After a long hike!

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After meeting with the Burmese monk, we jumped in open air trucks for a beautiful 3-4 hour drive ot Umphang. This was probably the least comfortable accomodation so far! The bed felt like a piece of wood with a sheet on top and the shower was full of ants etc.... Dinner was plentiful and pretty good but we were all exhausted by around 8pm! We packed for our trek and I fell asleep straight away before our room lights even went out! I had my second nightmare of the trip (it must just be the malaria meds because I actually feel VERY safe here). My family was at home being followed by 7 or 8 gangsters and we were followed into our house and we tried to get to a safe place - the bad guys were caught in the end!

I'm trying to be good about sharing the things I don't have much of (like my bug repellant and shampoo) - at least I acknowledge it is a problem and I'm working on it! Had a great talk with Blair today on the hike about dealing with difficult family members. I'm realizing how truly disappointed/angry I am about certain people who lacked support. I try not to think about it too much because I am SOOOoooo grateful for all the support I did have from so many people!

After breakfast we got on the rafts - I can't believe it's only day 6!Our river rafting cruise down the Meklong river was very relaxing! Lots of sunbathing for the second half of it and hte most incfredible waterfalls and rainbows! So beautiful! We didn't have to do a thing on the raft except look around and get comfortable. I wish I had brought a bigger day pack! I think next trip I'll bring my big pack. Keep thinking about Dan - I cant wait to see him - I try ont to hope that the trip goes by quickly because I know I worked so hard to get here, but it's hard! We just took a bath in the river which was fun! Verrry cold but amazingly refreshing and I'm surprised how clean I felt afterward!

Just took a long hike through the hungle on our way to Kho Tha village. I'm beginning to believe that I don't much like hiking! Ha, I enjoyed/couldn't wait till it was over going up the very steep mountain - atl least there is a goal. But endless steep downhillI just find annoying. Unfortunately no pretty mountain-top views. It feels funny being one of the oldest on the trip. It's new for me! I am so tired after our 3 hour trek and so ready for bed! Don't even really need dinner! I also found myself getting really nervous about allergies today - plant, bee, food allergies - makes me nervous but I try pretty hard not to think about it. There were just a bunch of bees where we were eating lunch so I got anxious. Ready for bed but it's dinner time. PS. really am getting along so well with so many girls on the trip! I love it!!

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