In between, Belding spent 17 days on "Explorer's Thailand," a tour offered by AsiaTranspacific Journeys (www.
asiatranspacific.com) of Boulder, Colo. "I hate tents; I camp at the Ritz," declared Belding, who lives in Lexington. "I knew I was going to be uncomfortable, but I was willing to be uncomfortable to do what it takes."
When husband, Henry Abraham, "read the itinerary he started laughing so hard he was crying, because it was so not me."
She had tried to physically train before leaving, but learned that she didn't train enough. After hiking down a steep incline for hours on the first day of a four-day trek to visit hill tribes, she was exhausted, overheated, and dehydrated. "I had humor about it, but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to continue."
After discussing her plight, she decided to soldier on, but took better precautions, including wearing less clothing and using a dehydration supplement. It was a decision for which she is thankful.
"It is impossible for me to explain how meaningful it was to be with these people," she wrote in an e-mail to friends and family about the hill tribes. "It was like stepping inside a display in the Museum of Natural History, dust and all. The houses were built on stilts and the animals live below. . . . Chickens, chicks, ducks, pigs, water buffalo, elephants."
They followed walking paths between villages. "Sometimes we could hear motorcycles going through the woods, but most people walked. Or you could see some people running. Some of the paths, I discovered, had elephant tracks. Which was so cool. There were palm trees and banana trees, but it wasn't dense forest."
Belding's group consisted of seven travelers, a tour guide, and sometimes porters and drivers. She had never been on such a planned trip before, but raves about this one, particularly that the stops were not overly touristed or crowded.
