15 Aug - 12am
Hi everyone!
So, once again I am writing this up in Word as there is no Wifi in the jungle! For some reason I am wide awake here at night!?!? Maybe it's because the jungle is awake?? I thought I would really be asleep by now because I did a trek today - 10 kms in the jungle, but no - I am wide awake!! And I bet in the morning I will really want to be sleeping!
Right now I am at the Akha Village where they have this guest house. It is really beautiful here - right up in the mountains where the clouds sometimes engulf the village. I am staying in one of their bungalos which looks right out onto the mountain - beautiful! The actual bungalo is quite basic - squat toilet but there is hot showers.
The people in the village here mainly make their money through agriculture - they grow rice, tea, corn, lychees and coffee and sell it at the markets. Some of the village people do Akha massage for the guests and so make money this way.
One of the main things they offer at this guest house is guides for trekking. They make out that they will do treks to suit the level of fitness of the people taking it but I found out today that this is not necessarily true!! Their shortest trek is a one day one and so I decided to try this one thinking they will taylor it to suit my needs as we go. Meanwhile, I did not realise it would be 10kms in the jungle and if you could not make it there is no other way out other than to walk.
So we start the day and it's really hard at first but then evens out for a bit. I went with an older couple from France / Germany who were probably in their 50's. The guest house owner's wife and another older man were our guides (the guest house owner's wife was supposed to come along to translate what the older guy said into English but we often didn't understand what they said and they often didn;t understand our questions!). We also had a 20 year old Akha girl originally from Burma come along with us as a student.
So after a bit our guides stopped and made for us chopsticks and a cup out of bamboo for eating with - this was pretty cool. Then they cooked up lunch over the fire using bamboo and banana leaves - it looked like a lot of work but really cool to watch.
I would have preferred if at this point the trek ended. Instead it got really difficult!! And I couldn;t appreciate anything anymore cause I just needed it to end!! I got a headache and then felt sick and had to start throwing up. IT WAS AWFUL!!!! Never again am I going to be fooled into doing another "easy" trek. You really have to be fit beforehand to do it and the locals don;t understand this as they are so fit and tough.
So FINALLY it ended - they got me a car for the very last bit back to the guest house because I could barely walk and felt so sick. I was so embarrised!!! I also ended up missing out on seeing a waterfall but it didn;t matter in the end because the whole point of going to this waterfall was so we could swim in it and it turned out that it was too rough to swim in anyway.
So I got back, had a nap, then got up for dinner of toast and chatting with the other guests (and getting tips for Laos which was good) and then was sleepy and decided to go to bed and here I am WIDE AWAKE!!
Actually another thing that was quite annoying here is that the village woman that organises the massages was REALLY pushy tonight - constantly pestering me and others to get a massage and hanging around staring at us. And this morning they set up a stall of crafts and you can't just take one look without them pestering you to buy something - really annoying!! It doesn;t give off a good vibe. And really, this guesthouse hasn;t been really hospitable - it's been the Thai and Akha young students that come here for 3 months that have been the most friendly and hospitable!
I was thinking of staying another day here and going to the hot springs and an elephant camp but I've since decided against it cause I don;t really want to stay another night here - I would have if they were more hospitable. Also I will be the only guest here tomorrow which might be a little weird for me. So this means that I will leave here tomorrow at 9:30am and get a lift back to Chiang Rai. Then hopefully I'll be able to make my way to Chiang Khong which is were you go to get the slow boat to Laos.
So thats it really for now...
xxx Orna
