UM PRANG 8TH-12TH NOVEMBER 2006

On the 8th of November we missioned it from Sukhothai to Um Prang. To do this we caught a cramped from Sukhothai to Mae Sot, which took about 3 hours. Then at Mae Sot we got a Sawngthaew, which is an open sided and backed government run truck, south 164km to Um Prang which took about 5 hours. This stretch of road use to be called the death highway because of the guerrilla activity in the area, but today lives are mainly lost through break failure, or treacherous turns on the steep windy road through incredible mountain scenery. We had decided on Um Prang mainly because it is home to Thailands biggest and most beautiful waterfall, Nam Tok Thilawsu, but didn't realise it would be such a hellish journey to get there. The sawngthaew that taxied us to Um Prang began with, the two of us, about 6 Thai men, and a very nice English/Sweedish couple, Paul and Betty. The sawngthaew gradually got more busy, with Thai's sat on the roof and hanging off the back. At one stage 5 or 6 guys appeared out of the trees and jumped on the roof, possibly refugee's from Burma, at this point one Thai guy armed himself with a huge knife and looked pretty serious. I got pretty scared but nothing came of it and the guys from the bush got off just before a road check point. There seems to be a huge problem with Burmese people illigally fleeing to Thailand, there are lots of check points throughout the border areas, thoughally checking ID's but they leave westeners alone.

Once we arrived in Um Prang we were dropped outside a resort and trecking company called 'Um Prang Hillside Resort'. We were welcomed by a fat Thai man, head of the border police, called Captain Dan, who used his position to better himself. As much as Lewis and I hated Captain Dans pushy approach we felt like after such a long mission to get here, we should probably do a decent trecking trip and the hillside resort offered a very good one. It included a nights accomidation before and after the treck, and a two night three day trip, encompacing rafting, trecking, elephant riding, hot springs, the waterfall, camping, visiting and staying in a karen hill tribe village and all food and equipment supplied. (all for about 50 pounds each). Betty, Paul, Lewis and I were taken on our exchursion by one english speaking female Thai guide called 'Or' and 4 non english speaking male guides called 'Nong", 'Lie", 'De2', and i cant remember the 4th? All the above were very friendly, we got fed EXTREAMLY well and the trip in all, was very good fun. The rafting was very relaxing but the first 3hour treck was very steep and hellish in the heat and at the speed we were walking. Half way through i felt like calapsing but was very proud i did it, and without moaning. The weather here was extreamly hot in the day but freezing cold at night which made camping quite hard going, even more so, with the millions of mosquito's swarming around us! The next morning made up for camping as the waterfall was amazing! more beautiful than we'd imagined, we got to walk around it, go swimming and jump off parts of the fall, it was great fun.

The worst part of the trip was that we had to come off the treck for a short while so i could go to Um Prang hospital.... A few days before we arrived, i had a strange rash on my shoulders and it had slowly been speading and feeling extreamly uncomfortable. By the time we made the call to see a doctor it had covered my back, neck, arm and had spread to my face. We thought it better to be safe than sorry as all the diseases etc are completely alien to us, and the cream and anti-allergy pills a parmasist gave to me had made no improvement. The hospital were nice, they did a general check and a skin scraping to look under the microscope and gave me 3 different types of medicines and anti-biotics that i took once to 4 times daily. I'm still non the wiser to what it was exactly? could of been an allergy to one or many bites, or an insect hair, or??? your guess is as good as mine. It did have me worried for a bit, but cleared up in a week of talen the anti-biotics, and we were able to join back to our treck after going to the hospital. Once getting back from the trip we were shattered and sleeped very well.

The next day we caught a sawngthaew back to Mae Sot and stopped at the 'Green House Guest House' for one night. We checked out the local food market which was full of live turtles, frogs, and fish before going to dinner in one of the few choices in this small town.

We got a 6.30am bus to Chiang Mai the following morning.