Wednesday, January 23, 2013 Chiang Mai

Here in Chiang Mai it has been 33 degrees and sunny in the daytime and 18 degrees in the evenings. It is has been this temperature since we have been in Chiang Mai.

This morning we had breakfast at our hotel again.  It is very interesting to have eggs with noddles and chicken and salad if you wish, or warm rice in a broth with pork.  We were picked up at 9:00 a.m. by the tour company in a pickup truck with seats in the back.  As we had checked out of our hotel, we left our knapsacks at the tour office taking a light pack with us as we were taking a two-day, one night tour/trek outside of Chiang Mai. 

We picked up the rest of our group, a young woman from France and two young men from Nebraska, all in their late 20's approximately.  We started our tour at an Elephant Camp.  We both sat on the one elephant who seemed to have a mind of his own.  It seems that he was very hungry and would go to many heights to get food.  It is an unbelieveable sensation to be sitting on top of an elephant as he proceeds to climb a hill up and then down -- scary as you cannot believe that the elephant can be so agile and accomplish climbing in a somewhat graceful manner. 

After our elephant adventure, we had lunch.  Lunch was a delicious rice dish.  It would be lovely to know how they accomplished the taste.  After lunch we began our five hour trek in the mountains to the village of the Karen hill tribe.  The trek resembled some parts of the Grouse Grind and some parts of Mt. Everest as we climbed uphill and uphill and uphill.  We passed very tall bamboo trees and poinsetta trees and some farms.  Two-thirds into our journey we stopped at a beautiful spot with a waterfall to cool down and have a break before we proceeded to our final destination.

We arrived at the Karen village around 5.00 pm.  We were shown to our dorm-style accommodations and the toilet (a squatter, no sink or shower, no running water).  We went for a walk in the village to explore the different sights  (uphill,  as the village is built on a hillside).  The village consists of 52 families.  Each home has a solar panel which they have had for some eight years due to the 'Orillia Project'.  When we returned to our host family's home, we went to the kitchen to help with dinner.  Here, in the kitchen, the cook was using a very small fireplace (big enough for one wok).  However, the meal he created was incredible --a chicken curry, and rice and mixed vegetables.  We had homemade rice wine/alcohol with our meal.  It was surprisingly good.  Perhaps, the herbs in the bottle made the difference.

By 9.00 pm. we were all ready for bed after sitting around a fire, in the country quiet, watching the almost full moon in the sky and sharing stories, while our tour leader would break into songs that related to the many parts of our conversations.