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Published: March 12th 2009
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The long neck tribe
We stopped at what we thought was a traditional tribal group before starting trek-it turned out to be a mixed group of tribes,total tourist attraction-where basically the families were paid abt 8 pounds a month for whole family to have a better quality of life and create a bit of a zoo...quite sad really but the children again were full of smiles and had learnt bartering skills very young! Greetings :-)
Firstly, thankyou for all ur lovely msgs from home, so lovely to read. Can't belive not even 2 weeks since we left-it feels much longer cos we have done/travelled so much!
So as u see we are now abt to travel to the border into Laos by a 2 day long slow boat to Luang prakbang where we will be spending a few days. we set off in morn at 7 and stop overnight in small village -pakbeng-should be interesting-no elec after 10, few scattered guesthouses apparantly and at least 50 of us taking crossing (we travelled up with them from Chiang mai).
Anyway let me tell u abt the days leading up=what an experience, so much to say!
Chaing Mai we liked verymuch-like a small Bamgkok-we did some temples, night bazarr and sunday evening market stroll to sample the local specialities-ate in a huge outdoor food hall, while watching new monk recruits being taught-very interesting-learnt alot abt Buddhism already. We braved our 1st-"What is that food stall"....we have a guessing game of what are we eating so don't ask me-but it was a "baggie" (alot of food stalls serve u food in clear plastic bags, drinks
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A good 1 to show children margaret-these neck braces made of copper are put on abt 3 years of age and changed 3 yearly-let me tell u they are very heavy, they never remove them -they can't , they are made of complete circles-there are lots of theories why but most popular-protect women of tribe from wild tiger attacks.... also! so most of them just look like bads of soup in various colours, with floaters-?? to what these are.... tasty soup anyway and floating bits were ....interesting! We then filled up on local sushi stand...M & S are ripping us all off!! So cheap-could have eaten whole stall for price of 1 box at Marks....? is how will i live without these prices bk at home!? THe walk along night bazar was a little interesting-we picked up a few extra items for tour-we needed warm things??? Christ how high are we going?! But the walk also a little disturbing-down the central ailse between stalls are beggars who range from blind singers to limbless children who dance in provocative clothes. I saw man with complete gangrenous leg looking very limp and a man with no lower limbs walking on his hands-using flipflops-its all very sad, the locals seem to ignore them completely-apparantly we're told they've come across the borders-cambodia/Burma in search tourists for money. Definitely alot of government corruption going on out here-keep seeing more of it-the trek also highlights this.
Moving on-our last night b4 trek we took advice of gr8 book I've just read-:To Asia with love"
Their house
1 room, all functions, all self suffient with animals and veg grown, no elec... rec riverside bar taking boat where meal is served and cont drinking back in bar to live music-great night and only a couple of mosquito bites for memorabilia!
So it was early start, big brekkie, trainers on, backpacks at the ready and out into the unknown-our trek! we spent the morning travelling in what seemed like a completley disorganised fashion to base...ie we stopped at market-to stock up, called at butterfly/orchid world then seemed to mix groups up more-which resulted in us travelling hunched up like sardines in open air truck thing-ie no air conditioning-finally an hr later we arrived at elephant base. We were buddled onto elephants which promptly began this steep discent over a steep edge towards river-somehow we got lucky with the hughest elephant in the queue! Typical...so lets just say it was a long way down-we had a seat though luckily-they were running out of free elephants so bundled some poor girls onto the neck of the elephant (where the thai men were sitting)...believe me u all know i like thrill rides-this was something else. There was also a massive sense of animal cruelty of which we've seen so much of already-caged animals on lots
street corners...not to mention the apparantly undrugged tigers- (come on you've seen the photos! We ended up there without knowing by the way-1 thing we have learnt-thai trips aren't advertised correctly-its very much pot luck what u get!) (will update writing later). Quick rice meal...where did they cook that up from, we're now at base of mtn creamed up and ready to enter jungle. Ok so the walk starts on a jungle road, fair incline, but ok we can do this....then quick turn right and onto jungle tracks-basically dirt tracks-most of which were unrecognisable as throughways but the guide assured us of route....ok, then the inclines started. they were pretty tough to start but enjoying it, good group of people, great surroundings, beautiful, WE reached a beautiful waterfall-time for a shower-heaven. WE'd been going now abt 2 hours and told almost half way when basically the trek turned into pain-the incline was very steep, very dry slippy path in open heat-not great conditions. It was really tough, kat really found it a sruggle but....we made it, abt 3 hrs later, sun just setting, phew. There honestly was a time i didn't think we would make it, the guide Don was
carrying kat's bag, and we rationed the water and used out last drop 30 mins b4 end....i could see the guide was looking a little woried, no med kit nothing! TYpical Thai trip-don't know what ur signing up 4 til it happens-but what an acheivement, kat was over the moon to arrive in hill tribe village.....and what an amazing night we had there-so worth the climb!
Getting late guys amd u can only survive these crammed internet cafes for so long-little else to do in thi strange place but my bed def clling so to be cont for the best bit....
Oh and just for those of u picking out my spelling ,mistakes-the keyboards out here, have some letters missing, som that are stuck so let me off :-) , I'm getting used to the thai way !!!
Lots of love xxxx
Cont....The night with the tribe was fantastic and a BIG eye opener of a whole different world. We arrived to hundreds of kids mostly nake playing in dirt, obviously filthy-the chickens, dogsand hundreds of chickens also joining in the fun, but the main thing that hit you was....smiles, lots of them-despite having absolutely nothing the
kids were so happy. We stayed with a family in their house for a night-let me just describe what i mean by house-a bamboo hut making up 2 rooms-1 room was bare with clothes on floor-bedroom for all 15 of us in our group, the other was the kitchen, dining room, their bedroom-i.e no differentiation-they were basically 2 empty rooms withh multiple functions. Obviously remeber no elec so ccandlelight, quite mesmorising really. As soon as we'd showered-oh yeah the toilet facilities were built only for tourists-basically 1 hut with 3 bamboo walls, cold hose, and "a squat facility" becoming a well practiced art now! So u showered with open views of mtn, smog and ur nakedness....pretty cool really. WE were then ushered into massages by mothers of house....ouch ouch ouch, the word firm takes on a whole new meaning with these ladies-you actually bruise! We enjoyed a lovely meal cooked by guide-obviously inc chicken (apparantly 1 group were fortunate to see killling). lukily there was no dog....or at least i think, by candlelight very difficult to see anything! After a little sing song round the guitars we slept like babies. The nxt day involved a very steep descent over rocks
The famous trek
It started with smiles which again was very difficult. The waterfall stops were great, reallly good fun. We ended the trip with white water rafting which again was a white knucke ride experience, followed by a more relaxing drift of bamboo rafting-only 1 prob our raft pretty muck sank and let me tell u it was pretty cold. Another hairy trip home on the tuk tuk carriers and it was early nites all round....zzzs
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