Up at 7:30 this morning, and had breakfast, and waited for our trek truck. It was a little late, but he showed up. It was a songthaew (sp?), which is that truck-turned-taxi by adding seats to the back of a truck, with a roof. And no, there are no seatbelts. Our guide introduced himself quickly, them off we went. Drove south of Chaing Mai for about 20 minutes, stopped at a market for half an hour. I tried some Thai milk (low fat), and it was good, pretty much the same as Canadian milk, but it wasn't cold, just cool. Then we drove for about another 30 minutes to the elephant trekking. This was quite fun, spent an hour or so on an elephant. The elephant kept spitting snot on us from his trunk, Courtney was getting very disgusted. The elephant trainer was a kid, no more than 12 years old, and he would get off and let the elephant go on his own, yelling commands at it every so often. It was only when the trainer wasn't on the elephant did the elephant snot us. I thought it was fun!
After the elephant trek, we hopped back into the songthaew and drove for about 20 minutes to the start of the hike. About a 10 minute hike, to a nice waterfall, where we had lunch, which was fried rice in a baggie, and a banana. BTW, all of our meals were covered as part of the cost of the trek, it was all inclusive, except our drinks (water, Coke, beer, etc.). Spent an hour or so at the waterfall, everyone napped except Court and I, we dangled our feet in the cool river pools.
Did a tough hike, almost straight up, then took a break, then hiked some more, another break, then a final 45 minute hike to a Karen village. We arrived there about 4:00. (I think the guide called the White Karen village.) As we walked into teh village, we walked past the school, where all the kids were standing outside listening to the teacher.
The village was a total step back in time, cows, pigs, ducks, chickens all over the place. No english, except for our guide, and one of the teachers spoke a little english, our guide told us later. The kids are very curious, but very friendly. They can say "What is your name?" We fell so out of place in the village, taking pictures and gawking, but they probably get that every day.
Our sleeping quarters are a communal sleeping area on bamboo, with a mat, sleeping bag and blanket.
Women wear red (or other bright colour)if they are married, white if they are not married. They typically marry about 14 or 15 years old. The female picks a male she likes, and asks him to marry her, but he can refuse (he will usually say something like "ask me next year", or put it off, instead of outright rejection). After marriage, they live with the wife's family for 5 years before going out on their own. They have a 1 month honeymoon. At the wedding ceremony, they put a pigs head on a stake to fend off bad spirits, the rest of the pig is for everyone else to enjoy. The wife pays for the wedding.
The oldest woman in the village dies last year at the ripe old age of 120. They had a 3 day celebration after her death. The oldest woman right now is 88 years old, the oldest man is 94.
The tribe (as most hill tribe people are), are animist (that's a religion, for those not so informed). Opium is still a big problem, but not in this village anymore. They queen visited the village at some point, and the villagers made a promise to not do/deal drugs anymore, so they are clean.
At school, they learn Thai and mathematics, and they learn how to live off the land.
This village had 139 people, soon to be either 140 of 141, one of them is pregnant, and they don't know if it's one or two children she's having.
Before supper, Courtney and I walked around, and waved at the children, took pictures (there's one real nice one with Courtney and about 4 or 5 children), and just observed. Life is sooo slow here. They do have an emergency satellite telephone (powered by solar cells), and there are a few motorbikes around, to get in and out of the village with, but other than that, there's no technology here at all. Court had a cold shower (in an outhouse), and I walked to the school, and looked around, it's just a wooden building with wooden chairs inside, 3 rooms, and a few "teaching aids" on the walls, and a donation box outside, with english asking for donations to buy school supplies and whatnot. I put in 10 baht. I went back and had a shower, holy frickin cold! Yikes!!
We had supper (rice with chicken and potatoes, vegetables and tofu, a vegetable mix (Morning Glory, the guide called it), and watermelon. It was very tasty. One things for sure, you'll never starve in Thailand, especially on a trek. They provide so much food, it's unreal.
AFter supper, Mr. Ton explained the tribe and their customs (all that stuff I mentioned above), and told us they would build a bonfire, and all the children would sing to us, then a big bowl would be placed in front of us, and we could donate some money to the village. The bonfire got built, and we moved to the campfire area, and all the children were standing around, and once we were seated, the children started singing. And they sang, and they sang, and they wouldn't stop, and we started feeling uncomfortable, because we didn't know what to do. Should he clap? Hold up money? Just sit and wait? And they sang, and they were getting tired, and they were running out of songs, and it became almost a chore for them, it seemed. Finally, they brought out the bowl, and we all put in some baht.
AFter the singing, Mr. Ton played songs on his guitar for us, for more than an hour. Got to bed about 10:30.
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