Jungle Trekking in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai is a hotspot for adventure tourism, as well as being a small(ish) city with some pretty markets and vibrant nightlight (oh Lord, sorry, I'll try and sound a little less 'Lonely Planet' while I set the scene for you). A lot of the guests who came to the hostel, SpicyThai, went to visit Elephant sanctuaries nearby but as it cost a small fortune to see them (60-100 quid) I opted for a trek into the jungle with an overnight stay with a hill tribe. It also included an elephant trek and white water rafting and bamboo (?!) rafting.

We drove for a couple of hours outside Chiang Mai and ate lunch at a place by the side of the road at the bottom of one of the giant 'hills'.

Very quickly people in jazzy clothing with lots of tassles started surrounding us and I thought this was the hill tribes come to sell us things (I've heard that hill tribe experiences can lack authenticity with the influx of tourism in recent years) but it turned out they were having a party between two tribes that were meeting up to eat and swap gifts for their New Year's celebrations. An old Thai man directly behind me started strumming a two stringed instrument that looked like a poorly made ukulele. From thinking he was going to beg for money, I realised (kind of ashamed) that he was providing the entertainment and he was loving it for himself. There was a real buzz as the group and myself finished up our rice with veggies, the tribes ignored us as we oggled back. Some were dressed in what could be described as traditional clothing whilst others wore western t-shirts and shorts. Others, bizarrely, mixed up the two with maybe a football top on with a tassley black and zebra striped waistcoat on top. It felt really special to be in the thick of it to be honest, you couldn't get more authentic than that.

After food we walked up. And I mean all the way up. Never mind 'hill' they should be called the freaking super-tall-highup-mountain tribes. It was exhausting but I held on to the hope that they would be incredible views at the top. Walking through the jungle was amazing itself, we didn't see tigers or monkeys (unfortunately) but the scenery around the whole time was jawdroppingly beautiful. Uber tall trees, ravines, rocks, canopies, waterfalls surrounded us and it was pretty magical.

At one point, one of our short bare-chested guides, LaBo, (who we worked out actually was a part of the hill tribe) stopped to tackle some giant bamboo. He'd already macheted his way through some to make us walking sticks for the steep climb, but this time he wanted a 7ft long bamboo - I'm still not entirely sure why he did this. Maybe he wanted to make the climb even tougher for himself because hoisted the giant bamboo on his back and continued the trek upwards with at least another hour to go. All the while he had what looked to be a young girl's red tassled bag hung across his body, somehow it didn't stain his Tarzan image. I later found out that this bag was his tribes the Lahu's identifying feature, men more often than women wore it!

As we arrived at the top of the hill, no, MOUNTAIN, we turned back to what was an absolutely stunning view of north Thailand's thick jungle that went on as far as the eye could see. We trekked the remaining ten minutes through the Lahu village, their small houses were spread out and built on stilts and thatched with grass.

From the livestock (chickens, pigs etc) that wandered around freely, it seemed to be pretty self-sustaining, I imagine they had to be as they were completely cut off from society up there!

Our hut was at the end of the village, it was a basic one on stilts like the others, specially made for the tourists with nothing but a dozen thin mattresses on a raised platform of wood with mosquito nets hanging over each one. It was located in a beautiful spot where they made a balcony on stilts that stood on the side of this mountain looking out at the rest of the jungle around us.

That night they made us their staple dish of sticky rice (of course) with chicken curry and veggies, as the sun went down we chilled out on our balcony, and then around the fire listening to LaBo playing western songs on his guitar (Greenday apparently his fave), he was so good and it made the atmosphere so relaxed. We watched as another of our guides stuffed rice down a bamboo shoot (the one from earlier?!) and let it cook for an hour or so on the fire, turning it round carefully every so often. The result was sticky rice, with a hint of plant flavour, sweetened by sugary condensed milk poured on top. This was our desert and I have to praise the tribe for their resourcefulness and variations in rice dishes!

At this point my new Israeli friend, Hany, said to our guide as she came out of our hut; 'Er, there's a spider inside, please could you get rid of it?' in a calm yet strained voice.

Well I had to look! Thinking it would be a tiny one from her lack of screaming... it was NOT tiny! Biggest I've seen, with legs that easily reached the size of my hand! I may have yelped at this point. The guide didn't reappear out of the hut with a spider between his hands though so we all wondered where it has gone...

The trek down the mountain the next day was less strenous in some ways but hard as it was difficult to know where to place your foot without slipping! Naturally, I fell over a few times.

When we got to the bottom we did an elephant trek. This lasted about 20 minutes or so and we did a circular route through a river and back to the main site. There's a lot of contention over how the elephants are treated in Thailand and I've got to say at the end, as they were being chained up, we felt guilty. They seemed slow and docile but it didn't feel natural. We were told they were going to be taken back to their 'park' but this seemed unlikely. There are about 3 nature reserves in the area that reportedly treat the elephants well, in sanctuaries where you don't ride them but look after them but as I said before they are super pricey and always booked up days ahead.

The rafting was pretty poor too as there was little water for the rapids!! The bamboo raft saw us floating down the river that was 2 ft deep, our bums submerged in water as there were 7 of us on it - it seemed a little pointless and we tried to get out and/or stand up but we were told off for moving... Overall the trek for 30 quid was incredible experience even with the rather shit extra bits at the end!

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