Apres Sukhothai, toujours cap au Nord, jusqu'a Chiang Mai, 2e ville du pays (160000 hab).
Là, on se pose, pour enfin mettre a jour notre blog, demander nos visas, profiter de la piscine de notre guest house et des montagnes.
On visite rapidement la ville, qui n'est plus tres authentique : hormis quelques temples, on trouve surtout des guest houses, des agences de trek, des restaurants et ... des dizaines de bars (avec des filles, un billard et de la musique anglo saxone a plein tubes... du deja vu!)
Les montagnes alentours sont beaucoup plus interessantes, et l'on part pour un trek de 3 jours de marche tres agreables, a l'ombre dans la jungle. On y retrouve la variete des montagnes birmanes, les bambous et les chutes d'eau en plus. Nous passons 2 nuits sous des huttes, dans des villages tribaux : les soirees sont formidables, entre les jeux avec les enfants et la veillee avec les familles... sans dialogue, malheureusement. Nous y avons ete recus comme des rois, dans la maison d'une famille ou tous les matelas et couvertures du village ont rassembles pour nous.
Les villageois sont tres pauvres et vivent simplement, mais ils ont l'air heureux et l'on peut se demander si le 'developpement' est vraiment necessaire...
Par contre, nous ne sommes pas adaptes a ces conditions de vie, douches a l'eau de la riviere et surtout nuits sur des matelas de fortune, au dessus de la basse cour...on n'a quasiment pas dormi! Finalement, le plus eprouvant dans ce trek, c'etait les nuits.
Pour terminer le trek en beaute, le dernier jour comprenait un tour a dos d'elephant (45 min, mais cela suffit amplement), du rafting et une ballade sur un radeau en bambous.
Enfin, pour quitter la Thailande, on prend un minibus jusqu'au Mekong, qui marque la frontiere avec le Laos.
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Chiang Mai is a nice city but again a place with lots of tourists, guest houses, bars (with girls) and travel agencies.
From Chiang Mai we went on a 3 days trek, with 3 others and the guide. The scenery was beautiful. We went through the jungle, crossed rivers, swam in waterfalls, it was lovely. We slept in small villages in the mountains. After Chiang Mai it was nice to see a more authentic part of Thailand. The second village where we stayed wasn’t used to have tourists around. Apparently it was only the third time they had people staying overnight. At first it was a bit awkward because we basically took someone’s house and they seemed to gather all the mattresses and blankets they had in the village to give them to us. At the same time, we had the feeling that they wanted to make sure we were well hosted. They were very nice and welcoming. In the evening all the women and kids came in the house, singing or playing. We had a lovely night. We also had a Thai massage, which was quite painful sometimes especially when the woman walked on our legs or on the back of our knees. She also made our bones cracked, it’s fine when it’s the back but when it comes to the toes, it’s fairly unpleasant.
On the last day of the trek we spent 45 minutes riding an elephant. It’s interesting to try it just to know what it feels like but honestly longer than that and you’d get sick. Then we did a bit of white water rafting, which was good fun. After that, for a short time we did some bamboo rafting, slow and relaxing, it gave us the time to enjoy the scenery.
The day after the trek, we went to the highest point in Thailand called Doi Inthanon (2590m ). We took a pick up, we didn’t walk up there. We spent the day there stopping at beautiful waterfalls on the way back down.
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Photos Thaïlande
Carnets de voyage Thaïlande
Vidéos Thaïlande
Carte Thaïlande
Guide de voyage Thaïlande
Santé Thaïlande
Billets d'avion Thaïlande
