That's all it took to put me right again. The trek was a blast. Dan and Clint, twins from New Zealand, Tim from Australia, Sarah, and I piled into the back of a pickup truck (with a roof!) and drove a few hours north. We did stop at the Tourist police office so they could give us some safety information and make sure we were all accounted for, but if this trek had been in the US I'm pretty sure there would have been about 19 safety forms to sign and far more life jackets involved. Nu was a great guide though and we all came out alive, so nown we can just look back and laugh.
First day was a few hours of hiking with a waterfall stop. (I'll probably post again about the trek once I have pictures). This is when we saw the first signs of the magic one can do with a big knife and some bamboo. Nu and our porter disappeared and did some some chopping, and 10 minutes later we had a bridge to cross the river with! 3 minutes later, the bridge was gone.
We spent the night in a Lahu village. That was a bizarre and fascinating experience that I'll have to recount when I have more computer time (maybe in the picture post). The Lahu tribe is from Burma and moved to the village 35 years ago or so. Apparently only half of them are in Thailand legally, so whenever the police come....the other half run across the border again until the police are gone.
The next day we did 4 or 5 hours of hiking, and my quads did lots of burning. Hong, our porter for that leg of the journey would periodically disappear from the trail and we'd hear more chopping. We ended our hike at a picnic site beside a river, where Hong proceeded to turn two bamboo logs into 5 bowls and handed out freshly whittled chopsticks!
The neeext leg of our journey was a bamboo raft to the village we stayed in the second night. The bamboo rafting was awesome. I don't have a picture to post yet, but just to give you an ideal....
It was a lazy river with a few light rapids, so we mostly just watched the mountains, trees and flowers go by. The highlight was the passionfruit that Nu picked as we floated along.
The second night we stayed with the Lisu hill tribe, who came to Thailand from China several hundred years ago. Their village was about half the size as the first one but much closer to cities, so there were more modern conveniences it seemed like. However, our accomdations were pretty much the same, a hut with a raised floor.....only this time with multicolored mosquito nets. Again, this village was fascinating, but less awkward than the first. This village also had more vocal animals. We had a pig friend that "slept" (maybe she just snores a lot?) under our hut, a cow that sleepwalks with a bell around its neck, chatty dogs, and roosters that really need somebody to tell them when the sun comes up.
Today we went caving and rode elephants, which were both lots of fun. Elephants are massive and bats smell bad.
The fruit shakes were glorious and now I'm going to sit here and hurt.
Love you all!
First day was a few hours of hiking with a waterfall stop. (I'll probably post again about the trek once I have pictures). This is when we saw the first signs of the magic one can do with a big knife and some bamboo. Nu and our porter disappeared and did some some chopping, and 10 minutes later we had a bridge to cross the river with! 3 minutes later, the bridge was gone.
We spent the night in a Lahu village. That was a bizarre and fascinating experience that I'll have to recount when I have more computer time (maybe in the picture post). The Lahu tribe is from Burma and moved to the village 35 years ago or so. Apparently only half of them are in Thailand legally, so whenever the police come....the other half run across the border again until the police are gone.
The next day we did 4 or 5 hours of hiking, and my quads did lots of burning. Hong, our porter for that leg of the journey would periodically disappear from the trail and we'd hear more chopping. We ended our hike at a picnic site beside a river, where Hong proceeded to turn two bamboo logs into 5 bowls and handed out freshly whittled chopsticks!
The neeext leg of our journey was a bamboo raft to the village we stayed in the second night. The bamboo rafting was awesome. I don't have a picture to post yet, but just to give you an ideal....
It was a lazy river with a few light rapids, so we mostly just watched the mountains, trees and flowers go by. The highlight was the passionfruit that Nu picked as we floated along.
The second night we stayed with the Lisu hill tribe, who came to Thailand from China several hundred years ago. Their village was about half the size as the first one but much closer to cities, so there were more modern conveniences it seemed like. However, our accomdations were pretty much the same, a hut with a raised floor.....only this time with multicolored mosquito nets. Again, this village was fascinating, but less awkward than the first. This village also had more vocal animals. We had a pig friend that "slept" (maybe she just snores a lot?) under our hut, a cow that sleepwalks with a bell around its neck, chatty dogs, and roosters that really need somebody to tell them when the sun comes up.
Today we went caving and rode elephants, which were both lots of fun. Elephants are massive and bats smell bad.
The fruit shakes were glorious and now I'm going to sit here and hurt.
Love you all!
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