Christmas with the Frenchies..."It's the bear necessities"

26/12/08
Just got back from my trek out of Mae Sot into the jungle around Umphang. It was incredible, more on that later.

Just checked my email and saw that bro skied some of the deepest powder he ever has from a slow moving storm in Wyoming (jealous) and another friend had some amazing news. I'm not at liberty to say what that is yet, but congrats!

So I'm back in Mae Sot. I really like this little border town. It's kind of a wild frontier type town. Reminds me of what I imagine the wild west of old to be. So that's pretty cool. You'll see lots of the locals around here carrying guns and apparently the police here not really too controlled by the thai government, but more by city politics, bribing, etc. There's a cool sign when you enter the town that says (actual spelling) "Toorists have funs, but no karry guns" Duly noted!



The trek was completely amazing!!! 100 times better than the one in Chiang Mai (and I had a good time in Chaing Mai). The jungle here was much more wild and pristine. In Chiang Mai it had heavily been hunted out, it was secondary forest as most of the large trees had been cut, and there were always trails and villagers and such, so you never quite felt lost in the jungle. On this one we were definitely lost in the jungle!

It was a 3 hours drive to Umphang from Mae Sot. Very cold in the back of the pickup (most people think of thailand as this terribly hot, humid place, but during the cool dry season which is now, it is quite cool and pleasant especially up here in the hills. Highs in the mid 70's and lows in the 40's. The road, though, was quite beautiful over mountains passes, through rainforest, and past some burmese refugee camps. I was on the trek with 4 others, all french all between 23 and 25. A brother and sister (here visiting their sister who works for an NGO at the burmese refugee camp)--Pierre and Alice, and Pierre's girlfriend, Anne, and another friend Jeremie. Put away all your negative french stereotypes. These guys were awesome!! And hardly spoke a word of french the whole time, and would apologize profusely if they needed to between them in order to help them understand an english thing. They were all quite fun and hilarious, incredibly nice, and extremely generous. Never let me buy a single beer or snack food!

After the drive to umphang, we ate then set off on a raft. Instead of the traditional bamboo raft that I did in chiang mai, we used a large rubber raft (normal one like you'd see on an idaho river), b/c we had a few small class III rapids to run and b/c we were carrying all of our food, camping gear and equipment on it, and the bamboo ones would be too wet. Right away we saw a beautiful kingfisher and then several monkeys scampering across branches over the river. Birds were everywhere (something you didn't see or hear in chiang mai due to hunting). The rafting was fun, mainly calm with a few rapids, but the group was definitely yukking it up the whole way down. We had two guides, Koy and Bow. The river wound through dense primary jungle complete with huge trees, strangler figs, vines, etc. You're typical jungle, and karst canyons with soaring wall all around. On river bends, the river often went under the karst for a bit, so we'd float with the boat through some cave like things. The karst, even when not in caves, often had giant stalactities hanging. We went through a fairly long section of waterfalls pouring down onto us (everything was packed in plastic bags, but I later found out I was lucky to have had my clothes and camera stuff in a couple dry bags I brough for rain in the rainforest as garbage bags are only so good and inevitably take on water) from the karst as we weaved through partial river caves, dripping moss, and misty waterfalls. INCREDIBLE!! One of the neatest and most surreal river experiences I have ever had. Straight from an animated disney movie. Something you wouldn't think actually exists. The waterfalls just falling down on us in this jungle canyon full of river caves...WOW! After that part we did some floating and came to a hot springs...a welcome break after being chilled by the waterfalls. After that a few nice rapids then just a nice easy float. It reminded me (though I think it takes place in India) of mowgly, sher khan, baloo, king louis, kaa, and the Jungle Book, especially the part where baloo is floating down the river. So I started singing the song from it, the bear necessities. The frenchies knew it, and started singing along to the tune...in french of course. Jeremie, Pierre and I were also daring each other to eat an entire thai chile. They are not very big, but insanely spicy. Pierre and I both did one, but after Jeremie saw our faces, he didn't! It was by far the hottest thing I had ever tasted. Set my mouth and nose on fire. We tried to cool it off with beer we had in the raft, but that only made it worse. We were crying and our whole faces were red. Even hours later, our lips and mouths were quite rosy.

A little more than 4 hours after setting off, we arrived at a big overhanging cliff with some sand and decided (well, the guides did) to make camp here. Anne, Pierre, and Jeremie were tired, so they went to bed early, so Alice and I stayed up pretty late into the night, me learning all about the french, and then we went for a late night jungle walk to look for some animals. She was at first very scared of her english, but it was quite good and I could easily understand. It was my first night sleeping outside since I had my lasik surgery and I thoroughly enjoyed falling asleep watching the stars!!! and of course listening to the river gurgle by and the chorus of cicadas and frogs.

Left bright and early the next day (Christmas Eve!). Rafted, a cold raft, another 3 hours. After that we got out, packed all the stuff in packs and hiked for about 4 hours to the next camp. The hike was through dense jungle on a small trail. As is usual in a rainforest, I enjoyed all of the cool little things the rainforest can provide that you pass by along the way. Tried 5 different fruits. 3 very sour, but turn sweet once they mix with saliva by some chemical reaction. So you keep eating. The first couple of bites are sour like a lemon, but then so sweet. You keep going for the pain to get the sweet. Another fruit type thing can be used as shampoo or laundry detergent. We later found out it works quite well and has a great pineapple like smell. A couple of tree branches were used as musical instruments, Koy made bamboo mugs and stirrers for us, which the french affectionately called Tuey Tueys. Took some cinammon bark for tea later. Ate some sort of root that could have easily passed for a french baguette (aggreed upon by the french). A type of peanut, sweeter than ours, and of course moist out of the ground and when not roasted. And some leaf that tasted like sour candy patch kids. Once at the camp, we quickly made camp, had a bit and then hiked just for a km to thailands highest and biggest waterfall. It, of course was beautiful. Gorgeous emerald (glacial like) water caused by the water flowing through the karst. We went swimming in the bottom portion of the falls and then since it was multi tiered...5+ levels of waterfalls, we climbed up to the bottom of the 2nd from the top. beautiful looking up at the falls and then down at the emerals pools and falls below.

For Christmas Eve dinner we had green curry and rice (my parents most likely had fondue..hehe!) We then played cards. They taught me Tarot a french game. Then jeremie and pierre went to bed and I taught anne and alice and koy hearts. Eventually anne and koy got tired, but two local guys taught alice and I a thai card game (they didn't speak english, so it was qu ite interesting), and we played than and drank their "happy water" late into the night. The happy water tasted a lot like weak sake...so it must be some sort of rice alcohol.

Christmas morning! We got to sleep in til 8, and then had pancakes (minus butter and syrup). We then packed up and hiked another 3 to 4 hours to a very remoted karen village. The only way to get here was by walking or elephant. We had lunch then just had a 10 minute walk to another waterfall. On the way we had to cross a very, very sketchy bamboo bridge (did I mention they make EVERYTHING here out of bamboo...houses, bridges, plates, utensils, cups, rafts, mats). It was very narrow, very swingy, and missing several sections of bamboo. We all made it across, but Anne almost fell in at one point. It was another amazing waterfall. We made it down to a fairly large emerald pool with some small cascades coming in, but looking across you could see behind one layer of large trees, a long string of waterfalls...hidden waterfalls! We all swam over to the other side, except for Anne who doesn't like cold water, in order to sit under the falls. The falls were dropping over karsts and Bow (little bow wow) took us a little ways up and then into a cave. It was tight getting in, but Pierre made it through and gleefully exclaimed that if he could get through, everyone could. Inside was pretty sweet b/c you could see the main waterfall outside and then the indside was dripping with little waterfalls and lots of stalactites and stalagmites. I loved it! A hidden waterfall in the jungle and then a cave within the waterfall. Very much a paradise. As guys do, we of course had throwing and skipping contests across the pond to the waterfall. After I was the overall winner, they frenchies proceeded to sing the american national anthem. "you guys win everything, so we know your hymn well"
That afternoon they all played cards, but I decided to go explore the village. It was very interesting. All the houses on stilts made completely out of bamboo and banana leaves. Of course no electricity or any of that. Most the people still wearing traditional clothes. Lots of people out working in the fields with tools that probably haven't been used in the western world for close to a century. Tiny kids doing lots of work, including toting babies around that were not much smaller than them. A lot of men just sitting around doing not much and just watching. Pigs, piglettes, chickens, dogs, cats just running around everywhere. Didn't take long to explore the village as it was very small. On the way back a group of four men sitting up in a hut called me and motioned for me to come up, so I joined them. They did a lot of talkingat me, but of course had no idea what was being said. Eventually they brought out a bottle of something and offered me a shot of it. Smelled of pee and didn't taste any better! But of course I had to take it, b/c you can't be rude and offend them. Unfortunately I had take 3 more shots. Koy later told me it was homemade whisky.

For Christmas dinner we had pumpkin curry. The tastiest thing I've had on the trip yet. We played more cards and celebrated Christmas with a fire, some Chang beer, and some happy water mixed with some sort of juice thing, sang a few Christmas songs in english and french. An interesting Christmas thing: they obviously don't celebrate Christmas here as a primarily buddhist country, but when we arrived at the hut we would be staying at there were wild pointsettias growing all around it.

The next day we loaded up elephants with our stuff and then hopped on. We had a 4 hour elephant ride ahead, but after 2 hours it started to rain quite hard (1st rain since I've been in Thailand) Since all our stuff was packed on the elephants, we couldn't get to our rain stuff, so we got quite soaked and cold. After going over a ridge we had a pretty steep descent. It was very muddy, and sitting on top of this huge animal was a little nerve wracking at first. But the elephants were quite good. When going down the muddy slopes they'd stay standing on their two front legs, but bend their hind legs so that they are on their knees, and then kind of steer and drag themselves along, maintaining quite good control. At the very end we had to cross a fairly deep river, but they had no problem powering through it, even though the current was strong and the water reached up to their chins.

The ride home in the open air pick-up was quite cold for sure. It did have a top on it, so it kept out some of the rain, but lots still came in. The girls squeezed into the cab, but pierre, jeremie, and I, just curled up in sleeping bags in the back and tried to stay warm. By the time we got to mae sot everybody and everyone was sopping wet.
Interesting climate observation: when we got back to hq, I jokingly said to Oom ( the owner of the trekking company who is about 45 or 50), that I thought this was the dry season, thinking that it obviously must rain in the dry season as we often get rain or snow in the fall in CO during out dry season. But he said this was the first time he could remember it raining in december or january for more than just a sprinkle. And because I am always interested in snow, I tend to ask different europeans I meet when they're describing where they live if they get snow. Almost all of them tell me that when they were young there used to be snow on the ground the entire winter, but now it doesn't even snow at all where they live. And several have said that this year the winter was almost the same as the summer (very warm winter and very cold summer). Of course even back home in the states we've noticed similar things. The snow isn't as good in the ski resorts as it used to be when I was in middle school, it takes longer into the winter before we can skate on the ponds, and they had to close the hidden valley ski area in Estes, due partly b/c of national park pressure, but also because of decreased snow fall. There are now only three ski areas on east of the divide (loveland and eldora, and the terrain park one in evergreen) and back in the 70's, I read there were nearly 20 on the east side in places such as idaho springs, georgetown, colo spgs, allenspark. And Sherman will tell you he can remember consistent snow in his backyard as a kid in boise. Don't know what it all means, but just interesting that all around the world i've been meeting people that notice it, and it's more than just the 1/2 a degree here or there that we typically think of when we talk about global climate change.

27/12/08
I'm letting my clothes dry a little more, and then I'm catching a bus to Sukathai (sp?) via Tak. It's not very far, but goes over a pass, so it takes about 3 hours. Sukathai has some interesting ancient ruins and was the first capital of Siam (Thailand) and the capital during the so called golden age of Thailand