We live a simple life,” says Yajoe Sankampoe, a trekking guide and member of the White Karen tribe, as we hike through a thick forest. “We live together. We live with nature.”

The simple life and nature are both a big part of the draw on a new ‘hilltribes trek’ through the remote, forested hills of northern Thailand, not far from the border with Myanmar (Burma). In a modern world of constantly buzzing smartphones and email inboxes that refuse to empty, it feels good to get back to basics, which is what we do here, staying with local people in homestays in small, agricultural villages along the trekking route. There are no Wi-Fi connections – this is a chance to ‘disconnect’. Accommodation is basic, with bed mattresses on the floors of wooden houses, but the welcome is warm, far warmer than the ‘showers’, which involve pouring cold water over yourself with a saucepan. The new trek and homestays have been created, in part, to help bring money and development to these rural communities.

Before the trek, I spent time in Chiang Mai, the ‘capital of the north’. It’s a far mellower city than Bangkok, but there are still the extremes of Thailand on show, from the massage parlours and girly bars along Loi Kroh Road to peaceful golden temples where monks in saffron robes stroll around and chimes gently clang. I spend a day exploring the Old Town’s temples, including my favourite, 14th-century Wat Phan Tao, one of the oldest in Chiang Mai. Inside and outside the temples, I check out golden statues of Buddha and intricate carvings of dragons and serpents.

Five more places to add to your Thailand itinerary

Bangkok

Many trips to Thailand will start and end in Bangkok. The city can be overwhelming, but the good news is that air-conditioned taxis are really cheap, making getting around easy. Chatuchak market, selling vintage gear and food, has to be seen to be believed. It’s massive.

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is a cooler and leafier alternative to Bangkok. The ancient capital is a short scooter ride from rainforests and waterfalls, while the city streets are seeing a flurry of new galleries as well as old-school eateries. Head to Chang Khlan Road in the evenings for street food.

Ko Pha-Ngan

This island can appeal to two types of travellers: firstly the full-moon revellers – all 30,000 of them – who descend on the pristine shores for a night of whisky-fuelled dancing. When they leave, visitors are left with peaceful, pristine beaches and the island to themselves. Win win.

Phuket

If it’s all-out luxury you’re after, then Phuket will deliver. This big island has seen a wave of new hotel openings over the last few years, and the shore is now dotted with some of the best hotels in the country. Head to the Blue Elephant in Phuket Town for a slap-up Thai meal.

Golden Triangle

The Golden Triangle – where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Burma meet – is perhaps best known for its opium-producing history (the House of Opium museum is definitely worth a visit). It’s also a great base for cruising the calm Mekong river, visiting remote hillside villages and slowing the pace for a few days.

After teaming up with my group, we drive out of Chiang Mai, the road twisting, winding (we were warned of “2,000 bends”) and gradually climbing higher into lush, green hills. Most ‘hilltribes’ treks start around two hours outside of Chiang Mai, but these easy-to-access areas have grown popular over the last 20 to 30 years, with some trails reported to be overrun with backpackers. The busy routes also have a reputation for being too commercialised, with persistent local hawkers putting the hard sell on hikers to buy handmade crafts and jewellery. I was happy to travel further afield, our group driving four and a half hours northwest from Chiang Mai to start our trek at the roadside Pa Mai Daeng (Red Wood Forest) trailhead in the Pang Mapha district of rarely visited Mae Hong Son province. Our guide, Aviruth Meesupa (who goes by the nickname Ball), introduces us to the locals who’ll be leading us through the forest, including shy Yajoe Sankampoe from the White Karen tribe and the more outgoing Rang-sri Prasopturm from the Red Lahu, and we set off

Hiking through the shade of the forest is instantly calming, with no noise at all from cars or machines, just birdsong and our footsteps. Through gaps in the trees, I see limestone peaks towering above us. Rang-sri points to plants used by locals: a tree’s bark is stripped and twisted into a thread to make rope; another plant’s leaves are used to treat wounds.

After lunch in a bamboo shelter (rice, fried cabbage and egg, plus grilled snakehead fish), prepared by women from the Red Lahu tribe, we complete a few short climbs – hot work in the afternoon sun – before making our way across a green valley and up to the village of Pha Mon. Roosters, pigs and dogs amble through the streets, but the village is more developed than I expected, with motorbikes and trucks parked outside large wooden and concrete houses. I spot satellite dishes around the village. Many villagers own smartphones or iPads. This isn’t the picture of traditional ‘tribal’ life travellers might expect on a ‘hilltribes trek’; local people wear jeans, T-shirts and sweatshirts, rather than traditional costumes, ornate jewellery or make-up and tattoos. What we’re getting instead is a slice of peaceful, rural life. Yajoe welcomes two hikers and I into this home. “I like to live here,” Yajoe tells us (with Ball translating), as we settle down to eat our dinner, daylight slowly fading over the cornfields. “I feel free here. I can eat what I want to eat. I can go where I want to go. I feel safe and comfortable. We have little money, but it’s good here.”

Villagers hope the community’s tourism project can help to bring money into the area, which was previously dominated by opium production. “Many villages in the past developed with the ‘black business’,” Yajoe explains. “Now, we can grow anything we like: rice, corn… It’s better money. And we feel less scared of soldiers coming because opium was illegal.”

I wake to a chorus of roosters and pigs grunting in the yard. Smoke from kitchen fires drifts across the village as we set off, hiking through a wide valley and up steep forest trails on our way from Pha Mon to the White Karen village of Muang Pam. Rang-sri sings and whistles as we follow the course of a river, stepping in and out of the shallow water. Poisonous but non-deadly spiders sit in webs above our heads.

Rang-sri spots a crab climbing the riverbank. “They taste very good”, he says. “I eat all animals in the forest: crabs, cicadas, spiders, worms, wasps, bees… And beer and whisky,” he jokes.

In the afternoon, we pass buffalo lazing by a river, then climb a ladder to a cave where Rang-sri shows us the Saedi pagoda (shrine). “This is 600 years old, maybe built by the Chan people,” he says.

Muang Pam village is larger than Pha Mon, with a population of 600. In the evening, a small group of us relax by the kitchen fire in Rang-sri’s home. Dinner includes a bowl of ferns and tasty mushrooms that Rang-sri picked from the forest during our hike. Whisky’s passed around to everyone, except Yajoe, whose wife, he explains, can communicate with spirits (villagers call themselves Buddhist, but believe in spirits and other elements of Animism) that say that she’ll become sick if her husband drinks. He hasn’t touched a drop in three years.

After another rooster alarm call, our morning hike involves crossing back and forth across a winding river, wading through knee-deep water. “This is the Lang River,” Rang-sri tells me. “It comes in here from Myanmar. The border’s just 20km away.”

We cut through small farms, coming out at a river where teenage boys are casting out fishing nets. Our van’s waiting at the trek’s end to carry us to nearby Tham Nam Lod, a vast cave system containing columns, stalactites, stalagmites and a rock formation shaped like a crocodile. It’s our final stop before our group loads up into the van to return to Chiang Mai via those “2,000 bends” again. On the way, we drop off Rang-sri and Yajoe by the roadside, and they disappear into the forest, making their way back home to their villages and the sometimes enviable ‘simple life’.

Travel Details

Graeme travelled with G Adventures , whose new five-day Northern Thailand Hilltribes Trek costs from £229 per person, including two nights at a hotel in Chiang Mai with breakfast, all meals during the trek, van transport and guides, gadventures.co.uk. In Chiang Mai, he stayed at 137 Pillars House hotel, which costs from £246 per night 137pillarshouse.com. Thai Airways offers return flights from London Heathrow to Chiang Mai, via Bangkok, starting from £530, thaiairways.co.uk.
For more on Thailand, see tourismthailand.org