Building up the unexpected journey

I'm always been after extreme experiences when it comes to traveling. Given that it made a lot of sense to go trekking since I'm in Thailand. After all a recommendation from a friend in Chiang Mai and my internal tendency to go further from the popular paths took me and my brother to an adventure that topped all the earlier trips - physically, mentally and in any way imaginable.

We ended up in Mae Sariang, a small town in the province of Mae Hong Son, just a short distance from the border of Myanmar. After the bus dropped us at a gas station we did our best to wash our filthy selves with the tab water after 24 hours of traveling. Our designated tour guide Kitti arrived after a while to pick us up and took us to a river nearby. At the banks of the shallow stream there were bamboo huts built up for having lunch and chill out in tranquil and local surroundings. We got to know each other by drinking beers, eating fried frogs and bathing in the clear water. All in all it was a perfect treatment after the back-killing journey from Koh Chang to the other end of the kingdom.

These bamboo huts serve as dining tables for the restaurant at the river.

When the lunch had lost its charm and the leftovers from the juicy frog had been frying under the scorching sun for a while it was time to head to a local friend's farmhouse. We sat down and opened another bottle of Leo, lit up a cigar rolled into a banana leaf and felt a bit confused. Drinking beer with local people in the afternoon was nothing we had expected so once again I felt like things went out of control a little and I didn't have any idea what's going on. But whenever that happens it's better to chill, take a sip and in this case talk about world politics with these people living in the border state (Kitti made a good job as a translator). The owner of the house was working in the border patrol and still wearing his uniform. Because beer usually connects people we ended up singing some karaoke together, using lyric videos from YouTube. Of course Finnish people always like to promote their country so some Eppu Normaali was being sung as well.

Kitti, the trekking guide.

Our day in the life of this sleepy small town continued in a restaurant where we gathered for a dinner with the family of the farmhouse owner, Kitti and his wife. All the dishes ordered were spicy as the nightlife of Bangkok and my brother was brave to struggle through the whole dinner after four days of experience about Thai food. Must have been tough. The thing I really love in Thai restaurants is the custom of sharing the food. Unlike in Europe, people order a lot of different foods for share so everybody can have a little bit of everything. If something runs out more food will be ordered until everyone is full. It feels like Christmas every time. Of course all the foods are accompanied with a big bowl of rice. And beer. Beer is important.

There's no Thai dinner without a group picture.

Every good night comes to an end and so did this one. After hours of talking about our upcoming trek and getting to know each other with Kitti and the junior guide Nai we headed back to our guest house. The place was called Northwest and it felt like a small scale backpacker version of The Great Northern in the cult TV series Twin Peaks. Wooden floors and structures, mattress on the floor with a mosquito net and a shared bathroom. Add in friendly staff and, voila!, a great atmosphere is achieved. That night in this calm northwestern town we went to sleep knowing that tomorrow would be a big day. But that's the next part of this story, you can read it here.