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Published: December 29th 2008
Hmong Village
Lang struck up a conversation on conditions in the village and surrounding areas.So we finally made out into the villages. As we said early we have run into Hmong out here, so we decided to go visit a village. It turned out to be pretty interesting, in fact one of the villagers mentioned thier daughter will be headed to california to go to school.
What a small world.
The trek into the mountains was fun, and full of scenary, despite it looked like the trail could and did disappear a few times. I huffed and puffed my way up the mountain and wondered why was I struggling to see Hmong when I could see them at home. ( I cursed a few times in between intakes of precious clean air). In the end it really was worth the time. Lang could communicate with the people there, although thier dilect was different, mixed with Thai. I spent some time talking with the others in our group explaining why we had come up and some of the situation of transplaning to the U.S.
It was informative, as most of those in our group pretty much were just doing the tourist thing visiting some village in the middle of a small mountin.
Sugar Cane
on the path to the village a elder was chopping up sugar cane. After that we headed out to visit a White Karen village. So named because thier unmarried girls wear white dresses. Those who know of the Karen know them as those National Geographic pictures of people with rings around thier necks, stretching them. Although there are those nearby, these weren't that type of Karen. Very beautiful village, I was facinated by the construction of the buildings, being different from Hmong. The karen being hillside people built most of thier homes on stilts, due to the water in the wet season.
Theres more to add of course, and I'll come back and edit this entry.
Suffice to say we also did some fun tourist things, after all, part of this leg of the journey was to relax. Don't tell my muscles that, because they would protest that they're not relaxed and have in fact been tortured, beaten, and strained. I suspect they might try to revolt at some point. I've decided to buy some tiger balm as a Christmas present.
That being said, we did a elephant ride... who knew they were such ATVs of the jungle! We of course had to have gotten the one that was tempermental
offering
One of the spots where offerings are made and would always choose the harder more uneven path to go down. I'm not sure I exactly agree with this tourist type of activity. After seeing the conditions I don't think I'll reccommend this to people. What threw me off was that at one location this type of experience was advertised as "our elephant was a captured in the wild" as if that makes it better?? What does the elephant feel about the whole experience?
Anyways, we ended up later doing a rather fun and wet trip down one of the rivers in a bamboo raft. I'm being generous on the "raft" part, it was a bunch of poles tied together, and then you hang on. The others decided to stand. I figured I would sit, as we would get wet anyways. I was right. Fun, and I would like to do that again.
This being South East Asia, Christmas isn't the same out here. A few people will wear Santa Hats, and you'll hear some music off in the distance. Thats the extent of it.
We decided to celebrate and made for the Riverside Resturant for dinner. The food was worth the walk. At first we
lost trails
If your not careful you can lose the trail at some points. objected to thier "large" serving of drinks in tiny cups, and then nodded in approvement when they brought out a jug. One builds up a very large amount of thirst running around here. I'm drinking liquids more than eating.
The entertainment is facisnating as live bands played american songs. Not thier interpretations or style of the song, but exact duplication. Its interesting to hear them, as they can't always enunciate the words correctly. Fun tho, and everyone had a good time.
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