Slept nice last night, my toes were cold in the morning, and I had to piss like a race horse, but was too lazy to get up and go pee. Court froze again, despite the toque and the whole charade she does. It was unbelievably quiet last night, considering all the pigs and cows and roosters and ducks around, they were all quiet most of the night.
We got up about 7:00, had breakfast about 7:30. Breakfast was boiled eggs and toast (lots of toast).
BTW, we had six people on our trek when we started, Joe and Penelope from Australia, and a brother and sister from South Korea. Joe and Penelope were only on a 2 day trek, so they left about 8:30 with their own guide. Me and Court and the Koreans left about 9:30 with Mr. Ton, our guide.
AFter breakfast, as we were leaving the village, we saw the oldest lady in the village (88 years old) talking with some younger women. She sure didn't look 88 years old. We then walked to the house of the oldest man, and he was outside spinning thread from cotton, very active fella still, has excellent eye sight (and hearing). All the houses are on stilts, and they have ladders to get up and down, and he scurries and up and down like a kid. Amazing. Mr. Ton explained a lot of the customs and ways of life, he was a good guide. As we were watching the old man spin thread, he was telling our guide about WWII, and all the Japanese bombs going off around the village.
AT one point in the hike, Mr Ton stopped, he heard a snake in the jungle, he tried to go and find it, but it was gone by that time. He tells us the hill tribe people eat the snakes, they're not poisonous.
WE hiked to another village, took a break, then hiked to a small rice farm for lunch. WE arrived about noon. The facilities at the farm house were limited, they had an outhouse (squatter toilet), and the shower was outdoors, a little bamboo hose directing water from a stream or spring into a little ditch. You had to sit or squat under the hose. They also had a little clothes line so you could hang your clothes while you bathed. I felt the water, and it was actually quite warm, so Court and I decided we should bathe, since we didn't know when we'd get the chance to again. And the water was awfully warm, compared to the frigid shower at the village. You could see the shower from the farm houses, but couldn't see much, as it was hidden a little bit. I've never showered outdoors before, it was very nice.
The Korean lady made soup (Korean soup), andthe guide made Thai soup for lunch. (BTW, the Korean lady might be about 20, the brother was young, couldn't have been over 13 or 14.) At one point during lunch, a chicken jumped up to where our backpacks were and started pecking at them.
AFter lunch, we hiked to another village and watched (and helped) a 16 year old girl separate the rice from the husk. Takes about 1 hour to separate enough rice for one meal. Very hard work.
We hiked about 2 hours to a waterfall camp with bamboo huts. The waterfall was about 2 minutes from the camp, downstream. When we got the top of the waterfall, we could see other trekkers at the bottom of the falls. We got the camp about 4:00.
We had supper about 6:30, and caramel popcorn (home made!) for dessert. Yum.
For the first time since we got here, we finally found a rooster than cockadoodledoo's properly! He doesn't sound like he's broken!!! Although he still doesn't do it at the break of dawn. This rooster is tied up, dunno why, maybe he's special, or tries to run away or something.
After supper, Court and I practice hackeysack. Courtney getting very frustrated!!! We want to get real good before we get back to Canada. WE played some cards with the Korean siblings, then sat around the campfire and listened to Mr. Ton play/sing.
Oh ya, at supper, Courtney's trying to give me some vegetables, and I told her I had enough on my plate, I didn't need anymore. She's like, "C'mon eat some vegetables for me, please?" What the heck????? I get enough of that in Moose Jaw! Anyway, I did eat the vegetables. Also after supper, the Korean's heated up some dried squid of something (it was like squid jerky). Courtney had a piece, and kinda liked it, she starts trying to get me to have some, so I tried some of hers. GROSS! I did not like that at all.
Notes:
- A lot of the hill tribe people have black teeth. They actually eat some sap from certain trees that makes their teeth turn black, but actually preserves their teeth. The old lady that died last year had only lost 2 teeth all her life.
- When we left the village this morning, this dog followed us all day (Rambo was his name). He's been following the trekkers for years now, and he really seems to enjoy it.
- Hill tribe life seems to calm and peaceful. No worries.
- They handweave a lot of their clothing. They use different bark from different trees to get different colours.
- They also used the bark from a certain tree to wash elephants. It turns into a soap and also acts as an anti-septic.
- Put a bunch of leaves on a termite hill for good luck!
- Hill tribe people have alters at their rice fields for a good growing season.
- It's "autumn" in Thailand, the leaves are changing colour and falling off the trees. It's probably more to do with everything being too dry than with cold weather coming, though.
- Seeing all these chickens and roosters and everything got me to thinking: What the heck is the difference between a rooster, a chicken, a hen, and a turkey???? Can anyone explain????
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