Trekking In Northern Thailand

Fitness Levels For Trekking In ThailandFor short hikes of one to two days in Thailand, a reasonable level of physical fitness is required. This means that they are suitable for almost anyone. For hikes longer than two days, an adventurous nature and good physical fitness is needed. During your Thailand trek, you'll be walking through the wilderness with a rucksack (meaning there will be lots of sweating and in the rainy season, or if you are unlucky enough to catch a cloudburst, getting wet). The sanitary facilities during this part of your Thailand trip will be primitive to say the least - on the hike, behind the 'bushes' or in this case bamboo trees - and the primitive overnight accommodation while visiting the mountain people (on a wooden floor with a sleeping mat) are not everyone's cup of tea!



It may not be the most comfortable experience of your life, but it will definitely help to make your Thailand trip something to really remember.Evenings In The Thai Mountain VillagesApart from the daily physical demands of your activities, an essential part of trekking in Thailand is being a part of the village atmosphere in the morning and evening. In the evening, you can relax and take in village life from beside an open fire, a real highlight of any Thailand trip. Your guide will prepare your evening meal made from locally produced ingredients.



You might even be able to have a chat with the locals using your guide as an interpreter. Your guide not only knows the region like the back of his hand, he also knows the local languages of the different mountain peoples and can tell you all about their culture.While you're trekking in Northern Thailand, you'll sleep in a wooden hut on the outskirts of the village. There will be no electricity or running water, and your bed will be made up of a plastic mat on a bamboo floor raised off the ground by stilts.



This is Thailand travel at its most basic and most brilliant.What to take with you on your Thailand trek?A few items are important to have with you (besides adventurer's blood) while you're travelling in Thailand;

My Thailand Scooter Experience

Seeing Thailand on two wheels for me has to be one of the most exciting things to do with your clothes on! It's great when you get off the tourist trail, head into the countryside away from the hustle and bustle of the city and pass through small villages or deserted beaches.Here are some handy tips and hints for hiring a scooter and how to avoid some pitfalls.Scooters can be hired all over Thailand every man and his dog will have one to rent. Most tourist places especially in the big cities and around beach locations will have shops where you can hire; your hotel might even be able to rent them to you.



For a 125 cc scooter such as the ubiquitous Honda Wave you can expect to pay anywhere from 150 baht to 300 for a 24 hour hire. For a week you will be looking at 1000 baht and around 3000 for a month. You will probably find a 50cc scooter not powerful enough if you are going anywhere where there are hills. A tank of fuel will cost you somewhere in the region of 90-120 baht. It's worth speaking to your hotel first even if they don't rent as they can give you great advise on reputable shops they normally send their customers to, what the going rate to rent is and how much petrol costs in the area.



So you are in the shop about to hire, what can you expect? You may have to show a licence, but if you don't have one a bit of sweet talk will get you by, they really aren't that strict, you will see pre pubescent kids riding scooters in Thailand all the time! Be honest with yourself though if you have never ridden a scooter as its yours and other people's lives you might be messing with. You will probably be asked to leave your passport as a deposit, this is the norm and some people are reluctant to do this.



You might be able to get away with them taking a photocopy if you tell them you need your passport to cash traveller's cheques. Alternatively you may be able to leave a cash deposit of say 2000 baht. You will most likely be asked to pay for the hire time when you return the scooter, so you could hold onto it for a couple of extra days if you wanted without having to pay a fee for returning it late. You will probably have to leave details of the address you are staying at too. Make sure you check over the scooter you are being offered, point out any damage and take photos of any damage in front of the owner (you don't want to be paying for someone else's damage when you return the bike).



If bits are hanging off ask for another one. Ask the shop owner for the phone number of the shop in case you break down, so they can come out and help you. It's unlikely you will be able to take insurance out with the shop, or it won't be worth the paper it's written on, so it's worth looking at your travel insurance to see if you are covered to rent scooters and if so up to what cc. Should the worse happen and you are involved in an accident it's likely that you will pay any damage that needs fixing to the scooter to the shop owner or risk not seeing your passport again.



If a third party is involved you may end up paying out damages there and then, cost wise this would be a fraction compared to the UK. It's unlikely it will ever get to court though unless you decided to peruse it with your travel insurance company if you are covered.Before you get on, make sure you get a quick lesson from the owner and ask about any quirks of the model. Some scooters use a clutch whilst others are just twist and go. Find out the range of the tank as well and if there is a reserve tank light when does it come on?



How many miles can you get from the reserve tank? I would also insist with the shop on hiring a helmet, which will most likely be the open face type. Wearing trainers is also a good idea; it's far too easy to stub a toe in flip flops!It's worth watching the locals on the road before you start riding. See what they do at junctions, how they overtake, does the colour of traffic lights mean anything to them?! In busy areas the horn will undoubtedly be used frequently. It's also likely they won't be following the letter of the law like we do in the UK.



They do however drive on the left like the UK.If it is your first time on a scooter make sure you are in the right frame of mind. If your friends are doing it, you may feel pressurised, just go at your own pace it's not a race. Get them to wait for you now and then. It might sound obvious, but don't ever drink and ride, this happens far too much with tourists in Asia. Most are lucky and get away with a few scrapes, but it's just not worth the risk to you or others on the road.If you are going to carry a pillion (passenger) make sure you instruct them on what to do.



So you get on the scooter first, then when settled, your pillion will hop on, remind them to look out for the exhaust, it may be hot. Get them to hold on to the grab rail if the scooter has one, if not they may need to put their arms around your waist, tell them not to give you a bear hug though! If your pillion is inexperienced give them a signal for you to slow down if they get worried, maybe tapping their knees against your thighs. Also tell them not to move around too much when you are moving as this will upset the movement of the scooter.



When it's time to stop, they get off first.Things to look out for whilst on the road would be potholes, man hole covers, grates and even the odd dog in the middle of the road basking in the sun! Allot of the roads on the small islands aren't paved so just take it easy until you can feel how the scooter reacts to the loose surface, if you do find the scooter loosing traction, try to go with the flow to let the scooter stabilise itself and keep your hands loose on the bars, a death grip on the bars and sudden movements will destabilise the scooter even more.



Also remember that where you are looking is where the scooter will go, so detach your eyes from that pothole and look to the side of it and in front of it. Looking far ahead also gives you more time to react to unexpected things and you don't get that 'ground rush' sensation that will make you feel less confident.If you are going out for a whole day, make sure you fill up before you head out, get a map, be realistic as to how far you can go and find out where you can fill up on your way. It's also worth wearing sunglasses as a bee hitting your eye when you are doing 30mph is going to hurt!



Carry a day sack too; a bottle of water, some sun cream, map and money can all go in it.It may sound a bit scary to hire a scooter in Thailand, but with a bit of common sense, and hopefully taking on some of the tips I have given, you will have a great laugh, with many a tale to tell when you get home!

Cooking The Thai Way

If you have talked to anyone who has travelled to Thailand, their stories of dodging tuk tuks flying down Khao San road and the stunning golden temples will be in all their pictures, but when the subject turns to the food there are no picture that can portray the taste of a Pad Thai from a noodle bar on Khao San Road! The local food is definitely a highlight of any Thailand trip.If you have been outside in the last 5 years then you will have seen the how the traditional English curry is slowly being ebbed into the background and replaced by a wave of Thai delicacies.



Living in Brighton it is hard to move without going into a Thai Restaurants, pub or Thai take-away and even with this huge choice everyone is packed to the rafters with happy diners. Human nature dictates that we naturally explore the world and when we find something we like we bring back. From India we brought the Tikka Masala, from China the Dim Sum and now, from our Thailand experiences, the Thai Green Curry!With our love of this eastern food it is no wonder that the Thai people have created a fantastic way of giving us a skill we can have forever and so if you go on a Thailand trip be sure to take a cooking course as it will give you more than just a new dish to impress you friends with.



In 2001 I travelled to Chiang Mai as part of my Thailand trip, where there was an impressive array of cooking courses. With luck on my side I blindly chose the smiling face of a man named Lop who took me under his wing for the rest of the day. His cooking school included a half day with a small group of international tourists and our Thai guide. We spent the morning following our guide through the local market where we were given the rundown of Thai etiquette and detailed explanations of what to look for when choosing you ingredients.



He gave us tips on how to tell if these weird and wonderful looking vegetable where ripe, and how to pick the one with the most flavour. We chatted to the local sellers, (with a little help from our guide), and felt very accepted in an alien environment. It is one of the most memorable days of my entire Thailand trip.With our bags full of lemon grass, eggplant, chillies and other local vegetables I had never seen before, we headed to the cooking school. Driving down a dirt road on the out skirts of Chiang Mai we came to a Thai style wood hut surrounded by paddy fields which was our setting for the afternoon.



Throughout the afternoon we cooked a number of different dishes from Pad Thai, green curry to a beautiful sticky rice and mango dessert. After each dish we would stop to sit round a communal rickety wooden table to taste our triumphs and compare notes - a true Thailand travel experience. Some of our dishes where a little more successful than the others, but all with a fantastic aroma and delicious taste!At the end of our lesson we went away with full bellies, a recipe book of all our dishes and a sense of satisfaction that we could replicate a little piece of our Thailand trip when we got home, and impress some of our friends too.



I still cook some of the dishes from the book now almost 10 years later and if you travel to Thailand be sure to take half a day out for this truly fun and memorable Thailand experience!