| Page Views: 2,434 Last Visit to Chiang Rai: June, 2003 | Chang Rai and our Visit to the Hill Tribes by aqazi - last update: Sep 2, 2004 |
We headed to Chang Rai from Chang Kok the town bordering Thailand and Laos. We wanted to do our trek in Thailand around the Chang Rai area instead of Chang Mai as we didn't want to be surrounded by tourists. We'd also heard about the negative impact tourism was having on the aboriginal communities in Chang Mai so figured if we were going to visit any remote villages we would only do so with a charitable organisation where were certain any funds we paid would go towards to the sustainable developement of rural tourism in the area. |
| Even our elephant had to cool down |
|  | Elephant Ride We opted for a tour with the Population & Community Development Association who ran several trips to the area. They were very clear in their objectives on ethical tourism and their ethnic minoity museum was very informative. We opted for a two day, one night tour which would be spent visiting Acha viilages. The tour included a boat ride and an elephant ride. The elephant ride was much longer than I had expected going on for 2 hours. We bought plenty of food for the elephant to eat (as advised by our guide) this avoided the elephant destroying the environment. (we bought about 5 kg's worth of sugar cane and bananas, which he ate noe problem though prefering the sugar cane!). |
| | Highly rewarding Our guide was fantastic, he spoke excellent english and taught us about the people in the area and how they survived. We learnt how the charity helped the local communties and we discussed some of the adverse effects tourism has had in other parts of Thailand. We also learnt a lot about the wildlife and animals in the area. The trek wasn't very tiring but it was great fun. Our hosts for lunch were really nice and their home was opened up for our visit. That evening in another village we met another family who would be our host. We shared our house (if you could call it that) with several chickens but we were so tired it didn't bother us.
We really felt like we benefitted from the experience, we also felt that we had made a positive contribution to the local community. |
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 Comments for aqazi about Chiang Rai | | | | |
balhannah Thu Sep 10, 2009 00:23 UTC
Have just been to Chiang Rai, and want to go back already! | mim95 Mon Jan 22, 2007 03:58 UTC
Great to hear about your trip with PDA and your concerns with the negative impacts of tourism. Too many ppl don't realize them. | globerover Sun Nov 7, 2004 01:16 UTC
great to read that you enjoyed your trek with the hilltribes charitable organisation in Chang Rai; I visited their office last year, but we did not have enough time to do a trekking tour then - but maybe next time; |
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