Phi Phi Islands
home stay in a village some 4½ hours away in the Mae Hong Son region. The Karen ethnic group lives there, farming rice and cabbage on vibrant green hillsides. Our guides cut down wild passion fruit for us to sample, pointed out spiders as big as a hand and chopped bamboo to whittle into cups. After reaching the mountaintops near the Myanmar border and making it to the village, we used those cups to slug homemade rice liquor.
We set up a bed of blankets on the wooden floor and rested between bags of rice as our hosts cooked dinner in a hearth built into the floor. Sleeping in a home open to the elements was the only time I got cold on the trip, and the only place I skipped a shower, passing up a tub of chilly water in an outhouse with a squat toilet.
Elephants
Nature Park allowed us to travel alongside them, not on their backs. We kept them moving through the jungle by thrusting bananas and melon into their eagerly outstretched trunks. It was surreal and a bit unnerving as we led four mostly blind and elderly female elephants on a muddy, uneven path, trying to keep our balance while avoiding their feet. In another part of the sanctuary, we got a peek at a baby elephant.
After trekking, we looked forward to decompressing on an otherworldly beach on the Phi Phi Islands — pronounced “pee pee.” But rain was falling as we arrived and promised not to let up.
Instead of the party-hearty main town on Ko Phi Phi Don, the largest island, we opted for a secluded resort. A long-tail boat plowed through choppy waters to get us there, leaving us windblown and wet from ocean spray and rain as we tried to photograph the green-topped rock rising from the Andaman Sea.
The weather cooperated enough the next day for a group tour to the smaller island, Koh Phi Phi Leh, and its hotspot, Maya Bay, which is breathtaking but overrun after the movie “The Beach” made it famous. Even early in the day, it was tough to find a spot free of people posing with selfie sticks.
Nearby, we reveled in an empty swath of sand framed by cliffs before winding through rock formations to the Blue Lagoon, a green-walled swimming hole packed with tourist boats.
After the beaches and long days in the devout atmosphere of temples, without blinking, our nights turned to buying knockoffs of favorite overpriced sandals, swigging 70 baht ($2) beer and watching men in elaborate makeup and sequined ball gowns perform a dance in a packed outdoor market.
That’s Thailand, country of contrasts.