Abujah!

Our last few days in Thailand we spent going on a three day trek through northern Thailand. We were joined by Erika's ex-coworker Tessa, who came to Thaialnd on vacation for 10 days. Our trek was a very unique experience for us and we have lots of new memories to share.

The first day of our trek went something like this... A one hour drive north from Chiang Mai we stopped at a local market in order to buy candy for the kids in the villages (more on that later), and for our guide, Todo, to get our food rations for the first few meals. After more than 2 hours of more driving we stopped for lunch then began our hiking. Our first leg took about one hour, and we passed a few wild fires burning along the way and traversed the first of many rickety bamboo bridges...."one at a time". We stopped for a break at a sweet little waterfall where our entire group of nine plus two guides went swimming.

One of the many sketchy bridges along our hike.

After the waterfall we hiked another 2 hours to a Lahu hilltribe village to which one of our guides belonged. At the village we played with the local children who were very happy to see us. Unlike many of the treks offered out of Chiang Mai, the trek we went on is the only group who travels through this village and the Lisu village we stayed at on the second night. Everyone in the village speaks a local dialect, and a few speak Thai, no one spoke more than a few words of english. We were taught one word-Abujah- meant to communicate simple gestures like hello, thank you, goodbye, ect (so we were told). After dinner the village children all gathered together and sang us songs in Lahu, after which we gave out candy, balloons and colored pencils.

Our second day started off with breakfast at 7am, followed by 4 hours of hiking, then lunch, and two hours of bamboo rafting down a river.

We ate lunch the second day with bowls and chopsticks carved from bamboo by our guides.

Rafting down the river, using bamboo poles to avoid rocks and shallow areas.

After rafting we walked 15 minutes to a Lisu hilltribe village, where we stayed at the house of our guide's uncle. That night we enjoyed a delicious home cooked dinner and sat around a bonfire for several hours singing songs while our second guide played the guitar.



Sitting around the campfire is a good time anywhere in the world.

Our third day started out with a short hike to a large cave, through which we hiked for about 2km. After the cave we hiked for 2 hours until we got to a park ranger station where we were supposed to meet elephants to ride on to the final village. Instead no elephants showed up, so after a quick swim in a river, we hiked to the Karen hilltribe village for lunch. After lunch we again waited for elephants, but after an hour of waiting we all decided to just head back to Chiang Mai.


Erika climbing down into the darkness near the cave entrance.
Some of the stalagmite formations made the path a little tricky.

After returning to Chiang Mai at 7pm, Erika and I showered, packed our bags and hopped on a bus to Bangkok at 9pm, then caught another bus at 6am to Cambodia. We had to leave Thailand because our visas ran out, so we will be spending a few weeks in Cambodia, then possibly heading towards Vietnam. More updates to come (we are going to see Angkor Wat tomorrow!).