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Published: June 20th 2005
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Hill Tribe Puppets
Handing out finger puppets to the Lisu kids A Hill Tribe Trek in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand
Staring:
"Crazy" also known by the alias "Chen" our guide and master, is a short dark faced smiling man who enjoys whiskey and making love to a lady assistant behind the thin bamboo walls while the rest of us, in the adjacent room, sip beer quietly and pretend to ignore it.
"Bekham" - Another Assistant, like Chen loves Whiskey, his favourite catch phrase "Oh My Buddha!"
X - a young kid who claims he is 20, apparently takes opium and drinks whiskey, actual age somewhere between 12 and 14.
Co-Staring:
Martin (a well travelled, great humoured Swiss 18 year old recently in Nepal and India)
Shill (a married French man who is, by agreement, on a holiday from his wife)
Jane (an empathetic English girl who has mapped her next 6 years of life to include residence in a variety of countries and avoid paying debts run up in her name at home. Dislikes Bekham)
Ehshai (American/Dutch reformed heavy metal fan, bible burner and aspiring doctor) He's married to Eleanor
Eleanor (a nice Israeli girl who is less than enthusiastic about Eshai's treking plan - great
Bed for the night
Brigid and Iris from Austria to add a comical bit of conflict on the trek)
Iris (Rather introverted Austrian who he doesn't respond much to my conversation - now I understand why you want to work with deaf people)
Brigid (Slightly over serious but generally well-intentioned Austrian doctor, is friend of Iris)
Dirk (A decent and quiet former Dutch part time policeman, now civil servant, loves to video everything - especially Cynthia handing out puppets)
Cynthia (The affable wife of Dirk - has a finger puppet for every child on the planet.)
DAY 1
Lisu Village
We drive for a couple of hours North West of Chiang Mai in the direction of Pai before stopping at lunch near a security checkpoint.....After Lunch we drive up steep windy roads and then turn in to a muddy laneway leading to a bunch of bamboo houses that is the Lisu village. The kids are expecting us and try to attach little string braclets to our arms, we brush them off but hand them out sweets as a consolation. The Dutch couple have brought finger puppets which the kids are thrilled to get....
Life is good for the Lisu men, explains "Crazy" our guide. The
women do the work. The men can have as many wives as they want so long as they pay for them - they can sell them on if they get tired of them!
Lahu Sweeties Dance
We begin a slow trek that leads down a valley and up the otherside. A naked Lisu kid being bathed by his mother waves to me from his bath. Tis hot, sticky and muddy, it rains heavily but is thouroughly enjoyable and not so difficult going. About 2.5 hours later we arrive at the Lahu village. (We later learn that the Lahu kids make the trek to school in the Lisu viallage everyday).
We are shown our bed for the night, blankets and rough pillows on the bamboo floor in an elevated bamboo hut with a couple of holes in the bamboo floor.... A few of us play soccer with the local bare footed kids and then the younger ones come by our huts and they get sweets and puppets.
Night falls...Crazy gets drunk during the entertainment; Sweet innocent little Lahu girls in traditional dress sing songs and move to a beat. (Next day we are told by Crazy that
most of the hill tribes Lisu, Lahu, Karen are Catholic and that the girls were singing Catholic songs..)
I offer the sweeties some sweets but they refuse them and seem offended....Later they take some from Crazy....The other kids are mad for fthe sweets..
Meanwhile the rest of the troupe are pissed off with our guys getting pissed..and most of them refuse to drink anything....I enjoy one beer...
DAY 2
A feast of Flesh, Stolen Shoes
I Wake up to find that I have been a tasty meal for various insects during the night...The Dutchies are ok however - they had mosquito nets....More bad news; our shoes are gone...Crazy reassures us that the Lahu kids have only borrowed them so that they can run into the jungle and cut us some bamboo sticks to use on the days trek..Sure enough the kids return with sticks...
Stickless and uphill
We're one stick short and I am the one to do without ...the going is tolerable but hard uphill through a hillside forested path. Soon we're going down again and the lack of a stick and slippy shoes reults in an injury to my leg.....
Elephant Trek
We
Fellow Trekkers
Fellow Trekkers, Chiang Moi, Thailand June 4 2005 ride elephants that are more intent on eating than moving....I sit next to Jane who is extremely edgy...we both become rather alarmed when our elephant decides to eat from a tree that grows just on the edge of precipice...when the elephant moves his head downwards our whole seat starts to incline at 90 degrees and we have to lean back using the weight of our heads to maintain our position...
Karen Village
We sleep in a hut in the Karen village after a delicous Thai Curry..
DAY 3
I have a very painful trek due to my leg this morning..which is somewhat relieved by Brigid's kindly medical check and medicine...
Rafting, Drowning Elenaour and Cursing Crazy
We proceed to bamboo rafting, myself Eshai and Elenour share a raft...I man the back Elenaour sits down in the middle...Eshai and our guide man the front ...it looks like it could be thrilling especially when the water starts to run a little faster...At one point a branch hangs out over the river..and I ready myself to step over it as we pass..However Elenaour is not prepared and is swept towards the back of the raft..I have no option but to go further back until eventually I am thrown off.Elenaour goes down and is pushed under the water. A smaller branch pushes against her neck and stomach and she goes under again....she gasps and spluters, swallows water and panics..."I've got you" I reassure her as I grab her hand and try to steady her up................................she wants to go back but its too late our guide tells us as we wind down the muddy river manouvering the raft right and left to dodge the vegetation...
...we reach the end...maybe it's the medication but I feel delerious. Elenaour curses Crazy...he got to stay in the truck - lucky crazy...
Also see: http://www.travelblog.org/fred.php?id=10235
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