sanpatong

just completed a 3 day, 2 night trek in sanpatong (about 50km sw of chiang mai). highlight of the trip so far. a songtao took us to meet the other trekkers and then we headed toward doi inthanon natural park where we stopped to ride elephants! as there was no room in the basket that was secured on the elephant's back, i was allowed so sit on his head for the entire ride. incredible. throughout the ride we would stop to buy sugarcane and bananas to feed the strong pachyderm. he ate each banana whole, and in about a second. most of the time he would have his trunk near my face begging for more, and when we paced out the treats too long he would shoot water back at me. i felt like indy in the temple of doom.

after the elephants and lunch we trekked for about 2 hrs through the jungle. i was on point for the first day - the whole time thinking of every vietnam war movie i have ever seen. while others talked gleefully, i was busy scanning the jungle for charlie in the trees. the doors and stones were playing in my head, and somewhere along the line i acquired a bamboo spear. our guide, "joe", looked out of the killing fields as he had a headband on like the khlmer rouge. the trek itself was perfect: challenging, wild, rugged. at several points we crossed rivers on bamboo bridges. but i never did end up seeing the man in the black pajamas; the worthy adversary.

that night we slept in a karen village. note: the karen people are make up the largest tribal group in thailand (250,000). they also have been battling with the burmese for years for the creation of an autonomous state. the relationship between the trekkers was incredible. there were people from australia, the netherlands, estonia, france, bulgaria, and of course canada and thailand (this in a group of just 14 people). through an assortment of charades and broken english we all sang songs, played cards, told stories from our homelands and learned about each other. it was total communal living - sharing food, space, supplies and company. if only the whole world could be the same. the nights in the north are freezing (near 0 c) and none of us really slept due to the cold. no one complained though, and the simple meals of rice or noodles with spice or veggies were devoured. lydia and i both made friends, especially with the aussie girls nikki and carley, and we may even see them when we get to sydney.

the next day we had another challenging hike which was almost entirely uphill. at the end of the day we had passed through the most dense jungle and challenging conditions and heat. that night we camped at the base of a waterfall. the water was amazingly cold, which helped me clear off the mud from my own designed short cut (note: there has to be difficulties with short cuts or else it would just be the way).

on the final day of the trek we came within view of doi inthanon (8,400 feet), thailand's highest mountain. we also had a chance to do bamboo rafting down a river. our craft, far from seaworthy, navigated through the rapids using bamboo sticks. we did, however, lose a bulgarian at one section of the river but everyone just laughed it off (including him). after a long songtao ride home, and sad goodbyes and email exchanges we returned home for a needed shower.