Written by Trevor
Thursday October sixth: Time to set the scene. The fifteen of us tumbled out of the van, slung our backpacks over our shoulders and said a tearful goodbye to Krit and Nada. We were then introduced to our host, Nikom, who took us on a tour of our new home, the Chiang Dao Youth Camp! We got our first looks at the enormous Chiang Dao Mountain on the way in, but the view from the camp was even more incredible. Anyone could spend an afternoon standing in one place and just observing the ocean of green surrounding us. Nikom then informed us that a tree fell through the men’s dormitory which meant I was livin’ with the girls for our short stay. We caught a good glimpse of the avocado tree and the oxen across the river before heading over to the dining hall/kitchen for lunch.
Throughout our stay, our food has been wonderful. Malee, our amazing chef, made enough food for a whole football team every meal! We even got to have spaghetti with bolognese one night paired with delicious puff pastry-type desserts. On our last night, we made individual spicy papaya salads (the spice level varying from Peyton’s and Kate’s one chili to Claire’s whopping 7 chilies!) Danica may have started crying a little bit from all the spice. The group had a blast peeling the garlic and green papaya.
This week, the group has also taken huge advantage of our designated Carpe photo phone. The amount of group selfies and mountain pics taken from the back of a truck is astronomical.
Usually after a 30 minute to an hour truck ride most of us are rocking a blown out 80s hairstyle that we attempt to tame before departing for a temple or hike. For our group, hiking isn’t always about the destination, but about bonding and appreciating the small rocks, leaves, and mushrooms we stumble upon along the way (along with the hysterical laughter when one of us slips in the mud). Throughout our days at the Youth Camp, all of the temples we saw were extremely varied in culture, architecture, and location. Our first temple was actually deep in a cave under a river. With the help of Nikom, we learned about the age of the statues we saw under the cave along with the significance of the different figurines in Buddhist culture.
After our cave exploration, the group was shuttled to a longan fruit and banana tree farm. The group instantly scattered upon arrival, grabbing as many longan as our half empty stomachs desired. (Some filled their bucket hats!) Unfortunately, we couldn’t take any trees with us, but we did ride along a human-sized bunch of bananas!
We then set out for the rare Chiang Dao night market. Nikom said it happens only once a month! The squad split into groups and made their way to the market. This market was similar to the Chiang Mai market, only it was a lot more food oriented. So many desserts! The best part is always when the group meets afterwards. Everyone was smiling and showing off their new clothes or laughing about all the food they tried. We also had a little reality check moment about our poor spending habits… but it’s just so hard when we’ve been in the wilderness for a couple weeks, and everything at the market just looks so good!
The next morning was an early one for Claire, Gabrielle, Leora, Peyton, and I. We visited the nearby hot spring! After a nice 5 or 10 minute walk, we sunk into the scorching tubs. The locals had a good laugh at our reactions to the water temperature and even tried helping us out by opening up the coolest one. I guess you could call it the least hot. We returned to the camp by breakfast and were ready for the day! The rundown for the day was visiting hill tribes and hiking to a nice view point. Nikom pointed out edible fruits and plants throughout the whole day. He would always laugh at the funny faces we made when trying the mostly bitter leaves. After visiting two villages, we stopped and ate our packed lunches at a small school. The delicious meal consisted of sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves, chicken, veggies, and Skittles. That day, we were constantly popping in and out of the trucks. We jumped out at the bottom of a hiking trail that Nikom knew quite well. This is where the Carpe photo phone really shines. The views, fails, and fun were captured by just this one phone. It was awesome. After a solid 25 minutes of hiking, we made it to the unreal viewpoint. The group took a peaceful break and was kept occupied by the beautiful view for quite some time. Eventually, we returned to the trucks and it was time to head back! It was spaghetti night so the group undoubtedly ate their fill. Yum!
The next day, we set off on an hour-long ride(in the back of the truck once again) to a national park, where we explored a giant limestone waterfall, before heading to the hot springs and mineral bath for some relaxation. The climb up the waterfall was a little tricky, but we all made it up and spent a while splashing around and exploring. This was one of the hottest days yet, so the cool, refreshing water was definitely a win. The hot springs, on the other hand, were a scalding wake up call, but a couple of us braved the heat and slowly worked up to submerging ourselves inside the pools of water.
After our little national park adventure, we piled back into the truck and headed off to a Burmese temple, and enjoyed the view from the lookout which was roughly 40km from the Burmese border! The architecture and stained glass was beautiful, and it was really interesting to listen to Nikom’s insights, and compare the style with what we’ve seen of Thai temples so far.
Our last day at the Youth Camp was pretty laid back. We started with a folk temple and cooked our meanest papaya salads in the afternoon. The folk temple was relatively similar to the others we’ve seen aside from the huge sculptures that displayed horrific methods of punishment/purgatory. We packed up again and visited a forest temple. The group was greeted by a table full of groceries for the monks and what seemed like 10,000 steps. Miraculously, the fruit, sugar, and oil made it to the top of the stairs. We dropped it off in the monks’ kitchen and explored the beautiful temple. Soon after, everyone chowed down on a fantastic lunch and the case was closed for the forest temple. It was truly an experience seeing the differences in temples throughout our stay in Chiang Dao. We had a pretty open afternoon up until before dinner. It was salad time! Molly hailed the 13 of us into the kitchen and started throwing different veggies at us that needed to be sliced and diced. The group had a lot of fun preparing the food and even more fun making a bowl for themselves!
