Doi Inthanon Natoinal Park, Trek Days 2 and 3

photos also in consecutive order -

(for best understanding of trek read day one first-this is day 2)

Day 2 started with a new member of our team, Minh, Mario's uncle, of whom there seemed to be no paucity in the area - or of cousins either. Minh is carrying a length of bamboo for which the use will become apparent - as will as Minh's.

We hiked through a new neighboring valley replete with cousins and terraced gardens; and no fires Day 2 either.

Went past an "elephant camp" where German tourists were "experiencing" elephants. We watched just a bit as they got on and headed out for their day.

We did stop at this waterfall for a swim, and bath; Patt did not but Mario and I did. Jumped off the rocks too — carefully as it was not so deep.

Did pass some slash and burn areas and saw more villages in the distance too.

Happened upon a bee's nest - a dirt mound about 2 ½ feet high, 3 feet diameter.  The guides knocked this hole in the side. Minh stuck his arm way in and pulled out two honey combs. Bees were flying everywhere. These guys paid no attention what-so-ever. Casually handed me some honey. I ate it, had some dirt on it, but tasted like honey and honey comb. Handed me some more for Patt. She ate it too; she spit out the dirt.

Mario slicing vegetables for lunch, bok choy, red sweet peppers, tomatoes, and some other green vegetable.

Minh tending the fire with aforementioned bamboo which is now a pot full of boiling water (filled from a mountain stream cistern) into which go the vegetables and noodles, and the leaves now surround the honeycomb which has been picked clean of the honey and just has the bee larvae left. I ate only a "taste" of roasted larvae; Patt passed on this opportunity.

The serving bowl made of leaves heated over the fire and then laid into a depression of tree roots and a rock.

Patt with individual bowl made of heated leaves, folded, pinned with a small stick to hold the bowl shape. She is using chop sticks made from green shoots cut almost in two then folded (still attached at joint with sliver of green shoot) - easier to use then two separate sticks.

Mario and Minh did all this with no fuss no muss, just stepping into the jungle with their machete and cutting down some piece of a plant or vine and coming back, squatting down and chopping a bit or picking up a lose stick and stitching leaves together.  All the while acting as if they did it every day — I'm thinking one of these guys sure could come in handy if you were ever lost in the woods.

A Boy Scout could have earned Eagle Scout rank just by watching what these two guys did one time.

After lunch, our guides took a nap. I recall earning eagle scout and thinking that was tough and I thought I had done something so I reckon a nap was in order.

We hiked though a village - also full of cousins. It was hot and dry.

A bit of incongruence here — I noticed what appears to be a solar panel and a TV antenna on the house in front of us. I reckon they will be watching Law and Order re-runs tonight in this Karen Hilltribe village.

Just a little further down a steep slope as we walked up to a house, Mario said, well this is it. We are here. And that is it, there is our bedroom, that pink mosquito net in that open air porch. Fully equipped with a 1" thick straw filled mattress (didn't qualify for a 'sleep number' ranking). That is bamboo thatch over floor joists so not the most firm flooring either in the house, but you could feel the joists locations thru the mattress, no problem. The porch was solid. Note the time.

Now the view — oh the view.  That is Patt who quickly took a seat at the table and looked out over the terraced fields below. Note the time.

Here is what Patt is looking at. In this photo I am actually that little orange dot down in one of the lower left terraced fields.

I went walking down into the fields, talked with the two guys working / hoeing / preparing the soil.  At top right is the house where we were staying.

Mario and some cousins and a few neighbors preparing food. A bedroom of our housemates is behind the open air kitchen, i.e. brick fire pit right slap in the middle of the wooden floor again.

And me enjoying rice whiskey pre-dinner cocktail once again. Note it is 5:00 PM too. The battery powered clock over my right shoulder — this house did have electricity and one light bulb. And did have running water too. Well it had one water pipe that ran into the bathroom (or what went for one) and that counts!

The orange crates that are now in the bok choy terraced fields below the house were delivered by the pick-up truck under the big stack of them in mid-upper right of the picture. These "market "crops are a recent addition to the tobacco, rice, and subsistence garden crops that the Karens used to grow and are the result of a 40+ year effort to halt the growing of opium.

The bok choy must be harvested in the shade and into the evening/night for market freshness. The harvesters worked by headlamps well into the night to get the crop packed and loaded on the truck which would be in Chiang Mai before sun rise. These are organic crops, tested and marketed to Bangkok, Singapore and Chinese high-end grocery stores under government program.

Sunrise Day 3. No blackout curtains. That lump to the lower left left side of the photo is where my feet are bundled up, it was cool. The mosquito net did not keep out the sun coming over the mountain, and the rooster beat ole Sol anyway. But not by much and he was not directly under the house like the first night (thank goodness).

Hiking Day 3 we knew would be short and down hill mostly and thankfully it was because my goodness it was hot and dry, wow, it was dry.

In places it was very very steep, Patt - as did all of us -  held on to bamboo to skid down slopes - I still think she is closing her eyes part of the time.

Did stop by a stream that had an inviting pool formed by a couple of large rocks. As it was a rest stop,  I changed into my swim suit and dropped in.

We are getting good at walking on dikes around terraced paddies. It is the step down from one to the lower that can be difficult if you can not find the built int steps. That is a pretty steep drop from one to the next.

There was only one person working in the field. She took the opportunity to step into the shade building when we went through and visit with Mario. He is running for governor I think — she apparently was not a cousin.

And this is the rice field we just crossed. And it was that hot too. And dry and dusty. Patt and I hiked in tennis shoes and socks, changed shirts too, all the Karens we saw wore flip-flops of some sort. No hiking shoes of any type.

But we were getting close to the end of the trekking — up a dirt road, met a truck and off we went to get on a bamboo raft for a shallow, white water raft trip. The river was quite low so there was little white water but still quite nice. We forgot our camera so we just enjoyed the ride.

Through the jungle of course and came upon another elephant camp just as two elephants were entering the river in front of us carrying a load of some sort of cane fodder. More elephants stopped as we floated by.  On the swinging bridge high overhead tourists were taking photos. We of course, already wet, a bamboo raft is not dry.

The road out of the mountains was steep and dusty.

and required careful passing when facing on-coming traffic which thankfully of which there was little.

and someday I am going to do something like this again. We are talking about one fun exciting open your eyes experience. Patt has had this experience and will pass next time around, she says.