Day 104: Trekking with Gaou

We had some whining yesterday when we announced "well kids, we have a full day trek with a guide planned for tomorrow!". Robin said she was "all trekked out" and Abby was moaning as well. We'd just gotten back from the hour and half drive from the Elephant Nature Park, so it wasn't too surprising they were in that inertial state of mind. Or maybe it was the fact that we delivered this news while they had some precious iPad time. We've really been limiting the iPad time on the trip - they just turn in to drones when they're on the things. Robin creating huge worlds in minecraft whether she has an Internet connection or not. For Abby, it's minecraft when offline, and friends and Instagram when online. I get it. They don't get it. Drones :-)

We'd decided to do a trek at the last minue, by Tyndall standards (Beth booked it when we were in Luang Prabang). Beth had done a ton of research, looking for a company that offered a bit of an exclusive experience. She found Wonderful Eco Tours from their reviews on Trip Advisor - and what stuck out were the many references to a guide named Kaew or Gaou (it's pronounced like "gale" without completely finishing the "L" sound). It must be so tough to stick out as a tour company in Chang Mai. The market is so developed and there is so much out there. This compounded by the fact that everyone pretty much rates every experience a 4 or 5 makes you really delve into the details when finding an excursion. We chose Wonderful Eco Tours even though they were relatively new and only had about 50 reviews - Beth chose well!

Gaou and his driver picked us up at the hotel at 8:00am sharp as promised. Gaou was a younger guy, maybe mid twenties, and was full of contagious enthusiasm - we immediately took to him. The guy did not stop talking all day, and what he said was really interesting. His mannerisms sometimes struck me as Japanese - very polite, apologetic for his poor English (Gaou, we've seen and heard a lot of guides - your English is excellent! What a vocabulary!) and he would often precede or follow a "semi" controversial statement or simple opinion with a "to be frank" or "frankly speaking" - it reminded me of my friend in Japan, Mr. Norio Hara and also the guide in Mulu who used to always end sentences with "by the way".

His driver, Anan, was also a great guy. He was older, having been a 3 day / 2 night trek guid in Chang Mai when we were there in the late 90's. They were both from the tribal villages in Chang Rai, about three hoursNortheast of Chang Mai. Like Joseph in Kuching, Gaou grew up with the jungle as his playground - often spending the night in the jungle while on a hunt with his father and brothers. You could tell - when he got in the jungle, he got a little jump in his step and he had the hugest smile on his face.

We were spending the day in Doi Inthanon National Park. Doi means "mountain" and Mt. Inthanon is the highest peak in Thailand. We were going to be taking a walk in the clouds.

The drive to the main gate of the park was about an hour, then we continued on a newly paved road another half hour until we stopped. Gaou explained that this area was one of the many "Royal Projects" in the area that have been set up in the north over the last twenty years to help the hill tribes. In addition to healthcare and education, the projects also helped the tribes convert opium plant production to sustainable farming. It seems to be working - he said Thailand has zero problems with opiates now, with methamphetamines from China being the biggest drug problem now (that seems to be a problem everywhere, not just Thailand or Southeast Asia for that matter).

The village we stopped in was a Karen settlement of 80 families and 400 people (family sizes which probably reflects their connections to the modern world). We hiked up to a little cabin and discovered a single family Arabica coffee bean factory. Some of the crops that were popular due to the climate on the mountain were coffee bean plants. This little house was one of the two "production factories" for the coffee. Gaou showed us how the round coffee beans grow on the hillside plants - green when unripe, red when ready to pick. They are picked and dried, the outer shell removed. Then the inner shell is removed, and they are roasted to the form we are so familiar with.

I really need to go to Belgium.... Watch the spring classics then go on a multi brewery tour to see the full process for beer production, but I digress...

Robin and Abby took turns trying to hand grind the coffee with little success, then a little local woman came over and made the thing whir at 200 RPM or so.

We all tried the coffee (disgusting) and then Beth bought a bag (disgusting). Gaou wanted to make sure that we understood that this was not a tourist trap and there was absolutely no obligation to buy anything - he just wanted to weave the coffee into the story of how the village life has changed with the introduction of the King's programs.

We went by a primary school and kindergarten. The kids found it pretty interesting. Although the primary school was a one room classroom that currently had 8 or 10 kids from grades 4 to 6, the classroom looked very similar to their classrooms back home. The kids in the kindergarten were so cute.

We met our Karen guide, a 65 year old woman dressed in traditional clothing with an absolutely winning, if not perfectly orthodontically maintained, smile. It was mandatory for the outside guides to have a local village guide accompany them on the walk through the forest. It was a bit of an employment program and it helped make sure that the trails were maintained. Usually, they were paid 200 baht ($8) for their two hour service, but Gaou paid the guides 400 baht and made sure the guides rotated among different families, as they were all clamouring to be the guides each day.

Gaou preferred to take us "up" the trail rather than the usual way most companies do it (coming down the trail.... Obviously :-)) - he said it was always quieter this way and was way more excerise, which we were fine with (Robin, after whining last night was all "yeah, that's no problem at all!" - she's like a little dog - when she gets in the fresh air she's completely energized).

The air was fresh! We were at a pretty decent altitude, so it already felt more closely like the Cameron Highlands, which was great. The trail climbed gradually through the farms of the village. Eventually we were following an irrigation canal that trailed along the edge of some beautiful terraced rice fields.

We checked out one of the little rice farm shacks that are up on the mountain. They are really more of a rest house, with hammocks and a small kitchenette. I remember our guide in '97 referred to these little lean to's in the field as "love shacks"..... So, there's that too....

It was great trekking. The Karen guide would mostly walk through the woods, and we were amazed at what she would pull out and stick in her bag - fruits, roots, bark that smelled like Tiger Balm and lots of different mushrooms. She was in 7th heaven, always flashing us her huge smile.

We saw some beautiful waterfalls that usually had a rickety looking, though strong, bamboo bridge crossing the river at the bottom.

The Karen woman whipped up these "cool" leaf hats....I'm not sure why, but then we were bound to wear them for a few minutes so we wouldn't insult her :-).

The kids reenacted their Magome-Tsumago "kids triumphant in front of waterfall" poses....

We came up to a wider section of the path in the forest, and little Gaou took off running up the hill, jumped up and grabbed a vine and swung down and then back up, shouting "Tarzan!" (I didn't feel it was my place to correct him that Tarzan didn't shout "Tarzan", but rather "oooooooo, ooooooeeeeeooooo ooooooo, ooooooo!", but whatever....). Robin tried next, and didn't really get off the ground, so our Karen guide, weighing in at maybe 80 pounds and aged 65 showed the girls how to do it.

Beth was a little miffed at me not wanting to take a video of her attempt, and I was kind of glad I didn't - she never would have let me post it. Let's just say she didn't hear/listen to the instructions to not keep the vine between your legs.... He Tarzan, she not Jane.

Anan picked us up about two and half hours later when we made it further up to the main road. We said goodbye to our Karen guide, and I gave her a little tip that brought out another really nice smile. Such a sweet little lady. We drove up to a lunch spot in the mountain at the King's Agricultural Center. Gaou had called ahead and when we arrived there was a huge spread of awesome food laid out.

We drove up to the summit of the mountain and got out of the car - it was a really refreshing 16 degrees. We'd passed right into the clouds, and there was a misty rain coming down. It was so refreshing, though the girls are so acclimated that they were feeling a bit chilly. A pathetic showing from the supposedly native Canadians!

There was a little shrine at the highest point. The whole area was what they call a "cloud forest" - not a jungle or a rain forest, but a forest that is in a temperate climate that is of high enough elevation where the moisture is ever present yet doesn't freeze. It creates an atmosphere that produces moss everywhere.

We went on a little hike on a loop through the mossy forest. I'd never seen anything quite like it - the green hues were everywhere, and patches of sunlight occasionally stole through the clouds to make for some spectacular views.

The kids were loving it. Abby stated that she could now cross off another item that she'd added several minutes ago to her bucket list: walking through clouds. Why a 13 year old has a bucket list I cannot tell you.

Near the top are two famous pagodas that looked like they were built in the last twenty years. The whole place was covered in the clouds, and it was really quite surreal.

In the King's pagoda, they had a cool plaque dedicated to each of the four holy Buddhist places: the place of his birth in Nepal, the place where he first attained enlightenment, where he gave his first sermon and where he died (the last three in India). It led to a nice discussion in the car about Buddhism and its principals and beliefs. Let's summarize it by oversimplifying it tremendously - of all the religions, it seems to just outline a way to live harmoniously and happily, minimizing idol worship, judging others and financial motives. Gaou, like many of the Thai we've talked to are not "religious" - at least not in a traditional Western way - they are very spiritual. To me, there's a big difference.

On the way down, we did a quick stop at the impressive, 80 meter tall Wachirathan waterfall.

My girls.

I love this picture with Gaou - he's so small (sorry Gaou!). What a great guide.

As Robin says, no road trip can be considered either good or complete until she has fallen asleep. Mission accomplished, times three.

We said our goodbyes to Gaou and Anan - we learned so much from them and were totally appreciative of the care and attention they gave to us all day. It was a great physical, memorable and cultural experience. We forced the kids to reflect on their attitudes from last night and they laughed it up - they were wrong....again :-).

We'd asked Anan and Gaou for street food recommendations and they told us to head to the South gate. They were right! We had a smorgasborg of delicious items, and Robin and I chased it down with some fresh fruit juice....

....while Abby opted for the oft talked about Nutella crepe. God, if I had 10,000 Vietnamese Dong for every time she's asked about having a Nutella crepe, I'd be a Laotian Kip millionaire!

Beth walked up the main street, meaning to squeeze in some more shopping, while I'm sure surreptiously making a booking for a massage tomorrow, (yup, I was right, she did!), so the three of us hopped in a Tuk Tuk up to the Three Kings monument near our hotel. I wanted to check it out at night....

We capped the night off with a good swim and a bit of a Walking Dead marathon - we're almost at the part where Rick blows away Lori when he catches her sleeping with Hershel, so that will be pretty dramatic. God, I hope she doesn't read these blogs....