Sunday, November 2 9:30 pm Thailand / 7:30 am US
Yea! Today's elephant camp and Lisu village day. But first we got to visit an elephant dung paper-making "factory". Very cool process and I now love poo paper! Don't worry, no bacteria or stinkiness is left on the paper! =P
Okay, onto the Mae Teng Elephant Camp! Holy moley, what a bumpy road! We were pretty much off-roading in a Toyota van but the road is still a paved road. Talk about massive potholes... maybe more like sinkholes! We finally arrive at the camp and we see about 80 - 100 elephants! Soooo cute, poo and all! Phong said that we'd get to ride an elephant first! Woo hoo! We buy some sugar cane and bananas for our elephant (their favorite snack) and climb up a platform to get into the seat. Our driver, who's sitting on the elephant's head, kicks him and off we go. Super bumpy ride and scary downhills cuz it feels like you're going to fall out of the seat. But Speedy (my nickname for our elephant because he's young and passed another elephant or two) was fun to ride and we got to feed him for a photo op. Our ride back to the camp was in an oxcart - not so fun but still different. And we rode down the river on a bamboo raft... Ryan got to paddle the boat for a bit. Photo op!
Next stop: Lisu tribe hillside village (15 people in this village). It was a 20-minute off road drive through the jungle and then we walked 100 yards to the village by foot. Once we arrived, we got to see our first-class accomodations: a 12x12 bamboo hut that was empty of everything but the grass roof. It was handmade by the villagers... their home, though, has a dirt floor but ours had the luxury of a bamboo floor. We then got to try sugar cane, which included us using a knife to cut and peel the cane. Yea, we think the villagers were taking a pool to see if we'd cut ourselves cuz they were laughing at us and watching us pretty intently. The sugar cane was like chewing on dry hay soaked in sugar water. Yum! (And it was really yummy!)
Next was a 2-hour jungle trek and boy was it a trek! The men had machetes and Phong brought his brand new 1-foot knife. We didn't have anything! First it started on a trail... not too bad; we could do this! We saw rice fields and lots of grass. One of the men then climbed up a tree and got us fresh papaya and bananas! So good! They were buttering us up for the next part of our trek! Freakin' A- we were trail-blazing through the jungle. NO trails, NO rails, LOTS of slippery mud. The funny thing is that Ryan and I are slipping in mud whie walking in our tennies and using our freshly-cut bamboo walking sticks and the men are just walking along in their flip flops, no problems at all! We had to cross streams: Ryan jumped across twice, me: jumped once and stook my foot in the water for the other. How many times did I lose my stick? Twice and the men laughed at me. Oh yeah, got a nice lil reaction on my hand from some bush but one of the guys got it too. But the waterfall that we finally made it to was worth it. On the way back, the men pretty much helped me across every waterway and were waiting for me to fall in if they didn't. So fun, though!! =D
Ryan then got to try out a wooden crossbow that they used to go hunting. The chief was able to shoot 10 feet away from the target (a papaya on a beam) and hit the beam right above the papaya. Ryan first shot off to the side but, by his 2nd shot, he managed to hit the wooden beam about 1 foot above the papaya. As for me, I was REALLY bad! All three shots were wide and into the jungle. I then realized I was shooting from the left side but using my right eye. Haha... After I switched eyes, I grazed the target finally! Woo hoo!
That night we joined in on their traditional dance around the campfire and that was really fun, even though we had no idea what we were doing. Afterwards, we sat on benches by candlelight and Phong translated their questions for us. One of the men told us that he used to deal opium that he grew in the hills and that he often got shot at by the po-po (well, of course he didn't say that word!). They asked us about snow and if you could eat it. They also asked about America and where it snowed, what we grew in America, if there were trees in America, how to get to America (how much it was, what it felt like to fly, how far was it to fly, how many meters up is the plane, what happens if something went wrong with plane), and what they would do if they lived in America (ie what crops they would grow). Can you imagine trying to explain America to people who have no idea what America is like? Or how your home is to someone who doesn't have electricity? Or to someone who only makes 200 baht ($7 USD) per day and explain to them that your flight ticket cost about 40,000 - 50,000 baht? That was a culture shock to us and definitely made us more grateful for all that we have. Yet, their lifestyle is so gratifying because they take care of each other and talk to each other every night. All the adults help to take care of the baby and little boys and they seem so happy in each other's presence. Also, they loved to talk to us and ask us questions. By the time we were done, it was about 9 pm and we had to walk back to our hut. The chief of the village walked us personally there to make sure we didn't get lost. We don't know how the villagers can walk in the dark without using a flashlight and not fall in a pothole or get lost!
Our "bed" was set up: 1 cotton mat on the floor with a huge mosquito net above. It was so dark that we couldn't tell if our eyes were opened or closed! We also hear never-ending crickets chirping and frogs croaking outside our hut. But it was a good night's sleep until the roosters crowed at 4 am. I thought they were supposed to crow only when the sun came up! Not these cuz they kept crowing until 7 am.
No bugs or snakes seen (even though the chief said that he killed a lot of the snakes, including king cobras, when he was setting up the village). Bug bite count: Ryan = 6, Felicia = 2.
To thank them for their generosity, we gave them some of the new clothes we had bought in Bangkok, some money, and the new wind-up flashlight we had brought with us (the women were amazed with it and couldn't believe that it cost 350 baht / $10 USD for it).
This was our best experience yet in Thailand! We are off to the small town of Thaton, a fishing town by the Me Kong River.
Days without food poisoning: 6 days (we think...)
