We lucked out again. Our trekking group was small – two American girls (Amy and Elizabeth) and a Brit named Richard. We all got along really well, but what made the trek was our “Map”. We left our packs at Ben Guesthouse, and put our valuables and some supplies in packs that Map lent us. We had just the right amount of stuff:
ü Raincoat
ü Shorts
ü 1 Pair of socks/day
ü Long pants
ü Hiking boots
ü T-shirt/day
ü Flashlight
ü Squeegee towel
ü Underwear/day
ü Pack of cigarettes/day (to give singles to the hill tribe men)
ü Zip lock bags to waterproof everything
ü Plastic laundry bag to waterproof our clothes
ü Soap, toothbrush, toothpaste
ü Valuables, film and camera
*Depending on your personal philosphy, some people brought candy and pens for the kids
**This was during the rainy season – you wouldn’t need rain gear unless you went at this time
Map’s position on keeping valuables for trekkers was – he didn’t. He guaranteed to take people to safe areas, so there was no need to store valuables. It was also important to check if the guide you were using was licensed (it changed quickly, due to drug testing – so we were told not to rely solely on recommendations from books or other travelers) and whether or not the guide registered with the police before and after the trek like they were supposed to.
We drove for an hour and a half in a songthaew (like a covered pick-up where you sat on benches) northeast towards Doi Saket. We were all dressed in our boots, while little Map wore low cut Chuck Cons and knee high blue socks. We started walking. Map stepped in a deep puddle and happily exclaimed “Oh, I’m lucky”. He would do this anytime something “bad” happened!
After about an hour, we arrived at a Lahu tribe village. Map sat us down in the medicine man’s hut and we snacked on bananas while he explained about the tribe. The Lahu people numbered around 60,000, but their village was only about 150 in size. They (especially this tribe – closer to civilization) had abandoned their traditional clothing and wore a mix of tattered Western clothes and traditional clothes. We were welcomed into their village, but felt neither welcome nor unwelcome.
The medicine man in most villages was the most important person in the village – there were no hierarchical systems in place, but he was the centerpiece of the village. His knowledge was passed down to his son, and if there was no son, they usually got a medicine man from another village. Map talked for a solid half-hour on the customs of the Lahu. They were still very animistic and relied heavily on the stars to tell them if they should work or not from day to day. During the month-long New Year’s festival, there was a week of “free-for-all sex” where a man tapped any women (or girl) married or not, on the hand and they went off to what we dubbed “love huts”. These little huts belonged to the village and were built away from the main settlement in corn or rice fields. They were found everywhere in hill tribe areas. This sparked a half-hour conversation among the five of us about Western values and Eastern norms regarding sex.
Map hired a Lahu nicknamed “banana man”. He got this nickname by eating 45 mini bananas in 10 minuets, winning 500 baht off Map. Banana man didn’t talk too much, but he was full of smiles. Map didn’t really need him to carry his bag, but I think Map paid him to help banana man out.
Walking from village to village, Beth and I were surprised at the scenery – we hadn’t seen anything like it. It was beautiful – walking up and down hills surrounded by steep rising mountains. We passed through hillside corn and maize plantations, and then the scene would suddenly change to dense bamboo and teak forests.
The second village, after an hour walking (40 minutes “Map time”), was a Lisu tribe village. There are about 25,000 Lisu, and this village seemed pretty big. Map was greeted with a warm welcome (as everywhere else) and we were greeted by aggressive Ahka women vendors. The Ahka women wore the distinctive headdresses made of silver (tin?), beads, coins and buttons. They attacked everyone, but honed in on Richard – he was the greenest looking and best dressed of the five of us, and the women sensed this like dogs sensed fear. There were about 33,000 Ahka (we passed by their village shortly thereafter) and their dress was in sharp contrast to the half Western, half Chinese dress of the Lahu and Lisu.
Richard was as green a traveler as they get when we met him, and he readily admitted it. We told him about getting “ripped off” by a tuk tuk two years before. The driver drove Beth, her Dad and I to a gem store and two temples as promised, but took off without us having paid anything, leaving us in the middle of nowhere. Not exactly the worst scam in the world, but anyway…
Richard said he had a better story. He had arrived in Bangkok, white as a sheet and dressed “nicely”, and on his first day, a tuk tuk driver offered to take him around the city for 500 baht (an expensive proposition). He thought it would be a good way to get a feel for the city. The driver asked him if he was interested in Thai massage. He thought “yeah, I fancy trying that, but I wonder if he means a prostitute”. The tuk tuk driver took him outside the city to a shop, and introduced Richard to the masseuse. “When I got a look at her, I knew it wasn’t prostitution… she must have weighed over two hundred pounds”. On the islands, you usually paid 100-150 baht for a one hour massage, 300 baht tops for a 5-star hotel, but Richard dickered the price down from 1000 baht to 800 baht! He said he was pretty happy with his negotiating prowess. After just over an hour, he paid the woman and she said she usually got tips, so he toipped her 200 baht! So much for haggling! When the tuk tuk driver dropped him off, he had a huge smile and told Richard he’d be waiting for him the next day. I bet he did too, every tuk tuk driver needed a guy like Richard!.
More hiking, including passing through several streams, and we arrived at Map’s village – a Karen tribe. There were four kinds of Karens – the most famous of which were the long necks (or more anatomically correct “low shoulders”!). The other three had other distinct features, one of which we saw later that night.
Map’s parents died when he was 11, and he moved to Chiang Mai to live with Burmese foster parents. He told us that he went to a movie shortly after moving to the city. The movie was King Kong and it was the first time he’d seen “moving pictures”. He was cheering for the people to kill King Kong - “get the monkey meat!” He had grown up with a slightly different perspective than city dwellers. Hill tribes eat everything – bugs, roots, plants (banana leaf, flowers, stalk, steam, root, and oh yes… the fruit as well) and animals – including monkeys!
Now, every year Map took kids from the village into Chiang Mai and treated them to a movie. He did this because he thought it was fun, but also to expose the kids to other parts of life that he never had a chance to see until his parents died.
When we arrived at Map’s village, a man was stuffing large locusts into a bamboo chute, to later steam and eat. Map brought him some presents for a little girl in the village. An American couple had sent them after trekking with their son and staying in the village for two nights the year before. Map had done well for himself (he and his 3 partners own their trekking company) and the village had in turn prospered. They had a small school and a black and white, battery powered TV, all care of Map.
After another hour and a half of trekking, we came to our final stop at another Karen village – the long belt Karens. We were a little surprised that we hadn’t seen any other trekking groups, but Map told us that only two companies came to those villages. He laughed when people told him “we want to go to an area with no tourists” – he told them to go to electric town (the city) and they would see no tourists. Still, we were glad and lucky to be alone.
The village seemed pretty big. We put our stuff down in a large hut which was built by Map (he called it the “Map Holiday Inn”) next to the medicine man’s house. A little boy led us down to a river where a bunch of women were showering – when I pulled off my shirt, they all turned around embarrassed, and the kid quickly ushered us into some makeshift shower stalls – oops!
An hour later, Map called us for dinner, and we headed over to the medicine man’s hut. The dinner was awesome – by far the best meal we had eaten in
The Map Holiday Inn was a fairly large hut. It was raised about a meter off the ground and the flooring was a soft bamboo weave. There were sets of blankets and pillows all folded up and placed neatly along the walls. The place was devoid of insects – flying or crawling – due to the burning of a natural citronella-like candle. We slept soundly on our thin mats, and didn’t wake up until morning.
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