A Typical Day

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Once again, it's hard for us to call any day of this week “typical”. But the days of our last week in Thailand will be really special. The Journey to Freedom jungle is about a 6-hour drive from Chiang Mai in the ENP's schmancy vans (honestly, in 5 weeks in Thailand we can almost promise these are the most posh vehicles you'll see, never mind ride in.)

Once we get close, we have to switch to pick-up trucks for the ride into the jungle. You'll see the mist rising off the mountains and the terraced blue farms of cabbage and corn cut into the hills. Arriving at the tribal village is amazing.

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Wooden houses are raised on stilts to give animals shade underneath and avoid flooding in the rainy season. Children peer out from under the stilts, dressed in a mix of traditional pink and red Karen clothes and modern hats and jeans. Papaya and banana trees dot the village, and huge shrubs of poinsettias, or “Christmas trees”, spill into the stone paths.

We stay in two large houses while we are with the tribe, where we sleep in a very large dorm on roll-out mattresses (with mosquito nets). This isn't a homestay, so we'll all be together in the evenings. We'll also be together for the amazing meals that the tribe prepares for us (and with our help). Extensive vegetarian choices are available, as well as chicken options.

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So a typical day means probably waking up with the roosters, unless you're smart enough to grab some ear plugs. Over breakfast at the long wooden table under the house you'll hear the jungle waking up around you. Gibbons howling, piglets rooting in the mud, chickens dashing through the vines, mist rising everywhere in a rolling fog, coffee boiling on the fire, rice grains being pounded free, children laughing on the dirt path.

Then we'll start our project for the day. This could be building a fence, digging a fire block, or walking with the elephants to a new feeding destination. You'll have lots of time in this week to watch the elephants, walk with them, and get to know the forest around your home. The mahouts know all the plants in the area, and the best animal hiding spots. If we're really lucky, you'll see a gibbon in one of their few remaining wild homes on the earth.

After lunch, you may be teaching English at a Karen school, or just playing a pickup soccer game with village kids and teens in the school field. Maybe we'll continue a hike, or we'll help a family in the area repair something on their farm. Each day is full of different chances to interact with the environment, the elephants, and the tribe.

Once it gets dark, we're back together at the big table for dinner and whatever business we've got to take care of that day. The evenings are yours for lingering over dinner and dessert, playing cards, watching a DVD on the one village TV, reading, hanging out, going for night hikes, or visiting with friends you've made in the village.

The ENP has made some developments in the area that help make the Karen people's lives much easier, and they help us out too. Though there is no running water, there is a refrigerator and a supply of bottled water. There are Western and Eastern toilets cleaner than what you'd find at US campsites, and even a TV and DVD player in our house. The mountain region is cool and breezy, with limited mosquitoes, but we provide mosquito nets for every student.