as we let the current take us, at other times waves broke over us as we crossed small rapids, and we lurched along. The water shoes I had borrowed from Juz were perfect for rafting. It was great fun and took us about half an hour to reach the camp.

The four of us took advantage of our early arrival to shower and change and sort out our beds for the night. The loo here was European style, and had only been installed in the last couple of months – pure heaven! The rest of the party arrived about an hour and a half later. Their trip had been much harder than the raft. First of all they had to cross a bridge over the river, where the slats were about 6 inches wide and the gap about 6 inches at the start, but finished up with very thin slats and gaps of about 2 feet wide! Even carrying a “walking stick’ was difficult – it was a good job they didn’t have their back-packs too. Mick – the Aussie brickie – slipped through at one stage, up to his hips, but successfully managed to lever himself upwards, hanging on to the side wires. Colin said that the path mainly followed the river, but went steeply up and down over the rocks along the river side and was very, very muddy (when they eventually arrived at the camp they were all covered in the red slimy mud of this area). The pace set by Anan was fast, which meant that the group soon became strung out, especially as they had to stop and help each other in some of the more treacherous places. The trek was about 5 kms, and we were pleased when they all arrived in one piece – Pok had been quite concerned after about an hour, but as I said before, Thai’s tend to under-exaggerate time and distance.

The ‘trekkers’ all felt refreshed after a cold shower, and we sat around and chatted on the balcony, watching the muddy brown eddies rush by in torrents. It was very relaxing after another grueling day. Anan meanwhile, was preparing another delicious meal for us – his speciality of spring rolls, accompanied by yellow potato and pork curry, mixed vegetables (including beans, carrots, cauliflower, asparagus and peas – all locally grown) and of course steamed rice. He filled the pots several times tonight as we all managed to eat much more. We finished with more pineapple and jasmine tea or coffee- a veritable banquet. As we sat on the balcony after the meal, two local children aged 6 and 10 entertained us with some of their songs, with actions – like our children sing nursery rhymes. They were very charming and cute and we all applauded enthusiastically at the end. We couldn’t see if they blushed at our compliments as by this time it was dark again, and we only had a couple of candles to see by. Anan then joined us and performed some magic tricks, which enthralled the local children who all came to watch. It was then time for bed – and hopefully more sleep tonight than last. Another couple of Spanish groups had arrived after us and were staying in huts just along the river. They played guitars and sang well into the night. There were several dogs here amongst the other animals (cats, horses and chickens) all of whom were very mangy, and one of them decided to sleep on the vacant bed next to us – I don’t know if it was his fleas or bed bugs, but something had a good feast off my legs during the night. It’s a good job we still have some of Jean’s Magic Cream, which has come in very handy throughout this trip.