The next day, Marieke and I decided we'd like to do a trek to make up for our missed experience in Chiang Mai. We got hooked up with a local guide named Pen, who spoke impeccable english. There were six of us total, and we spent the day hiking up mountains, wading through streams, crawling through caves, and visiting a local tribe's (Karen tribe) village. It was an extremely interesting day. In the cave, there was a four foot snake blocking our path for a few minutes, and then a huge spider on the wall. The Karen village was functional, yet not untouched by modern civilization. They had pickup trucks, satellite dishes, and scooters. You could tell, however, they were very self sufficient and most of their life was based on being functional. Animals lived under
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