Around the World

Yesterday and today I went on a trek to see several hill tribes in the area and ride elephants, whitewater raft, bamboo raft and visit a waterfall. I had quite the international group of 13. I got to speak spanish with a couple from Argentina and attempt to remember my italian with two italian guys and French with a girl from France. We also had Irish, Dutch, a guy from Belgium, a Thai girl who was great for translating and me. We only trekked (HIKED) about 4 hours the whole 2 days because 2 girls had upset stomachs and another had bad knees (why trekking then?), but we had fun riding in the back of a pick-up truck, playing soccer with the tribe's kids and making a huge bon fire. The Karen tribe are the ones who put brass rings on the women's necks to make them longer. An 11-year old girl told us they get about 8-10 to start and then one new one every 3 years. She said they hurt and her parents make her, but she still seemed happy. We played soccer with her and two younger girls and they sold us homemade scarves and tried to sell lots of other non-homemade stuff. Their "village" was more like a gift shop with an empty hut for us, but the food was delicious and the people really nice. The trek was terribly organized, we waited for hours, the bamboo raft almost sank and was covered with spiders and our whitewater guide got us stuck on every rock possible, but I still had a blast.