In Search of the Good Life...: Thailand May 21: Mae Tho National Park and NIGHTMARE FUEL

Oh man, tonight's entry is going to be SPICY.

If you've followed this blog during last year's trip to Thailand, you might have noticed that the itinerary has been fairly similar in terms of the who, what, when, where. The second half of our itinerary (as of today) will have some new locations and experiences, including today.

For those of you who don't know me (shoutout to Kelsey's family--thanks for reading!), I'm a professor of outdoor education and leadership at Westminster University (formerly College). As such, one of the new themes of this trip is responsible tourism/outdoor recreation, which means that we've had opportunities to include more hikes and national park visits in the itinerary. When we discuss "responsible tourism," one of the things that we try to emphasize is pursuing opportunities to hire local guides/companies. It's a win-win-win--the money we spend as tourists goes directly to the locals (no middle folks taking a cut), we generally get more authentic experience in relation to learning about Thai culture, and it helps us form relationships that we often get to revisit and rekindle in future trips. A great example of this was with Chef Perm and the cooking class--we can't wait to take another class from him in a future program, and we really enjoyed getting to learn about local Thai ingredients in an actual Thai market from an actual Chiang Mai resident.

Okay, so today, we had the opportunity to hike to Doi 360º Ban Mae Tho, a 360º viewpoint within Mae Tho National Park. In Thai national parks, going out for hikes (unless it's on a really really really established low-risk frontcountry trail) requires visitors to contract guides for safety reasons. The trail infrastructure is less developed than what we might be used to in certain parts of the U.S., and park operations (e.g. search and rescue) may have fewer resources. Our Thai host Noi was kind enough to set up a hike for our group today using 2 local guides and her friend Bright.

I do a lot of hiking personally and professionally, and I can say that today's hike ranks in the "top 10 difficult hikes" of my lifetime. That is not to say that it wasn't fun--it definitely was--but given the heat/sun exposure, difficult trail conditions (uneven terrain), elevation gain, and...critters (more on that in a second), this hike was not for the faint of heart. I'm also 3 months into recovery from ACL reconstruction, so I had to be really REALLY careful on my knee, and it was a little tough going into a hike without any prior knowledge on the terrain, elevation, etc. I'm really proud of our students for both persevering and for advocating for themselves. I think most folks found the experience to be worthwhile, but it was tough and I'd plan and prepare students a little differently in the future now that I know what to expect.

Our route and elevation gain on Doi 360º Ban Mae Tho

This was like...the one chill section of the hike :)

Hikin'!

We made it to the top!

Great spot for lunch

I don't remember if this picture was taken before or after the nightmare fuel...

One of our guides made us homemade Pad Krapow (pork chili basil stir fry) with produce from his personal garden

Okay, so the reason you're all here--the nightmare fuel. A few things first:

My outdoor education colleagues and I always stress closed-toe shoes on hikes--particularly if we are on unknown terrain. It is the outdoor education hill I will die on. My insistence on closed-toe shoes was affirmed today :)
I get a lot of good-natured crap from friends about the equipment I bring on day hikes (e.g. rain gear, first aid kit, trekking pole, etc.). Check out this skit from Portlandia to get a sense of what I'm talking about. Well, folks, I SURE AM GLAD I HAD A COMPREHENSIVE FIRST AID KIT TODAY.

Get the Gear!

I am also far from perfect and make plenty of mistakes when prepping for outdoor activities. For example, today, I deeply regretted not wearing pants with long socks, or even preferably gaiters (which I brought on last year's trip but left at home this year). One of my many Gerberisms in class is borrowed from Will Rogers: "Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment." Well, today' is an example of learning from a mistake that I will hopefully not replicate in the future.

Now really, let's get to the nightmare fuel for real. I can't decide if I want to post photos or not. My mom would probably lose her sh** so I may share photos upon request. To be clear, I am totally fine and everything is fine and it's all fine.

As I mentioned earlier, this hike was pretty tough. Really steep elevation gain, and we're not entirely convinced that Thai folks believe in switchbacks. We kept a pretty aggressive pace while hiking (something that I would change in future years), but the downside to stopping on trail was that we'd get ambushed by ******* if we stood still too long (don't want to spoil the surprise). We didn't notice them at first, but one of our guides pointed them out and would whip out his machete to 1) remove it/them from our clothing and 2) cut off its head. We thought it was like...kind of an intense reaction at first, but NOW I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND WHY.

So about halfway through the hike, I felt a rock in my shoe, so I did a few finger sweeps to make sure it was out, and I noticed that my foot felt a little painful (like, a .5 on a scale of 1-10, 10 being extreme pain, so minimally painful) and assumed it was the aftermath of the rock bruising my foot.

Cue the narrator's voice: "Kellie was wrong."

AN HOUR LATER, when we finally reached the top, our guides, who didn't speak any English, indicated that we should check our shoes. At this point, I figured I should probably double check that the rock was out of my shoe, so I took my shoe off.

AND HOLY SH** A TWO INCH LEECH WAS STILL ATTACHED TO MY FOOT ON THE INSIDE OF MY SOCK AND MY SHOE AND SOCK WERE FULL OF BLOOD EW EW EW EW EW.

I'll spare you the photos with all the blood :\ but Bright and I are working on post-leech wound cleaning and dressing.

The students said I was really calm through throughout the process of de-leeching my foot and cleaning/dressing the wound (thanks to Bright for her assistance! AND I'M REALLY GLAD I HAD MY FIRST AID KIT), but I was dying on the inside. It was so gross. I mean, leeches are like, objectively cool animals. Their natural anticoagulant/anesthetic meant that my foot bled a LOT but that it didn't really hurt. I can totally understand why they were and are still used in modern medicinal settings. They are useful. I just don't want them on my foot. Ever again.

Got the wound cleaned and dressed, and proceeded with the rest of the afternoon with a lovely lunch at the peak before a very steep trek down. Mom, my knee is fine. I took good care of it and went very slow and trekked with a pole. I love you and appreciate you.

After we finished the hike, we did a quick drive through the main entrance of Mae Tho national park, grabbed some refreshments at a local cafe, and then one of our guides invited us back to his house to show us his incredible garden--several large Thai restaurant chains (MK, Sizzler) actually purchase produce from him. It was definitely a highlight for our group and he sent us home with giant bags of bok choy and plums.