Pooh Eco-Trekking: Off-the-Beaten Path in Thailand

Chiang Mai is the cultural capital of Thailand and a place that many travelers visit in order to discover the country’s rich heritage. The region is chalk-full of dazzling temples, breathtaking scenery and tantalizing cuisine. An ever-popular destination for backpackers and culture-lovers, Chiang Mai is a popular staple on itineraries to Thailand.

I spent nearly a week in Chiang Mai–visiting temples, escaping into nature and reveling in the city’s incredible yearly lantern festival. Like many travelers to Chiang Mai, I wanted to join an overnight hiking tour in the mountains along the Thai-Burmese border.

But, as with the tours I had come across in the South, I was having difficulty distinguishing between the offerings of the different tour companies. They all included the same things: transport, meals, an elephant ride, bamboo rafting and opportunities to photograph locals in tourist-crowded villages. The tours all seemed cheap, mass-produced and exploitative of their surrounding environments.

Until I encountered Pooh Eco-Trekking.

Hiking in Northern Thailand with Pooh Eco-Trekking

Pooh Eco-Trekking focuses on sustainability and cultural immersion. Unlike other tours that attempt to pack as much as possible into their unbeatable prices, Pooh Eco-Trekking attempts to engage its participants in an immersive experience that is as authentic as possible. Tours are limited to six people and operate in remote and inaccessible areas. And while a bit more expensive than the standard, third-party tour packages that are advertised on every street corner of Chiang Mai, Pooh’s tours are still quite affordable.

The tour I joined did not include an hour long elephant ride. Or bamboo rafting. Or a photo-op visit with the long-neck people.

In contrast, Pooh’s tours attempt to engage travelers in a more sustainable type of tourism that reminds me in many ways of what I experienced in Lesotho’s Malealea Lodge. The tour focuses primarily on learning about the indigenous Karen people and their environment, contributing to the incomes of the Karen families without creating a dependency on tourism and trekking off-the-beaten-path.

And off the beaten path we went.

In fact, the trek took us so far off-the-trodden-trail, that our guide, Richard, practically created the path before us, cutting through farmland, fording rivers and wading through waist-high grasses.

Every now and again, we would turn the bend and reach a clearing that afforded us stunning views of the rolling, verdant hills.

The scenery near the Thai-Burmese border was magical. Yet, soon the weather impeded our ability to relish the views. Not long into the hike, we began to experience a light drizzle. Then it began to rain harder, and the torrential showers created rivulets that flowed down the muddy paths before us. Rain seeped through my sneakers and soaked my socks. It found its way under my raincoat and drenched my shirt.

The skies did not clear all day and the rain persisted until we reached the Karen village where we would be spending the night.

I expected the highlight of the trip to be the hiking. However, while trekking–even in the rain–was a wonderful experience, I found the true crowning moment of the tour to lie in the evening we shared with our gracious and welcoming Karen hosts. From the time we entered our host family’s home–clothes soggy and hair dripping from the rainfall–we were welcomed with open arms and a large bottle of rice whiskey.

In the evening, my fellow trekkers and I assisted our hosts in cooking dinner. We all shared the responsibility of chopping vegetables and mixing ingredients, while exchanging information about our respective cultures with the translation help of our guide. Then, we shared the dinner we cooked, took shots of rice whiskey and laughed and talked until the early hours of the morning.

The next day at dawn, we headed back into the rain for a second day of trekking, mud-sliding and puddle-dodging.

We passed by hillside villages, trudged around rice paddies and pushed through thickets of dense foliage, stopping occasionally to learn tidbits about the local medicinal plants and crawly creatures we encountered along the path.

It was a more strenuous walk than the day before, partly because the terrain was much hillier and partly because it was so muddy that we found ourselves sliding a few feet downhill with every step forward.

At about midday, we stopped for a lunch break and prepared for one of the more unique and exciting moments of our trek–an expedition into a 250 meter long bat cave. Our guides took the time to chop bamboo that we would light to use as torches along the way.