Travel blog: Trekking in northern Thailand

Anna Kainberger is taking a year-out from her career to travel in south-east Asia, Australasia and the South Pacific, along with Hawaii and the USA. This month she will be reporting from Thailand, and will be going over the border to explore Laos. Here is her third blog entry:

After visiting the floating markets I felt that it was time to go into the north of Thailand. Getting away from Bangkok was one reason and also I did not really feel the need for a beach, so the natural progression was to head north.

I booked myself onto an overnight train for 531 baht, with a fan and hoped for the best when boarding at around 10pm from Bangkok's Hua Lum Phang train station.

Things were absolutely fine, it was a bit noisy, so earplugs and a sleeping mask came in handy, and 14 hours later we arrived in lovely Chiang Mai, which is a very nice spot for any traveller to visit in Thailand.

Nowhere near as big as Bangkok, Chiang Mai boasts nearly 300 temples and is very easy to navigate around, with the main traveller's centre being located around the Thanon Moon Muang.

Accommodation is available for all budgets and Chiang Mai is definitely a spot to visit when either wanting to learn the art of Thai Massage or a Thai Cooking course, as well as trekking into various national parks or visiting hill tribes.

I decided that I wanted to go onto a jungle trek and shopped around for a little while, as the offers are endless. You will find travel agents and traveller's centres on every street corner and there is something available to suit every budget and physical stamina.

If for example you just want to go and see as many hill tribes as possible in one day, there is a one day trek, that hold your breath, here it comes: visits no less than eight different tribes and villages in the nine hours you are on the road.

Most of that is obviously done by bus and not much trekking is involved, plus the villages are a very big part of the ever churning touristic money-making machine, but still, it is worth going, from Karen, to Akha, to Long Kneck - definitely tribes that you will not find back home in Western Europe.

I was more interested in a three-day trek, ideally avoiding villages who have been visited already by six tour buses on that very same day and I also was quite up for seeing some real northern Thai nature, waterfalls, rivers and mountains.

After shopping around for a day I made my decision to book a "non-touristic" trek, costing 2,100 baht for 3 days, including a wild water raft and an elephant camp visit on the last day.

We met our guide the night before we left and were told to pack lightly, but to bring long trousers, as well as a warm jumper, good trekking shoes, sunscreen, mosquito repellent, water for the first day, a camera and any medication we needed.

We started the next day at 09.30 and drove for about an hour further north of Chiang Mai, the route was going to be Chiang Mai - Chiang Rai "Doi Nan Kaew" to "Mae Taeng". It was going to be rainforest, waterfalls and trekking on a 1,750 meter high mountain.

We stopped for lunch on the first day, then we were picked up by a 4x4 to be taken to the initial climb of our trek and I have to tell you it was steep hills and forest.

We had a local guide, who did the whole climb in flip-flops and it was about an hour's climbing higher and higher up into the woods before we were able to wander on a more even level for about an hour and then again descending into our first stop for the day, a tiny Karen farmer's village, where we were to spend our first night.

The stunning scenery and fauna encountered in Thailand are certainly something you want to take in when going trekking into the Jungle, you will need fairly good physical condition and I wholeheartedly recommend to bring either a good pair of trainers or the real deal when it comes to trekking boots, as you will cross rivers and moors as well as climb up and down slippery rocky paths.

Accommodation when stopping over in a farmer's village is basic, but safe, with mosquito nets and some sort of shower and Thai toilet. The beds are rock hard, as you will sleep on the wooden floor, but then again you cannot expect a five-star king size bed, when going into the jungle.

Our guide cooked fresh meals for us three times a day, the only things we had to buy ourselves were water and alcohol if we fancied some and all of these were catered for in the villages we stayed in.

The people we met were farmers and around our tiny villages were free roaming chickens, pigs, dogs and cats and once it was dark the cowherds were brought home as well.

Expect to be woken by a cockerel crowing away at 7am, though after a refreshing ice cold shower, an egg from a free roaming Thai chicken will taste fantastic. Forget everything you have ever tasted, even if it was labelled organic.

On our second day we marched through fairly wet areas, forested, darkish and very humid. Ideal ground for a rather infamous animal, the common leech, so leave the sandals: bring proper shoes and stop regularly to check your shoes as well as socks. I packed a small first aid kit with plasters and anti septic spray and it is definitely worth bringing an extra pair of socks.

At lunchtime we arrived at our next stop, a village mostly inhabited by refugees from Myanmar. The women there wore very colourful clothing and beautiful silver jewellery, however their teeth were completely black.

Later on we found out that they chew beetle nuts to protect their breath and a very pleasant side effect brought on by the constant chewing is protection against cavities. So it is either black teeth from cavities or black teeth from beetle nuts.

The women we invited along to sit with us at the open fire were well into their 60s and both still had all their teeth.

Those refugee villages do live off the tourists visiting their homes and silver jewellery or handmade bags and pouches can be purchased. None pushed their goods on to us, we felt very welcome whilst staying with this particular village.

On our way we came across beautiful waterfalls, great views, cow herds, huge spiders and all sorts of interesting fauna. We had a responsible guide and were a group of seven people who made an effort and therefore got on great.

On our last day we wandered mostly down-hill and were picked up once again by a 4x4 to be taken to an elephant camp.

Unfortunately the camp turned out to be an elephant riding spot. A lot of the time the elephants are not really treated the way such a majestic animal should be treated, in Thailand elephants have been used as workforce for centuries.

Tourists coming to ride the elephants are obviously a great way to make a living while feeding the animal. Though imagine stomping through the same square mile day after day, when you are used to roaming in the wild on areas bigger than London?

It is a wonderful thing to see elephants, touching them and feeding them, though riding one for me was not on my to-do list.

Marching through wild nature for three days does take it out of you, however the last part of our trek was a wild water raft and that was great fun. The cold water was refreshing and brought our spirits back to life. If you are planning a similar thing: make sure they bring the right safety equipment and that your coach knows what he is doing. Apart from that: do not be afraid of getting wet.

In the three days spent trekking through jungle, I did not meet one single other tourist. We stayed in remote beautiful places, encountered very basic ways of living and had a great time all along.

From Chiang Mai I will move on to Pai, a hippie spot high up in the mountains, before slowly making my way into Laos.

Read Anna's last blog entry