13th February 14, 2007
Hi guys
Hannah and I have been in Chiang Mai, North Thailand since 7th Feb. We took a 5 hour comfy bus ride north from the cultural hotspot of Sukothai and we are loving it. We have just returned from a fantastic 3 day, 2 night jungle trek in Chiang Dao, further north, on the Burmese border. We have now just finished our first day of a 5 day silver smithing course and we are looking forward to a full day of Thai cooking tomorrow and then we will revert back to the silversmithing. Great. Thought we would hang our hats here and try out a few things. The plan is to stay in Chiang Mai for another 4/5 days and then we will think about crossing over into Laos. Chiang Mai is great and very arty and cultural for Hannah, which she loves.
Our trek costs us 4400 baht (65 pounds) and that included all travel, 2 tour guides (aka chefs), admission into the Chiang Dao wildlife Sanctuary, 2 nights with local Hill Tribes, elephant trek in the wild, lots of trekking and an afternoon of bamboo rafting. It was great.
There was 8 of us and 2 guides. We left early on 9th Feb and took a 4 hour jeep ride into the mountains, further north into the Burmese borders and straight away began a very unforgiving 3 hour inclined jungle trek. We were knackered! Hannah did well with her short legs!!! We walked into the middle of the mountains and stayed the night with a local hill tribe. The great thing is that the locals just carried on with their every day life so it was not touristy, which is what we were obviously looking for. We stayed in a really basic hut, apparently only 90 in this village with all imaginable livestock just running around freely. It was really nice and relaxing.
On the second day (10th feb) we did some more jungle trekking in the morning towards Mae tang river and then took a bamboo raft down the river for a couple of hours to the second hill tribe. For the second tribe, we were advised to bring some presents as they do not see people often as they are off the beaten tourist trek track. We were told that the kids can only go to school if they have pens or pencils, so Hannah and I bought pencils and notepads thinking that we would be helping. After the initial madness of receiving their new gifts, rather than using them in an educational way (which we hoped) we later found the (most of the) kids burning the paper to make fires and rolling it up to smoke ash! - oh well, we tried. We sat them down and tried to draw them pictures and teach them some English, but for some the curiosity was just not there. The fires were good though.
On the final day of our trek (11th Feb.) we visited a local cave with in the wildlife sanctuary park and then had an hour elephant trek in the wild, Hannah and I shared an elephant, and it was amazing. It was great to have a ride on the elephant as it was ripping banana plants down and ripping up bamboo plants and spraying us with water. Wow. We arrived back into Chiang Mai that afternoon and relaxed as we were knackered!
Today, 13th Feb, Hannah and I had our first day on our silversmithing course. You pay for the course and then you pay 20 Baht per gram of silver that you take away with you. As it was our first day, we made some pendants from scratch. Mine was more basic than Hannah's, but I am so impressed with it. We ended up paying 350 baht for the silver used in the 2 pendants - only 5 pounds, bargain! On the following days we will be able to make rings, bracelets and if we have time, some stone setting. I thought I would have a go - why not? - new skill and all.
Apparently Laos is cheaper than India, so look forward to that. Plan to cross the border in the next week and then off to Vietnam from Laos on 5th March as dictated by our visa. Two of Hannah's friends are coming to south Thailand in the middle of April so we plan to meet them in Phuket, south Thailand. Obviously by then we would have down Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia so lots to look forward to.
We are staying in a lovely guesthouse for 250 Baht a night - 4 pounds and having good cheap street food, so all is well.
Cheers my dears.
Jason and Hannah
xxx
