Hill Tribe Overnight

The Karen village where we stayed the night had guesthouses along a creek. The setting was beautiful: the creek on one side and rice paddies on the other. Mosquitoes in between.  Tom and I sprayed Deet insecticide on ourselves and remained relatively unbitten. Our bed or mattress pad on the floor had a mosquito net, not as romantic as it might sound. The net was an ugly pink thing, the pad hard, and the pillows harder.

 Not the most comfortable, but we did fine for one night. We all ate supper together at a long table under a roof with views of rice paddies on the horizon. Meowing cats pestered us loudly for food and we succumbed, especially the cat lovers. The drivers were in the outdoor eating area near the kitchen with an old television watching the volleyball match between China and Thailand. We all ended up over there cheering for Thailand, who won the best out of five. 

Not incidentally, our day was made when we read online that Obamacare was upheld by the Supreme Court. Tom and I were ecstatic!

Elephants and Rafts

When I awakened the next morning under my netting, I saw that it was 7:15am and remembered that the village coffee place opened at 6am. We saw that the breakfast of hot soup also displayed a Nescafe mix with sugar and creamer. I am a caffeine addict but this turned my stomach. Tom and I marched up the hill to the village and drank wonderful hot cups of Thai coffee and talked to the young Thai guy who spoke English from talking to tourists like ourselves. The green spider hadn’t moved. About a half hour later, some students showed up as well to share in the java.

After leaving the village in our vans, we drove to an Elephant Riding tourist spot, and rode on elephants in sets of twos. Tom and I got the biggest and oldest. I felt guilty the entire time, not my favorite thing. The people have it set up so you buy banana and sugar cane to feed your elephant and keep it going. Pui, our elephant, kept reaching his huge trunk back for a snack. We had to buy another bag of treats to keep him happy.  He took us through the river but didn’t spray us. I’m afraid the guide ate most of Pui’s sugar cane.

After the elephant adventure, we arrived in the pouring rain at a river where white water rafting is offered on long narrow bamboo rafts with about six bamboo poles tied together.  I had on my rain poncho over cropped pants and a shirt.  No such thing as staying dry. As soon as I sat down, I had a wet, drenched bottom. A young boy of around 10 or 11 poled us down the river near the other rafts filled with students in their swimsuits. This was a kick! Everyone splashed everyone else, people fell in, the guys poling us slapped the water to get us wet, and at one point our kid let loose of his pole for Tom to catch. Tom couldn’t grab it in time and neither could I. We were adrift with no pole and the raft behind us got our pole to the rescue. There also were some rapids, only enough to make it fun. The whole trip on the river lasted about 45 minutes to an hour. We passed Thai and Chinese vacationers who were staying in grass huts on the river. As they were picnicking and sunbathing, they waved to us.

All in all, it was a wonderful day filled with experiences I never thought I would have. We got back to Uniserve around 4 and were ready to crash.