Jungle trekking continued

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I am losing track of the days, even with a watch on half the time, most of us don't know (and perhaps don't care) what day it is... only now that we are getting closer to the end of our tour do days become important. I see I have not finished my last blog regarding my jungle trek so time to do some updating of which there is a lot...

The new years celebration...what to say it was rather surreal, we are in the middle of a jungle with no power, no tv's, yet they made sure they had chang beer and cold sodas for us to buy! Trust me after 3+ hours of trekking with a porter's pack on my back I would have gladly paid $10 for a beer, but settled on $1.50 x a few... So we have no power but cold beer! We later found out that they had a generator in the village as it was running throughout the night and provided the energy to power the christmas lights they has set up around the centerpiece of the village, which was made of bamboo, offerings to the gods which included candies, flowers and two pigs heads! 24 hours of fireworks, dancing, drums beating, and 15 of us sleeping (trying anyway) on the floor of a bamboo hut. After watching some of the celebration some of us were asked to join them in dancing. Pretty much the same beat and the same dance steps, with a little variation the odd time.

The next morning it was amazing how refreshed we were, even though everyone admitted they only got about 2-3 hours of sleep. 2 more days of trekking through the jungle..yay...can't wait!! we visited some waterfalls, a natural water slide, even was able to slip off the pathway and seriously sprain my ankle (as I would learn in the days following). Thanks to bamboo walking sticks the hike was more manageble. Mr Tong along the way would tell us about his children, his past and his wishes for him and his daughters. He also would tell us about what you could and couldn't eat, drink in the jungle. When not leading our 3 day treks he leads a 10 day trek that doesn't come with food, just his knowledge on how to live off the land, bugs and all!

Our last night in the jungle ended up with us at a treehouse with no fireworks! no music! This place was paradise compared to the night before, yet is a small way I missed watching the new years celebrations, the kids playing in the morning, learning english as I would spin them around like superman or throw them up in the air to catch them by their surprise. As soon as we entered the treehouse we noticed all these matresses laid out on the deck,,,,,yes massage time!! The village people were waiting to give us all thai massages, which we all couldn't wait to take advantage of and of course all the cold Chang beer and soda one could drink.


G

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