By far the highlight of our entire trip to Thailand was the four day, three night backpacking trip to Hilltribe Villages located inside Huai Nam Dung National Park. There are six different hilltribes living in Thailand, each with their own customs and language. The one thing they have in common is that they are refugees – having been forced to leave their native lands in China, Burma, Tibet, Cambodia, and Loas because those governments did not want them. Thailand is friendly to these people, so they have found stable homes in the mountain areas. The tribes survive on farming and tourism. In the past, some tribes grew opium, but this has been actively discouraged by the Thai government and is not as common as it once was. It is unlikely that this would be seen in any of the tribes that host tourists. The three tribes that we visited were the Karen, the Lahu, and the Akha.
We went with a trekking company called Siam Adventures. I would definitely recommend this company – I was so impressed! The company is owned by a man named Charin and his wife. They both work as guides, and they employ one other guide named Thom. Both Charin and Thom joined us on our trek, so we felt like we were getting special treatment. Charin was amazingly knowledgable about medicinal plants, animals, forestry, tribal culture, folklore, and natural resources. Thom was more shy, and took a backseat to his boss, but his own skills shined through enough for us to know that we would have had a great guide even if Charin had not chosen to join us. The third person helping to guide our group was an apprentice named Santisuk. He is a member of the Karen tribe and is 14 years old. The tribal children only attend school until age 12 or 13, so Santisuk decided to learn the guide business. Charin said he would apprentice until he is about 20, and then he will be hired as a guide and will be able to take groups on his own. He is slowly learning English and other skills – he is getting opportunities through Siam Adventures that he wouldn’t normally get. And he is earning a great deal of money for his family. Along our trek, men and women from different villages were employed for one or two days to carry the baskets of our food, or to help with the pack of one woman who injured her ankle.
We started the trek with a 2 hour songtaew ride to the entrance of the National Park. Then we hiked about 3 hours total, with plenty of rest breaks. One of they challenges of group trekking ...
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