Southeast Asia

One of the popular activities in northern Thailand is to go on a trek in the jungle to visit hill tribes. These are ethnic groups that inhabit the mountainous regions of Thailand. Because these areas are remote and hard to access, the cultures have not changed much in the modern world. They still dress traditionally and live off of the land.

There are seven major hill tribes in Thailand, each with its own unique language and culture. The more powerful groups inhabit the valleys, while the less powerful live on the hilltops.

It seemed like a hill tribe trek would be a very unique experience and something I should do, especially with my love of hiking. So i decided to do it.

My Lonely Planet guidebook recommended a local company called Pooh Eco Trekking, saying their treks were “above average.” And their website described their trips as low impact ecotourism, visiting more remote and authentic villages than the more touristy companies. They also said they don’t work with travel agents that inflate the prices. And that all sounded amazing.

My only decision was the length of the trip. The website recommended a 2 or 3 day trek, and I assumed that would involve a more remote experience than a one day trek. And we would get to sleep in one of the villager’s houses. So I booked a 2 day trek that would start on our second full day in Chiang Mai.

The Orientation

We had to go to the Pooh Eco Trekking office the night before our trip for an orientation. First we had to sign our lives away and then we got instructions for the trip. We had brought our own small backpacks on the trip, but they offered us larger backpacks with frames, so we decided to use theirs.

They would be providing the food, water, sleeping bags, and pillows. So we just had to bring clothes, shoes, and toiletries. The website recommended that we bring “water shoes” to wade through streams. We think of those as the flimsy things you wear to the beach and that’s what we brought. But we made to sure to ask at the orientation if they would be sufficient, and our guide seemed to think so.

The Adventure Begins

The next morning we met at the Pooh Eco Trekking office again and packed our gear into a van. There were two other couples in our group.

We drove about a half hour outside of town and stopped at a market so that we could pick up food supplies for our meals. Then we drove another hour or so to our lunch stop, at a tiny store out in the middle of the mountains.

From there, we transferred to a pickup truck where we took dirt roads out to a village. We all sat in the back of the truck with our gear, in the open air. There were many great views of the forested hills.

At the village, we left the truck behind and started our trek. I had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that it was supposed to last 3 hours, and I had read reviews that said it was steep. But I’m used to steep hikes at home, so I wasn’t too worried about it. Plus, I’d actually been working out and I knew my legs were pretty strong. I was more worried about how slow I might be.

At first the trek was great. We walked along a level road, in an area with few trees because it had been cleared by the villagers for farming. And then we made it out to the edge of a mountain ridge. It paralleled a deep river valley, and for a while we just walked along the edge of the ridge, with some great views.

Then our guide told us that we would be walking down to the bottom of the river valley, and back up the other side, to the hilltop village where we would be staying for the night.

And this is where the nightmare began. I’m used to steeps trails, but I’m also used to trails that are built and graded. This trail just went straight down the mountain ridge and was way steeper than I was used to. Plus, it was very dry and there were lots of leaves on the trail. So our footing was very unstable. And, I had at least 20 pounds on my back that I wasn’t used to.

So the descent was extremely nerve-racking. Jessica and I went a lot slower than everyone else, because we were scared of losing our balance and falling. I really wished I had hiking poles. And by the time we got close to the bottom my legs were starting to feel like jelly and even more unstable.

I was extremely grateful when we reached the river at the bottom of the valley. It was more like a large shallow stream. And as soon as I looked at Jessica, I could tell that something wasn’t right. She looked very overheated and out of it. I was also feeling the heat. It was probably around 85-90 degrees and very humid. So we actually went and sat down in the river to cool off. Jessica was very worried because her heart rate was really high and not coming down, and she’s had issues with heat sickness in the past.

Neither of us were looking forward to the climb out of the valley, but soon enough it was time to do just that. I did a lot better than I expected, but Jessica was really struggling. Our guide had everyone else go ahead of us, and stayed behind with us. I had to ask him to take her backpack for her, to make the climb easier. But we still stopped to rest a lot.

Somehow, after what seemed like an eternity, we made it to the spot where our guide had everyone else wait for us. It was near the top of the mountain ridge, just outside the village that was our destination for the night. I’m sure everyone else had been there for quite a while, but we stayed and rested for quite a while longer.

The Hill Tribe Village

As we rested, we admired the great view of the mountains. I felt re-energized and was feeling hopeful for the rest of the experience. And then we started into the village. We passed through some fields where the villagers were growing some sort of plant.

Next we entered the village, where there were dirt roads among houses built on stilts and made from wood. We stopped at one house where some kids were having fun sliding down a pile of small logs. Many houses had pigs and chickens in the yards.

Then we reached the house where we would be spending the night. It was larger than most and had three sections. The middle section was a bare wood floor and was open to the front and back. The two side sections were enclosed by wooden walls. One section was for cooking and the other was for sleeping. There was no furniture whatsoever.

The bathroom was a wooden outhouse in the back, with a squat toilet and a door that didn’t fully shut. If you’ve never seen a squat toilet, it’s just a basin in the ground and you have to well, squat, to use it. There was a bucket of water next to the toilet with a ladle, and I was glad I knew what it was for. When you’re finished, you scoop some water out of the bucket and pour it into the basin, to flush the contents. These are very common in Asia, although more so outside of the tourist areas.

We settled onto the floor of the bare middle section to rest some more, and watched some local kids playing in the street with some sticks and small tires. I was amazed at how happy they looked. It reminded me that you don’t need modern conveniences to be satisfied with life.

Then we walked around the village a little more. Some of the houses were a lot newer and nicer than others. Our guide had told us that children will often leave the towns and go to bigger cities to make money. Then they’ll build their family a nicer house. There were even a couple with satellite dishes. There was electricity in the village, but our house didn’t appear to have anything other than a few lights.

When we got back to the house, the local family (an older man and woman) had started to make our dinner, so we settled onto the kitchen floor to watch. The “kitchen” was just an open fire pit, so it was kind of smoky inside. And the meal was prepared on the floor. The bags with our market supplies were placed on the floor, along with wooden cutting boards, knives, and bowls to hold the ingredients. When the fire was ready, they placed a wok above it, on a stand, and cooked the food.

The local family didn’t know any English, but they were still extremely friendly. The man even offered us some of his home-made liquor, which was made from rice. It was very good. We ate in the middle open section of the house, with the bowls of different types of food in front of us. We sampled some of each onto our plates. I don’t remember at all what we ate. I only remember that it was pretty good, but nothing special.

The Worst Night Ever

We stayed up a while after dark and had some good conversation, although I remember none of it now. And then finally we went to bed.

I knew from reading reviews that we’d be sleeping on the wood floor with little padding. I hadn’t slept on a hard floor since high school. I remember it not being that comfortable, but still being able to sleep okay. And I had figured that after our long, steep trek, I’d be plenty tired enough to get decent rest.

What I didn’t know is that we’d have basically no padding, and our sleeping bags were the thinnest I’d ever seen. Our pillows were small, very hard, and not tall enough. Worst of all, our sleeping bags were placed right next to each other ,so that we could fit inside the mosquito netting.

Thankfully, Jessica and I had been worried about the pillow situation, and had at least brought our travel pillows with us. But they were a small comfort.

I don’t think I slept the entire night. The floor was extremely uncomfortable and made my hips hurt. If I tried to lay on my back, my back hurt. And I couldn’t spread out at all. I felt super constricted, barely able to even turn over because there was so little room.

So I spent the night flipping over, trying to get comfortable, trying to sleep. At some point I think I got tired enough where I might have been able to fall asleep. But Jessica had started snoring most of the time. Eventually I finally gave up on trying to sleep and just started praying that it would get light out soon so that I could get up.

Finally it did start to get light out, and I got up and went to sit in the open area. I felt miserable, and wished we could just go straight home instead of hiking more. Our guide showed up after a while and started cooking some food, so I went into the kitchen to watch him. I had nothing else to do and was bored, so watching him helped to pass the time. Some of what he made ended up being our lunches, which he wrapped in banana leaves.

The Adventure Continues

Everyone else eventually got up, and no one had slept well. We had some breakfast and then continued our journey. We had told our guide we were worried about today’s hike, considering how yesterday had gone. And he said he would have the truck pick us up early.

Our journey would involve hiking back down to the river, then hiking along the river and over to a bat cave, before heading back up the same side of the valley.

We started off going down a gradual road, and there were great views of the mountains. But then we headed off on another steep trail straight down the mountain ridge. This side of the valley was much wetter than the other side, so now it was also slippery and our footing still felt very unstable.

There was a short break on the way down where we were on another road for a little while. But then it was even steeper on the lower slopes down to the river.

When we got to the river we had a rest and our guide told us to put on our water shoes. The trail would be following the river, but also crossing the river multiple times. And at first the trail was really nice, just soft sand. But that didn’t last long. There were a lot of sections where we had to walk over spiky rocks, including during the river crossings.

I started to get angry, because in no way were our flimsy water shoes appropriate. What we really needed were sturdy sandals like tevas that could get wet. But that was not communicated to us very well. And my feet were starting to hurt.

As we walked further and further, I got angrier and angrier. And once again, Jessica and I fell behind everyone else. But this time our guide did not stay behind with us. And that made me angrier too. So eventually I decided to just sit down and change into my hiking boots. I would rather get them wet than continue to make my feet hurt. And it was indeed much better. But then after the next river crossing, we reached our lunch spot, where we would be leaving the river afterwards. So I got even angrier that our guide had not been with us to ask questions. If I had known the lunch spot was close, I would have just pushed on.

I was so angry that I didn’t want any food, and I didn’t want to be around anyone. Jessica somehow understood this, and left me by myself while everyone else ate.

By the time everyone was done eating, I was feeling better and could talk to other people again. But I still wasn’t happy. I just wanted to get the hell out of there and get back to civilization.

Our journey continued up a small side stream, and I was glad that I had left my hiking boots on. The stream basically cut right through the ground rock, and we walked straight up the stream. Although it was really a climb, the stream was pretty steep.

Eventually, we finally came to the bat cave, which the stream was exiting from. It was basically just a hole in a rock cliff. We stood around for a while, not getting any description of what we were doing next. We had a few extra guides with us, and they started lighting some torches. So it became apparent that we were continuing to walk up the stream and through the bat cave.

The guides with torches positioned themselves throughout the group, and I had one right behind me. Wading through the stream was pretty difficult because the stream bed was a bunch of rocks. And the cave was incredibly beautiful, and I was amazed at what we were seeing. But then the people ahead of me got too far ahead and I started not being able to see the stream ahead of me. It was very dark inside the cave. So I got really angry again, because we had not been told we’d be walking through the very dark cave. If I had known that, I would have gotten out my own flashlight. So I stopped in the middle of the cave, took off my backpack, and got out my flashlight, so that I could see where I was going. At that point, I stopped caring about how beautiful the cave was and just fumed as I pushed straight onward.

When we finally got to the exit of the cave, we paused to rest and say goodbye to the extra guides. I was so angry that I just wanted to push ahead and continue up the trail, which now headed away from the stream and up the mountain.

We eventually did continue up the trail, and I started to get really hot. It probably didn’t help that I didn’t eat lunch, but they had also only given us a liter of water for the day. It was not nearly enough. I was feeling very sluggish, and I was really, really fed up with this whole experience.

Finally, thankfully, miraculously, we made it to the rest area where the truck was picking us up. There was a bathroom there, but both Jessica and I were probably dehydrated and didn’t need to use it. We just walked straight to the truck, got in the back, and sat down and waited for everyone else.

When the truck left, I was so happy and thankful for the trek to be over. And I gradually started to even enjoy the ride. We went all the way back to the store where we’d eaten lunch the day before. And we had the chance to buy drinks/snacks. I got a couple of power ades and some snacks.

Then we got back in our van and drove all the way back to the Pooh Eco Trekking office in Chiang Mai. We left our borrowed backpacks, said good bye to our fellow trekkers, and then went back to our hotel.

Final Thoughts

Although this trek was one of the most miserable experiences of my life, I don’t think it needed to be. The scenery was beautiful, and visiting the village was very memorable and definitely a unique experience. What made it miserable was the lack of communication and preparation from Pooh Eco Trekking.

This is what I would have done differently:

I would not have started the trek on our second day in Thailand. We think that part of the reason the heat bothered us is because we weren’t acclimated to it yet. If we’d done this later in the trip, it may not have been a problem at all.
Taken extra water – I’m pretty sure we both got dehydrated because we were only given 2 liters of water for the two days of trekking.
Taken hiking poles – I would have been fine with the steepness of the trails if I’d had these.
Taken a travel pillow and mattress pad – this would have made it more comfortable to sleep
Taken Tevas – these would have been perfect for hiking through the rocky river and stream

I have all of these things, and would have gladly taken them with me if only I’d known I’d need them. Interestingly, I went to Pooh Eco Trekking’s website before writing this, and their list of what to bring no longer says “water shoes”. It says water sandals, like tevas. It also says the sleeping floor might be too hard for some people, and to consider bringing an air mattress.

The one good thing that came out of this trek is my appreciation of modern conveniences. I’ve been camping many times, but that is nothing compared to this. The things I was thankful for were toilets, toilet paper, running water, faucets, hand soap, showers, chairs, and beds.