There was only me and an Austrian couple, Stephanie and Fabia, and our guide, Cha. We took a public bus from Pai up to the Lisu village at the entrance to the national park (1hr from Pai). The roads are very steep there, at one point our young bus driver could not handle it and had the bus rolling backwards down the hill, luckily a more experienced guy was on hand. A bit of a hairy start to the day. From the Lisu village it was a two hour walk to the Karen village, where our guide was from. The Karen village was nice (picture above), each house has its own garden area and there were a lot of fruit trees and flowers. I learnt the Karen for hello (Um-a-chub-a) and thank you (Tah Bleu). Although the houses were very basic, they had electricity courtesy of generators and government-donated solar panels. There were also several English football shirts on display. Mr Cha hooked up with his cousin (and two dogs), we had lunch (noodle stir fry) and then walked further into the forest.
The scenery was good - the stepped fields used for growing rice, lots of hills in the distance. Quite an arid environment at that time of year (early February), but still some nice vistas.
On the way our guide and his cousin hunted for lunch. There wasn't much in the way of bird noises in the forest, but they managed to get a tiny bird and a squirrel, using a combination of a slingshot and basic-looking rifle. They also showed us how to make fire using just bamboo, which was cool (it involved two halves of bamboo, some shavings for tinder and a lot of friction). All you need to survive is bamboo and a machete!
Eventually we got to the place for camp. I thought we were going to make it from scratch, but the basic bamboo frame was already in place. The guide and his cousin did most of the work, putting leaves over the top, making fire, making the cooking and eating utensils (out of bamboo of course - see above) and cooking the dinner.
I didn't try Mr Squirrel or Mr Bird, which were put into a curry; luckily there was also a coconut-vegetable soup on the go. And lots of Thai whiskey.
It was freezing at night, even with the embers of the fire, two blankets and a sleeping bag, and a fleece. The dogs stood guard which was awfully nice of them.
The next day we tried to get washed in the icy waters of a nearby stream, then walked back to the start, via a village where Lahu people live. The guides sister was there as she had married a Lahu man. I learnt hello in Lahu language (O-bud-a-yaa). The Lahu village was very different to the Karen one, just one open space with dirt on the floor and cattle lazing around.
The journey back wasn't very eventful, except we got a ride in the back of a pick-up truck back to Pai as the bus never came. I enjoyed hiking through the hills and forests, it would have been better if we had been able to participate more in building the shelter and cooking, but I suppose the risk of machete injury would have been high.
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