Day 4: Hiking the Thailand Hills

Every time I book a trip with hiking hills and mountains I think "this is going to be fun" and then I do it and its not fun. Its painful. The entire time my legs hurt, my knees and hip joints feel like their going to break. Its awful. I love trees, I love nature, but it is clear that my body is not made for hiking mountains. So the next time I tell you that "I've book a wonderful 3 day hiking trip through mountains" you can slap me. And then redirect me to this blog post.

That being said here's my hiking adventure. I'm picked up by my guide who doesn't speak english. We get into a truck with a driver that doesn't speak english, and mother and her 5 year old child who barely speak english. We drive an hour out of town, stop at a market to get some supplies, the food for tonight. Then we drive another hour to this area where me, my guide and the mother and child (whose name is Lemon) hike to a waterfall.

This entire vacation I had been trying to be culturally respectful. Women are not supposed to intact much with monks, you're not supposed to touch them, or stand to close to them, its encouraged not to look them in the eye, and most of all keep covered. Well we get to this waterfall and there are monks everywhere, mostly younger boys and teens, and they're hanging out on the rock, they're swimming, and pretty much all of them are naked, including some of the older monks. I had no idea how to be culturally respectful in this situation. Lemon wanted to swim, but it was clear her mother wasn't sure about this, and wasn't going to go in. Then she looked to me, at this point Lemon was now my best friend. My arms has freckles and my hair was curly and it was super interesting. So her mother turns to me and says "You, Lemon" and then point to the water, and smiles. So I went swimming with Lemon which then officially made me the coolest person ever, of course she was unable to communicate that, do to everyones lack of english. So we went swimming with a bunch of naked monks, Lemon in her underwear, me in bathing suit.

Me and Lemon at the waterfall 

Lemon and her mother

Today was the first day of Thai New Year and it is celebrated with a giant water fight that last for 5 days 

Lemon

We continued on with our hike, eventually Lemon and her mom were able to catch a motorbike on one of the wider trails and head off on their own. 

My guide cuts me a walking stick 

Mountain views

I was so sweaty and hot at this point

View of the village

Once at the small village I was able to drop off my stuff and take a quick cold shower. The shower was a hose that was lashed to a pole in a small dark corrugated metal shed. The water was more of a trickle that an actual stream, and therefore there was no hope in being able to wash my hair properly. But it was refreshing. 

After that my guide had me follow him around the village while he talked to many of the inhabitants, I smiling clueless beside him. 

The village is small, consisting of 32 families and 228 people

We ran into Lemon and her mom in the village visiting her family

A woman feeding her pig

I slept in the room above the cows

We had a meal of chicken, curry, rice, fruit and fried veggies. It was way too much food for me, but my guide kept pushing me to eat more and I didn't want to be disrespectful but it was far too much food.

I read my book by candle light, with the lack of conversation or entertainment and managed to finish the whole thing off, with still another night to go. I went to bed at 9 and was woken up frequently every time the cows mooed or there was a dog barking, the roosters started just before five and sleeping after that was pointless. I laid in my mosquito net, on a small mattress on the floor and watch the sun creep into the bamboo hatching.