David Keegan

“A wonderful adventure!” I made all the arrangements for the trek well in advance of leaving the UK and after much searching and research sent an email request to a Mr Chan. His response to the email was both prompt and friendly. I explained in my email that we didn’t want to visit any elephant farms, or sanctuary’s, believing the whole enterprise to be exploitative of these wonderful creatures. He wrote back and assured us he could arrange a tour without the need to visit an elephant place. All excellent apart from minor alarm at an email received, whilst still in Vietnam, from Mr. Chan days before our due arrival in Chiang Mai asking if we would not mind sharing the trek with about 4 to 6 other people. Given that i had always made clear i wanted a private trek, and was paying the extra for that, i was not best pleased. However Mr Chan responded quickly saying private trek was not a problem. What i didn’t know, until we met in my hotel the night before scheduled trek, he would not be taking us but one of his colleagues Mr Goo would instead take us. I was on the verge of cancelling when Mr Goo turned up, he seemed a nice man with good knowledge of the hills and tribes. Little did I know this turned out to be the best possible outcome. Mr Goo, WOW, couldn’t have asked for a nicer more hospitable human being. Also helped greatly that he had spent some 20 years as a forest ranger meaning he had a great knowledge base of plants, animals and insects encountered on the trek. He also spoke 6 languages and could communicate with local tribe’s people in their native tongue. The trek turned out to be one of the highlights of my many years of travelling. Goo also prepared all our meals and is an excellent cook!!! One day i will return to hopefully do a trek from Chiang Rai to Chaing Mai with Mr Goo. Mr Chan and Mr Goo are both wonderfully warm people and i could not recommend them more highly.