Rafting the Mae Tang River

Last weekend I headed for the hills with a rafting company called Siam River Adventures that is headquartered at my guest house. The company is run by an American named Jason who takes tourists up to the river on an almost-daily basis for rafting and kayaking adventures. After three weeks in Chiang Mae I was itching to get away from the city, and Jason offered me a screaming deal for two days of rafting and an overnight stay at the jungle camp near the river.

We left Chiang Mae at about 9 am Saturday morning, and picked up a few more rafters along the way: Two American ex-pats living in Vietnam, an Italian and his Thai companion, and a college age dude from North Carolina. And yes, if you are wondering about the term "companion" you probably have the right idea. Thailand is crawling with middle aged white men who travel with young Thai women for a few weeks. The Thai women benefit because they get free food, accommodation, and activities, while the white men benefit because they get a young Thai woman. Yup, it sounds awful and IS awful. I wince everytime I see a Thai lady with a farang man many years her senior.

Anyway, back on track to the rafting. Saturday we checked out the rapids on foot before running them. The river is fairly low right now, with lots of rocks and some pretty serious technical spots -- class three and four rapids, if that means anything to you! We then lunched at the jungle lodge, located in a tiny little community in the middle of a remote rainforest valley. In many ways it reminded me of Costa Rica: lots of mixed agriculture (banana, papaya, etc) and small houses in the valley, with primary and secondary forest covering the hills.

After lunch we got suited up to run the river. I joined the Italian and Thai woman on the raft, while the rest of our travel companions took whitewater kayaks. Then we were off! Our guide, Nope, is a young Thai man who speaks very little English except the necessary paddle commands (forward! backward! stop! etc...) We had a great time navigating the rapids, swimming in the river, enjoying the ridiculously warm rain, and splashing each other for no reason at all. The raft got stuck on rocks numerous times, but never flipped because the water was so low.

In the evening we had a very chill night, with some Thai food (not spicy enough...I think my spice tolerance has gone up since I arrived here) and beer. Because of the lack of spice in the Thai food I asked for some fresh peppers to add to my stir-fry, and proceeded to chop them up using my fingernails. The food was perfectly spiced, but the space under my fingernails burnt for the next 24 hours. Which begs the question: if it hurts so bad outside, why does it taste so good to put spice into my tummy? One of the mysteries of life, I guess.

The next morning we were on the river by 9 am. This time I took the "ducky", a big blue inflatable kayak manufactured in Moscow Idaho, down the river. Apparently inflatable kayaks are like training wheels, preparing new kayakers for the real thing. I had a blast with this thing! Although I couldn't roll my boat, it was very forgiving and almost impossible to tip over, so I paddled happily down the rapids without many worries. I *did* have to switch into the raft for the really big rapids. Maybe next weekend I will try a hard kayak.

In other news, I am in my third week of massage school and loving it. We've been learning how to treat specific problems such as back pain, headaches, and shoulder pain, which should come in handy. But more on that later...right now I must go find some din-din!