Over the week we got off from the City University of Hong Kong for Chinese New Year, there was a group of 16 people going to Beijing and Shanghai. However, seeing as how both those cities were going to be at temperatures in the below-zero-to-low-teens range, I decided the 90 degree weather of Thailand was for me. Our original trip was scheduled for Thurs.-Tuesday of our week off, but I ended up extending my stay until that Friday to backpack in the jungles of Thailand.

After four straight days of struggling for an English conversation with my French friends in Bangkok, it was a welcome change to be with a group of people from the U.K., Australia, Holland, and Norway when I went north.

I didn’t want to come back as earlier as the other people, so I decided to go on a three day, two night trek into the Thai jungle near the Northwest city of Chiang Mai. It was the best decision I’ve made since traveling in Asia. I hopped on the overnight bus (7 p.m. to 6 a.m.) and I was off. On the ride, there were also a group of about 7-8 Italians sitting around me. About 30 min. into the bus ride, one of them leans over to me and says, “So are you excited about going to Phuket?” Knowing that Phuket was one of the main beaches in the SOUTH of Thailand that got destroyed by the tsunami, I was none too amused. After he said it, though, all of his buddies started to chime in with, “Yeah, Phuket is going to be great.” They really had me convinced/freaking out for a good five minutes until the bus stopped. When I got out and looked back at it, the front of the bus in big block letters said, “Hello Chiang Mai!” So I tried to do the same thing about going to Laos with some Israelis on the bus ride back, but they had just been to Laos a week earlier. Sweet irony!

I will spare you the “life-changing” fodder that usually accompanies stories like this. But I will say that I had one of the most vivid dreams of my life about grilling hamburgers in my backyard with my family and dog, Snoopy. I then woke up at a gas station in the middle of nowhere on the road to a jungle in Thailand on the other side of the world. It was a pretty surreal experience.

Anyways, back to Operation Chiang Mai. Upon arrival, we hopped on a truck to take us to a sort of elephant camp. My group and I were loaded onto a herd of elephants three at a time and given a branch-full of bananas to feed as treats. As we started our trek into the jungle, the elephants and their babies were lined up straight and told to start marching. Our elephant (codename: Stampy) was particularly needy for bananas and would place her trunk on the top of his head whenever she wanted one. I, being the old softy that I am, would accommodate her by resting a banana on top of her trunk and watching with delight as Stampy grabbed it and folded it into her mouth.

Unfortunately, all of the other elephants know that you have bananas as well so every two minutes or so you’ll have a random trunk come out of nowhere and make a grab for them. I felt like Kirk Douglas in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea trying to fight off these hairy, snot-spraying trunks while the girls on the elephant with me screamed like…well…girls.

After we finished our elephant trek and had lunch, we then hiked through the Thai mountainside for about two hours (our guide, Dyo, made it a special point to identify every tarantula along the way…of which there were many) until we came to a waterfall. By that time, I was hot, sweaty, and had been carrying my backpack too long. I put my suit on faster than you can say Go-Go show and jumped right in with my soap and razor. Every day we would hike to a different waterfall to shower, swim, and lay out.

Our group consisted of basically all backpackers either starting or ending their several months (sometimes years) backpacking trips around Asia. Backpackers are my new favorite people. They are fun-loving, easy-going, and have a backpack full of stories to tell about their travels, and my group was no different. It also helped that we all conversed in English (sanctuary!).

At night, we would make camp with a different Kiren tribe village. The Kiren people have a long and simple past in Thailand. And by simple I mean the villages we stayed at had no electricity or running water, but the locals were very friendly and willing to work on their English with me. Dyo cooked us green curry chicken with Thai vegetables over an open fire, and then played the guitar while we sang Beatles tunes for the rest of the night (I was nicknamed “Music Man” for my olive oil voice and extensive knowledge of the Liverpool band’s lyrics). On the third day, we took bamboo rafts down the river to our final exit point. I lost my pole within ten minutes (insert potty humor here).

I was genuinely sad when I had to leave on the bus home and the scene involved misty eyes and lots of hugging, but it was nice to know I was coming back Hong Kong where it’s clean and familiar. Thailand, true Thailand and not that fake-touristy Thailand, is a place every person needs to visit. It has a pulse and feel that is all its own developed from having never been colonized by Westerners, unlike most countries in Asia. It modernized to accommodate the West, but never lost its Thai roots. Dubloot dubloot!

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