Chiang Dao Nest Trek Experience

When we started planning this entire trip to Thailand, there were originally going to be 3 of us, but because of extenuating circumstances, it ended up just being stephanie and myself on the trip. Our friend clara had found a website for a company who did treks up in the Northern part of Thailand. We decided as a group to go on a 3 day/2 night trek, where we would be hiking a lot, staying in 2 different local villages, seeing beautiful mountains and so much GREEEEEEEN! 

We booked our trek through The Chiang Dao Nest which is a small resort area in the Chiang Dao region of Northern Thailand that also provides tours and trekking. We chose a 3 day/2 night trek, in which we we would enjoy the following:

- Experience life in hill tribe villages
- Visit a number of different ethnic groups
- Nice Elephant ride
- Peaceful bamboo rafting
- Enjoy great hospitality
- Stunning mountain views
- Explore two remote caves
- Nature walks
- Demanding Trekking
- Visit a beautiful waterfall
- Clean, comfortable accommodation
- Very few visitors go to the villages we visit on the first two days and sleep in overnight both nights. 


Wednesday morning, Stephanie and I were picked up from our hostel in Chiang Mai and taken to the Chiang Dao Nest. It was about a 45 minute car ride in the back of a "mini bus", which is basically a truck with a covered area on the back. Once at the Nest, we were given breakfast. Thankfully they had a spare backpack lying around, because neither Stephanie or I had one. We packed our backpack and headed out in the back of another pick-up towards the beginning of our trek. 

our before picture... we didn't bother taking an after.

stephanie's excited face!

a bit of the greenery we saw the whole trip.

 We started out at the top of a very steep and muddy road that led to a Lisu village. Our tour guide, Nata, guided us down the hill and through the small village; which is actually his village. We went through the village and started trekking through the hills and hills of mountain rice. We arrived at the first of the two caves we saw on this trek. We were given hard hats and flashlights and went right in. 

the beginning of the Lisu village. That is Nata, our guide!

A Lisu house

Lisu Village

This cave was pretty cool. Though there were some parts I was hesitant to go through because they were so small, but I braved my claustrophobia and made it to the end of the cave. We did get the pleasure of seeing a few bats along the way as well. 

After the cave, we hiked back to the village, where we ate a pre-packed lunch for us. This is where we tried the Lisu whiskey for the first time. We all know how I feel about whiskey... gross... so again I was hesitant to try it, but made myself do it. It was actually really good. It didn't taste like American whiskey usually tastes. It was pretty good. After finishing lunch, we headed out again, this time to find the waterfall... This is where it got interesting. 

While eating lunch, it started to rain pretty good. Thankfully it slowed before we left, but that left the ground super muddy and slippery. And considering I am the world's biggest klutz, I was worried about injuring myself. (side-note: Mark informed me I had a minimum quota of at least 1 injury, but of course I was going to go over. After that I made it my goal not to injure myself as much as possible.) We made it to the waterfall in one piece, just covered in mud. We played in the waterfall for a while and then headed toward the other Lisu village we would be staying at for the night. This is where the injury came in. We were crossing a rock wall, my foot slipped on the wet rock and i slid down the wall a little before Nata grabbed me. I sliced my leg pretty good, causing it to scar later on. After slipping in the mud a few times, even causing Nata to go sliding down the hill at one point, we finally arrived at the Lisu village. We were fed delicious dinner, drank a bit more Lisu whiskey and called it a night.   

my *only* injury of the entire 16 day trip. i'm pretty proud of myself.

good good food

Nata, our guide.

 The beginning of the second day started with breakfast with a pretty view. From there, we were given walking sticks and set out for our 11km of hiking from the Lisu village to the Karen village we were staying at the 2nd night. We were led by San, a Lisu man from the village we stayed at. This trek, while it was much longer than the 1st day, involved me falling way less. There were parts that I slipped and overall I only had one big fall. 


From the village, we trekked to another small Lisu village and met the shaman, who blessed our trek. We then trekked for a few hours, until we came to the second cave we were going to explore. This cave was much bigger and more wide open. It did not involve any crawling in small spaces. After the cave, we hiked a little while longer and then came to a stopping point. There was a small covered hut area to sit. Stephanie and I instantly sat down in exhaustion. We watched as San and his son pulled out cooking supplies and made a bushman style lunch right there in the middle of the forest. San's son had cut down some bamboo earlier on the trek. Here he split it open, cleaned it out and those were our serving dishes that we ate out of. Pretty awesome. 

Shaman's House

Exit of the 2nd cave

San making the fire for lunch

Our lunch. Yep we ate out of bamboo!

From there we trekked for a few more hours until we finally arrived at the Karen village. When we arrived, we went into the school that they have and talked with the teacher there and looked as the children were finishing their school day. Afterwards, we went down to our hut we were sleeping in for the night and unpacked. Our hut was located right in the front of the river, which at one point, Stephanie fell into and screamed for me to come quickly save her. Probably one of the funniest parts of the whole trek. We were given dinner and then enjoyed the rest of the night in the hut to ourselves. There was no electricity, so we had to do everything by candles... including trekking to the toilet together in the middle of the night because we didn't want to go alone. 

our sleeping hut for the night

the river we were next to

writing by candle light

We were up and out of the hut bright and early on the 3rd day. We started up a large hill, which was probably 75% going uphill and about 15% going downhill with the rest of the 10% being flat. After close to 2 hours of hiking uphill, we made it to the top of the road, where a pick-up was waiting to take us back to The Chiang Dao Nest resort area. Once we made it back there, we were able to finally take somewhat of a legit shower and able to dispose of some items, including my tennis shoes. Because by this time, they were completely trashed and ruined. 


We then set out to walk through some more villages that weren't in the mountains. We drove for a bit and then we stopped. We were told to get to the first villages we were going to be riding an elephant through the hills. Other than my fear of heights kicking in a little bit, it was awesome. We then walked through a Akha, Lisu, Palong, and Karen village. From there we were driven down to the Ping River. After waiting a little bit, we were given life jackets and led to a very large bamboo raft. For the next 30 minutes or so, we floated down the river on the raft, enjoying the peace and quiet and the view. 

Elephants!!

Atop the elephant

Our view from the elephant ride

i couldn't resist taking a picture of some of the children. they were just so cute.

After the bamboo raft ride down the river was over, we were driven back to The Chiang Dao Nest. We collected our things and made the hour drive back to Chiang Mai. 


Overall this was the greatest experience over our entire trip through Thailand. We were able to experience new cultures that we would otherwise not have seen. The views of the land were gorgeous, even through some of the rain. Our tour guides were amazing! The staff at the Chiang Dao Nest was so helpful. 


If any of you ever get the chance to go to Thailand, make sure you make it to Chiang Mai. And definitely book a trek through The Chiang Dao Nest. You won't regret it!