Yogyakarta

We haven't seen much of Yogya (pronounced Jog-ja) yet. We arrived in the pouring rain, rushed to our delightful hotel recommended to us by a Belgian on Bromo, ate a quick meal and fell into a much needed sleep after two full days of travelling. This morning we've been taking care of laundry, emails and photos and hence the slew of blogs I've written over the last few hours. I'll be sure to update more as the days pass but for now you can check out where we are here.

From Balian Beach to Cemoro Lawang

The morning began in a peaceful chalet near Balian Beach in West Bali. The cocks were crowing, the cattle were lowing and all of this is true for those of you who think I'm quoting a nursery rhyme. After a breakfast by the river, Mike and I said our goodbyes to my Mama and sister and hit the road again.

Here I go again.

The helpful staff of Pondok Pisces put us on a bus filled with the usual scattering of people, chickens and parcels and off we went. Two hours later we were running towards a ferry that took us off the island of Bali and to Java, another Indonesian Island we decided to visit just two days before. Yet another bus and six hours later we were in the messy and un-charming town of Pondolinggo, kissing the ground and being thankful that we hadn't landed up off a bridge in a dried up river bed like another bus we saw on the way. In Pondolinggo we were persuaded to empty our wallets and pay enormous sums of money to reach the town of Cemoro Lawang, climb a volcano and make it to Yogyakarta by the next evening.

The most bizzare and nerve wracking time of the day was the 2 hour climb from sea level to the crater rim of Mount Bromo, a still active volcano that hundreds of thousands of tourists visit every year. The light was fading and the inside of the windscreen was fogging up as we wound our way up narrow pathways with hundred feet drops on either side. We climbed our way through the clouds with tree silhouettes shrouded in mist. Every twenty minutes we would pass through small mountain towns that looked like they were straight out of Northern England or Scotland. The whole experience was rather bizarre and, as we hadn't had more than two days to prepare the trip we were rather surprised to be climbing into the mountains. Upon arrival at Cemara Indah Hotel, we still hadn't seen another tourist since Balian Beach and were completely disoriented. It was 2 degrees outside, we had no idea where we were and were given the heaviest winter coats we had ever seen in our lives for our morning climb up Mount Bromo. Relieved to be anywhere but a bus we ate a quick dinner and curled up in heavy blankets to hide from the cold.

On Bali...



Setting out from Bromo

Climbing Mount Bromo

Time has stopped. Knock knock. Why is there someone at the door? It's dark outside. Knock knock knock. Where are we? KNOCK KNOCK.

Ah, yes we're in Cemoro Lawang. It's 3:30am and since all three of our clocks have broken, we requested a wake up call (knock) before we climb Mount Bromo.

Yesterday was a long and arduous bus ride from Bali to a mountain town on the crater rim of the volcano we're about to climb. We have never seen our surroundings in daylight and we're leaving this town at 9:00am this morning. Sound crazy? Probably.

We're hustled into a jeep with two other tourists and together we huddle in the cold, dark night as our driver bumps and jerks our car up more mountains, more landscape we have never seen. We pull up to a string of souvenir shops and for the first time I feel content that there are other tourists here. Whew, we're not crazy.

Slowly the light begins to change and we see silhouettes of volcanos in the distance. Every few minutes a black cloud rises from one of the mountains and we realize that it's smoking. The sky turns a deep blue, then purple, then pinks, oranges and finally reds. There are four maybe five volcanoes in front of us surrounded by clouds and click click click go the cameras around me.

Mount Bromo and her sisters are a wonderful sight. Shrubs grow from grey volcanic rock and the whole area is covered in a dark, muddy soil. Once the sun was up we climbed the volcano, heaving our way through thin, wispy air and peering down into the crater with smoke billowing from the center. Click click click went the cameras around me.

The boys in Seattle

If you skim through my archives, you'll notice that many of my posts are dedicated to the hours I spent teaching at ELS in Ho Chi Minh City. The highlight of my fourteen months there was the time I knew and taught the Vietnam Airlines mechanics, a rowdy, fun-loving, polite group of guys who moved to Seattle in May (?) to be trained by Boeing. One of my students regularly sends me photos of their time there and the one below sparked some fond memories. So here's a shout out to the VNA guys in Seattle!

Kuta

Kuta really is a nightmare. Everyone who advised us where to go in Bali added a warning to avoid Kuta at all costs. I trust and value the opinions of people who told me this and therefore didn't spend a night in the overcrowded, tacky and noisy city that hardly resembles the rest of Bali at all anymore. But I succumbed to the idea of an afternoon there... bad move.

Walking down the street in Kuta is like being the target in a shooting range. Every vendor has their eye on you and sit poised ready to attack when the moment is right. This may sound like a ridiculous over-exaggeration but I was pulled or lured into stores by almost every vendor on the street, forced into a manicure, beaten down with offers to buy coconut oil etc. etc. Not only is the atmosphere nasty but the beach is littered with plastic bags and trash and touts. While the rest of the island is filled with a gentle, spiritual and calm feeling, Kuta is brash and loud. Take my advice and that of those who went before me, don't go to Kuta.

Staying in Indonesia

Bali is paradise and, as everyone knows, it's tough to leave paradise. For the last few days I've been dreading the flight back to Kuala Lumpur, not only because big, dirty cities aren't my favorite places to chill but also because this is such a special place that will be enormously hard to leave. Yesterday, on a kayak ride with beer in hand, Mike and I were chatting about our tough fate, uh, flight (jk) and decided to change plans and move over to the islands of Java and Sumatra before we head back to Malaysia. This makes sense on a number of levels as it'll be cheaper travel, we won't have to back track so many times AND we'll get to see more of Indonesia and gain perspective on Bali's role in this massive country. So, for the next 10 days or so, Mike and I will be Java-ing it up before we head up to Singapore and then back to the land that is truly Asia.

Nusa Lembongan

Just off the coast of Bali there's a tiny island surrounded by crystal clear water, hundreds of species of tropical fish, and the best snorkelling I've ever seen. Nusa Lembongan is a truly amazing little island without any of the hype and rampant development seen in the rest of Bali. It is, by far, my favorite slice of paradise where very few people ever venture. We spent two days lounging next to swimming pools that spilled over into the ocean, swimming through water so transparent that you can see to the ocean floor from a boat, eating delicious seafood and sleeping in open air bungalows with no windows or walls. To escape the chaos of southern Bali was one plus but the island is a paradise no matter what you want from it. I heart Nusa Lembongan.

Arak Attack-ed

Some people have heart attacks, some have fainting attacks, some have panic attacks. I had an Arak Attack.

Arak, for those of you that have never ventured onto Balinese soil, is a locally made palm wine with a 40% proof and therefore not for the faint of heart. I've always tried and rarely enjoyed locally made liquor in Asia but Arak proved an exception. It's tasty mixed with lemonade, orange juice, honey or lime juice or a combination of all three. Our favorite and most common cocktail made with Arak has been the "Arak attack" in which liquor is mixed with lemonade and lime juice. We'd been having a few of those per night until a few days ago when I had a sharp pain on my left side in the heart area and then slumped down and fainted at the lunch table, giving Mike and my mom a huge fright. The doctor's diagnosis was good and he said I had just had an increase in food or acid which caused the sharp pain. I put it down to this: My Arak Attack attacked me and now I shall have no more.

Bali Mama

The idea of getting old sucks. Young people dread it, old people complain about it and everyone seems to want to stop time when you're in your 20's. And then there's my mom who had a few days to spare between New York jobs and decided to fly herself over to Bali for a vacation in the sun with her daughters. She arrived five days after we did and has since been lapping it up, enthusiastically participating in and praising everything and everyone on this island. We've been eating delicious seafood, drinking to our hearts content and leading a very indlugent lifestyle. If I'm nearly as impulsive, easy going and content as my mom is when I'm in my 50s then bring it on...

Sun and snorkeling

Bali is well known throughout the world as a paradise. While that word may be used fairly loosely, I tend to agree with this definition. It's a small island with lush vegetation, gorgeous temples, white beaches, delicious food and beautiful people. We've spent the last 24 hours lounging by the pool of a resort in Nusa Dua, a luxury beach town designed by the World Bank to keep the backpackers away. The sun beats down on our backs, we jump on the boat to go snorkeling when we please and tonight we'll be eating a fresh catch of seafood grilled over coconut husks while watching the sun retreat below the horizon. Hard to beat this paradise.

Bali Jungle Bathrooms

Bali's got some crazy wild animals. And they seem to love our bathrooms. The animals aren't a surprise in such a lush, tropical climate on a small island filled with tropical plants and thick vegetation. But it has been quite a shock that we've had two deadly animals land up in our bathrooms.

First it was the scorpion, a small yet vicious looking animal, that we took over an hour to kill. We spent ages discussing strategies, rejecting tactics that may send the animal flying through the air or towards us, debating whether it could survive underwater. Finally we decided to drown the animal with five or more buckets of water that didn't do the trick so the scorpion's fate was left up to an empty beer bottle that rendered him no more.



While I was brushing my teeth the next night, I failed to notice a spider the size of my palm in the sink. As I bent down to spit, a movement caught my eye and I shrieked as the hairy creature scuttled towards me. Not brave or energetic enough to face another hour or decision making, I ran and summoned a hotel staff member who flicked and killed the spider with one flick of his wrist and a broom.

And if that weren't enough, I was on the toilet a few nights back when a bright green lizard the size of my forearm slithered out from below me and scaled the wall before I had time to react. At least the lizard isn't poisonous.

Bali arrival

We spent our first night in Denpasar, the capital of Bali. Very few tourists ever come here partly because the average stay in Bali is two days and partly because there's nothing about Denpasar that screams 'paradise.' Our taxi driver grumbled his way to the city, apparently much preferring the garish mess of Kuta to a boring, congested city and dropped us off at Adi Yasa, a family compound turned hotel that is charming but dirty with cobwebs lining the ceilings and stains on the walls. We ate a fabulous dinner of grilled fish and rice at a corner warung near our hotel and hit the hay, dreaming of white sand beaches and cultural displays in Ubud. After a restless sleep I was amped and ready to get a move on to Ubud so we grabbed a local bemo and hit the road, winding our way through the streets filled with motorbiked, lined with stores and colored with blue skies and green palm trees. We arrived in Ubud, a town in the center of the island that is known as the cultural capital of the island with shops, narrow streets, art galleries and temples. Our tiny homestay is gorgeous, four bungalows with private patios facing a lush garden that creeps through our bathroom and down our walls (more to come on this later.) We heart Bali...

Penang to Kuala Lumpur to Bali

We finally managed to tear ourselves away from Penang, a city we loved from the moment we touched down. We cancelled a beach trip that would have cut our Georgetown time in half, we booked our bus at the very last minute and eventually just left like a band aid tearing off. Quick and painless...

Backpacks on, walking down the narrow streets, the crumbling walls, the arched doorways, the lady boys on Love Lane. Boarding the bus and passing street stall after street stall filled with Indian treats, Chinese specialties and Muslim bakeries. Changing buses, boarding a luxury liner with padded seats that recline into a sleeping position, praising Malaysia for the first world transport it provides. Hitting the highway... through dense forests, past red stone boulders looming by the road, seeing power plants, high rise apartment buildings, palm trees as far as the eye can see.

And then into the big city, the roads widen, cars appear from nowhere, we're passing government buildings, shopping centers, train stations and city life. No more crumbling store fronts, narrow lanes and small town feeling. Kuala Lumpur is a huge mess of concrete streets, manicured lawns and vehicles.

We were only in Kuala Lumpur for one night, enough time to know that I don't need to spend much more time there. Western tourists are everywhere, the hustle and bustle of any major city I've ever visited is mundane and the traffic jams are a nightmare. We're heading back there in a week or so and all I want to do is duck my head in and move to the country.

Today we leave for Bali, two hours before we head to the airport. We need to decide whether it's worth forking out over twenty dollars to get to the airport or to try the budget option of a train connecting to a bus. We choose the latter option and sweat profusely as we envision not making our flight on time, heading back to the city to sort out an alternative. We ask the bus driver three times if we're going to the airport, not very encouraged by his grunted acknowledgements. Finally we make it, peel our backpacks off our sweaty backs and check in, excitement rising for a 10 day vacation in Bali. Two hours later and we're on board, noses buried in our travel guides, ears blocked from the pressure of flying. And before we know it we're descending into a mesh of reds and oranges, one of the famed sunsets of Bali.

Thaipusam

I once watched a National Geographic documentary about a ceremony in which men put themselves into a religious trance and then were pierced with hundreds of hooks and poles through various parts of their body without feeling any pain or bleeding.

Today I saw it with my own eyes.

We happened to be in Malaysia at the same time as this famous and fascinating religion ceremony and we excitedly charged our cameras and set our alarm to take it all in. I nervously wondered whether the TV special I had seen had dramatised the events but it turned out to be more real and vivid than anything that a camera could capture.

"THAIPUSAM is an annual Hindu festival which draws the largest gathering in multi-racial Malaysia - nearly a million people in 2000.

Several hundred devotees spear their cheeks with long, shiny steel rods - often a metre long - and pierce their chests and backs with small, hook-like needles in penance.

Tourists watch in awe as metal pierces the skin with hardly any bleeding and, apparently, no pain as the devotee stands in a trance in the dawn light after weeks of rigorous abstinence.

Over the years, curious British, American and Australian medical experts have come to observe and speculate. Some think the white ash smeared on the body, the juice squeezed from the yellow lime fruit or the milk poured on the pierced areas may help to numb the skin. But most admit they have no answer.

The devotees say it is faith."

We watched ten, maybe twenty or thirty different men walk, dance or run past us with metal rods sticking out from their mouths, hundreds of small cans or limes hanging from their chests and backs and sometimes numerous hooks in their backs attached to ropes that another man pulls. The experience was frightening, awe inspiring, uplifting and hypnotic. It's hard to describe what it's like watching a 60 year old man with hundreds of piercings dance to Hindi music before rushing off with hooks pulling his flesh. This was by far the most exciting religious event I have ever seen. It really was like being pulled into the strangest, most interesting documentary you have ever seen and watching it firsthand.

Crowds gathered for the festival



You can hardly see the man himself



Back hooks drawing no blood



Dancing

The perimeter of Penang

Penang is a small island, only 285 sq. KM, with a large array of places to see and things to do. Yesterday Mike and I decided to hit the road and cover the perimeter of Penang on a motorbike. Sam from "Sam's (expensive) Bookstore" hooked us up with a motorbike, advising us to buy a map of the island, something we stupidly ignored. Twenty minutes later, after driving around in circles, we stopped back at Sams and bought a map and embarked on our trip.

Again we were lost but this time it was a blessing as we snaked our way through narrow streets lined with street food stalls, wide highways lined with apartment block highrises, through suburbs where the wealthier have homes. Our first stop was the Temple of One thousand Buddhas, aptly named for the 1000 buddhas lining the wall of the Pagoda. The temple has fantastic views over the city and the largest bronze Buddha statue "of its kind" (not sure what that means) in the world. From there we made our way to Penang Hill where a cable car was first placed for the British who prefered to live in the hills to escape the heat of Georgetown. The Botanical Gardens were next in line where we strolled through manicured lawns, came across the largest lizard I've ever seen and terrified ourselves into thinking that a few monkeys playing were about to attack us.

After this we spun the bike up the East Coast where we ate traditional Laksa and spring rolls for lunch, across the North coast lined with white sandy beaches and high rise hotels, through the West coast interior where we stopped at a Tropical fruit farm and ate the sweetest fruit I've ever tasted, to waterfalls, through Orchards, next to dams and on top of mountains. It was beautiful, free, exotic, exciting and invigorating to see the whole island, the diversity of the landscape and the various sites. I wholeheartedly recommend a tour of the island to any prospective visitors.

Impressions

We've been in Penang for 4 days now and I'm impressed. Very impressed. I love the quaint, vibrant city of Georgetown with its numerous temples, churches, mosques and museums. I love the mix of races living together side by side, Chinese by Indian, Indian by Malay, Malay by British. I love the variety of food options, the possibility of eating a Malay breakfast of Laksa with a spoon, eating an Indian lunch of curry, rice and Chapati with your hands and a Chinese dinner of noodle soup with chopsticks. The people are overwhelmingly friendly and eager to talk. We've been approached eight, maybe ten times by people on the street who just want to chat, not to ask us a line of rehearsed questions, but who want to ask us our opinions on their country, share their opinions on ours and offer up information. This is how we found out about the celebration of Thaipusam this morning, through an Indian man on the street who came up to us and said "Don't leave Penang" and then offered up information on what we were in store for. The only downside to Malaysia that we've found is that alcohol is extremely expensive. I can eat two meals for the price of one beer. And the internet situation is slow at best, hence this slew of blogs as I try to upload my 100-some photos to the web. High praise for Malaysia Truly Asia.

Like an Angel walking on the Earth

We happened to arrive at the Kapitan Keling Mosque at the same time as prayer was being called, one of the five times in the day that men from all over the city put down their work and go pray. As we hesitantly walked in a man grunted at me and pointed at a rack filled with gowns. Another, more charming man came over and told me that as a woman I had to cover myself. When Mike asked if he should too the man scoffed and said "No, you are a man it doesn't matter." Biting my Western tongue and accepting his beliefs, I smiled as he introduced us to another man also with excellent English. After asking where we were from he opened his eyes wide and said "Ah, America. She is the God" We laughed nervously and he reassured us that he was serious. "America is the material God of the world," he said. "we all respect America for that. But She needs the Holy Quran and then She will have a soul and she will be like an Angel walking on the Earth." he insinuations were strong. Before we were able to launch into any kind of debate or discussion he excused himself to pray, offering an information session on the Islamic faith when he returned. Interested but not trusting ourselves to restrain from a debate we ducked before we were able to take him up on his offer.

A walk through Penang's religions

After stumbling upon three separate galleries exhibiting a Global Ethics Project, an art competition and movement to promote the multi-cu;ltural diversity of Malaysia, we decided to follow the trail of the World Religion Walk of a Penang to find about more about the religious co-existence that is emphasized in this culture.

We walked through the Penang Museum, learning about the origins of the various races and religions that make up this society. We then wandered through the streets, stopping at Christian St. Georges Church, the Buddhist Kuan Yin Temple, the Hindu Sri Mariamman temple, Penang Islamic Museum, the Islamic Kapitan Keling Mosque and Chinese Khoo Khongsi Temple. See the full trail and the close proximity of each of these vastly different religion sites here.

Sizzling Malaysia

Yet another morning before sunrise, another bag on the back, another day of feeling like I woke up at 4:30am this morning.

Props to Air Asia for being so cheap, so efficient and for bringing us to Georgetown on the island of Penang. We flew in this morning, grabbed a bus to the city and have been exploring ever since. Georgetown is a city of ancient cultures meshed together in a small yet vibrant space. As you walk through the brick streets and old buildings, you are first greeted by mosques and calls to Muslim prayer before turning down a street filled with Chinese New Year decorations. Yet another turn takes you to a street packed with Hindi clothing stores and another to a street lined with backpacker bars and book stores. We stumbled upon three separate galleries today, each one with an exhibition on world religions with a theme of the Christian phrase "do unto others as you with them to do unto you." Even though the mix of races here has been Malaysia's sore spot for generations, it seems like people are taking an active stance in changing this. We dined on Indian food, sat by the emerald sea, wove our way through Chinese markets and down narrow, ancient alleys. We're about to go eat dinner at a line of Southern Indian street stalls with samosas and curries for less than $1 a dish!

Pai

We first heard of Pai through Minty, an eccentric and at times neurotic Kansas City gal who left her fiancee, her sheltered life for the crazy streets of Vietnam. She set herself up in a TEFL course for a month but never taught, choosing rather to wander through the region and meet people along the way. She told us it was a travelers paradise, a place where backpackers go for a brief visit but never leave. Some stay for the beautiful mountain scenery, the chilled out restaurants and bars while others treat it as a hippie retirement home where 25-year-old dredlocks are still accepted and a beard braids are cool.

I fell in love with Pai, the peaceful, gentle feeling of the town, the breakfasts where residents gather at streetstalls sipping on coffee and listening to the flute player play his favorite tunes. I loved our guesthouse that was more of a home with its rock garden bathroom and owners we almost never saw. The restaurant scene was diverse ranging from organic muslim bakeries to pad thai stalls on the street. At night the bars were jam packed with Thai and Farang jamming together to cover bands playing everything from the Stones to Bob Marley. I can easily understand how people could get sucked in. It was mellow, comfortable and enjoyable.

The Saigon Crew

6 housemates, 2 students, 1 friend and a body with a rubber stamp for a head?

Splurging on Sushi

We've been on the road for one month now and have been keeping to a fairly strict budget... eating at local street stalls, watching the beers, evaluating prices of water etc. etc. But there has been one constant culinary dream of ours which we have spoken about many times and looked forward to constantly.

Sushi, one of the most expensive cuisines in the world, is not well suited to backpackers on a tight string but we set today aside as a celebration of having kept the costs down and we went all out.

After finding a decently priced sushi bar on Silom Rd., touted "the No. 1 Sushi in Japan" we were about to order a decent 13 piece sushi meal when our small, smiling waitress pointed out the Party Set... 48 pieces for only $1.50 more. We went all out and ordered a meal twice the size that it should have been but we did well, guzzling down almost every piece of fish until we rolled our own blowfish-selves home.

SUSHI BEFORE



SUSHI AFTER

Photo's of our trek

Trekking in Pai-radise

The idea:

A 3 day trek in the mountains of Northern Thailand. We wanted beautiful scenery, good traveling companions, interesting guides and a good work out.

The setting:

After a process of long deliberation and weighing of ideas about where to base our trek we finally settled on Pai, a small hippie town four hours away from Chiang Mai. The idea was to escape the crowds of CM and trek in mountains away from the masses. Pai is in Mae Hong Son province, a place that has been dubbed "the Switzerland of Thailand."

The decision:

Every one you speak to and everything you read tells you to be very careful about choosing your trek, your guide and your companions. After a few hours of visiting various agencies we chose Bamboo House Trekking for the professionalism of the guide Mon and the route that he mapped out for us.

The characters:

Our guides, Mon and his two brothers are members of the Karen hill tribe, one of the few hill tribes that has lasted in Thailand. Mon is a professional, energetic and enthusiastic guy with a love for the outdoors. Having grown up in the mountains, he's able to sprint up hills that take an average person 30 minutes or more to climb. He's fluent in 7 languages including English, Thai and the dialects of the tribes in Northern thailand. For these reasons we thought he'd be an excellent guide.

The other members of our group included a fun and adventurous British couple who have been together for 10 years, married for 5 and want to get out and see the world before settling back into rural England and having babies; and a laid back, charming Spanish girl whose entrepeneurial sister has settled in Pai with her Israeli boyfriend and 2 year old child.

The trek:

Day 1: We set off on a strong foot, energetic and anxious to hit the road. We hadn't even been walking for 20 minutes when we knew we were in for a hard time. Mon and his brothers had started up a sharp incline at such an alarming speed we didn't know what to make of it. Before long we were all panting, sweating and groaning with disbelief. After a large swig of water Mike lost his breakfast and I began to get worried about the rest of our day. 7 hours of hardcore hills and climbs later, none of us could manage another incline. Mon urged us on, putting us to shame during our breaks by climbing trees, running around and play fighting with his brothers. Finally, with much relief, at around 5pm we caught a glimpse of the Lisu village where we were to spend the night.

Night 1: We were welcomed by the Lisu people, a hill tribe originally from Nepal who fled Burma into Thailand and exist as non-Thai residents in the mountains. We were obviously not the first foreigners they had ever seen although they caught curious glimpses of us whenever we weren't looking and engaged in deep conversation with eachother while glancing at us from the corners of their eyes. Here we spent the evening drinking whisky made from rice, chewing on Betel nut, an addictive powder that has ruined the teeth of many people in Southeast Asia, guzzling down dinner and dancing a traditional dance around a fire to the rhythm of an instrument none of us had ever heard or seen before.

Day 2: We woke early to the sounds of pigs grunting, chickens crowing and dogs squealing right outside our bamboo door. After a brief meal of coffee and toast we hit the road again. Our second day was vastly different from the first. While the first day had been one of ascent, ascent, ascent, our second day was spent crossing 30 or 40 rivers, scurrying across river pathways, over rocks, through waterfalls, under logs and through a dense and lush forest. We spent most of the day bare foot with the soft carpet of leaves beneath our feet, stopping for lunch eaten out of bowls that our guides carved from bamboo. While the first day had been a race to the top, this day was energetic, tiring and kept us thinking 3 steps ahead to the next obstacle in our path.

Night 2: We stopped fairly early and made our grubby way to a nearby waterfall where we squealed and dipped in the freezing water, rubbing the dirt off our bodies as much as possible. When we returned to our jungle camp our guides had already constructed a leafy shelter for us to sleep under, three separate fires for us to warm ourselves by and bamboo everything to live off. With their machetes they had made candle holders, bowls, knives, pots, teapots, grilling skewers, anything imaginable from bamboo. We spent the evening playing games by the fire, marvelling at our guides craftsmanship and drinking more rice whisky.

Day 3: We woke up aching from the previous day's scramble. A morning was spent lazing away at the camp site while our guides hunted and killed a beaver for their lunch, making us breakfast (not beavers!) and boiling water in bamboo pots. We started late and made our way through yet another landscape. While the first day had been mountains and the second jungle, the third day was through forests with dense trees, empty river beds and soil. We stopped for lunch and watched the guides grill their beaver intestines while we munched on sticky rice and cabbage for the third day in the row. Slowly we made our way down hills, through rice fields, across more rivers and then arrived back in Pai, startled by our new "urban" environment where tourists, cars and shops stood out in contrast to our 3 days of jungle.

The consensus:

I cannot describe how wonderful our trek was. It was really was one of the best things I have ever done. We hit the road running, pushed ourselves physically, learnt so much about our environment and the people within it and never once did it ever feel like a tourist trap. Our legs are now aching, we haven't managed to get the grit out from beneath our nails, but the memories of the trek and the people we went with are too wonderful to describe.

From the mountains

We've just returned from a 3 day trek in the mountains surrounding Pai. None of us can now recall what our expectations were as we set off on the trek but we were all blown away by what we did. Three days were spent hardcore trekking up sharp inclines, wading through 30-40 rivers, scrambling down muddy slopes, through the jungle, rice fields, hill tribe villages and more. Our guide Mon and his two brothers led five of us through incredibly gorgeous and diverse landscapes, carved bamboo dinnerware, spears, pillows and more for us, taught us about hill tribe customs, led us through the Lisu hill tribe village where we spent an evening dancing and eating with some of the few tribes left in Thailand and took care of us as though we were his own family. I'll write a more detailed post(s) tomorrow when my mind is clear and my fingernails aren't grubby.