on to the Karen village

We probably hiked through the cave for an hour and a half. At one point we all stopped and gathered in a large opening and turned off all of our flashlights to see the darkness. We used strap-on-head-lamps as we were walking through the cave--useful because we had to use our hands a lot to climb under, over, in between rocks. I also used my hands to steady myself, because it was during this part of the trek where I realized that I was probably the most clumsy person. When you are hiking and you hear that skid of rocks under someones feet for a few seconds, then you turn around and see an incredibly unbalanced person gain a foothold and reduce their panic to a normal hiking level... that girl was me. I had rocks skidding under my feet all the time, and it all started in the cave. I wasnt a big fan of the lights because I had to position it so I could see what I was stepping on (or around in most cases), but I found myself concentrating largely on the ground before me and less on the cave around me. Anyways, so we turn off all of our lamps and stand in complete darkness for a minute. This was probably the darkest place I have ever been. We didnt stay in it long enough for our eyes to acclimate- if they could even acclimate to complete darkness. We reached the other side of the cave at an opening that was 20 ft high and 20 ft wide. We decided to stop and take a break, I ate one of the oranges that I picked up at the market that morning.

Looking into the opening of the cave...

  Looking out of the opening of the cave...

We said our farewells to the cave guide and set out for our 3 hour hike to the Karen village. Thais dont pronounce their R's very well, and so Karen sounded like Collin to me for most of the day. The trek varied from walking through the forest without a path to walking on a dirt road just big enough for a car to pass by and from flat to 20-25 degree up and down slopes. I belong to a group on Facebook called 'I'll walk out of my way to step on that crunchy looking leaf,' but there was no need to step out of the path here because there were newborn baby sized leaves all around that crunched as we walked. crunched so much that I could hardly hear myself think sometimes. Every now and then we would reach an opening in the forest and see the mountains beside us where we would stop in awe. Most of the time we were on top of a mountain when we got these great landscape shots, so we could see for miles to more mountains.

I was losing steam when we saw a structure up ahead. It looked like a small village, and I thought we were home free- but that was only the forest rangers house. He had kittens and puppies and baby chicks- so it was nice to take a break here even though the ranger wasnt home. I was passing the time by chasing around a hen and her chicks, eager to get my hands on one of them (successful attempt), when I realized that there was a river right beside us... and our trail had just ended. Ahh! I got to hold a baby chick :D

The river was about 10 meters across with a swift current in the middle. We were going to cross the river- and had been instructed to do so barefoot. 'Watch out for the big rocks, they are slippery' is what Ah kept saying to us as he danced across the river like he does this for a living (he does). He was right! Remember when I said that I wasnt too good on my feet? Cave rocks, trail leaves, river rocks... none of them seem to be easy for me to NOT slip on. But I grabbed a walking stick (EXTREMELY useful) and finished a full five minutes behind everyone else, but I made it across dry from the waist up (including my bag). I surprisingly didnt hear a 'You are the weakest link- goodbye' from the group when I finished, thankfully! The mountain water was actually quite refreshing to the touch, and it cooled me off for the next part of our hike.

We hiked along the river for a ways after crossing about 20 feet higher than the river on a steep bank. Most of the time, the trail was about as wide as my hips- and I was getting nervous about slipping down the bank, especially when we started passing other people on the trail. We were passing indigenous fishermen and could see more of them in the water standing on large rocks. Their nets were long and round with weights tied around in a circle formation. They would throw out the nets, wait a few seconds and then draw them back up, most of the time with no catches. They waved and smiled to us as we walked and stared, admiring not only their skill but also their bodies. Solid as a rock, you could definitely tell they were raised in a jungle. Still, we have only seen men at this point. No women. No animals (other than water buffalo- which were everywhere we didnt expect them to be... like on top of mountains. Why are water buffalo on top of mountains where there is no water?). No tigers. No lions. No bears. at all!

Sexy bridge, isnt it? ...which board to take....

We saw a couple abandoned houses made of wood, one of which had the remnants of a detrimental fire. We saw a dead water buffalo calf, and stopped to take a look for a short time, because it had fallen in our path. I asked Ah if we were going to eat this for dinner, and he laughed. He said that Thais only use water buffalo for work- not for food. As we were having this conversation, we heard a rustling in the distance with the steady 'clock-clock' of a wooden bell. Upon careful inspection of the hillside above us, we saw an elephant! Ah explained that elephants use the same trails we just used on this side of the river. I start doing some quick size calculations. The path was no wider than my hips, and elephants are much wider than my hips. their FEET are as wide as my hips. But I guess if you are an elephant, you have superior balance on a mountainside... even on a one-foot-directly-in-front-of-the-other trail. We continued on the trail toward the Karen village.

If you cant find the elephant, just look between my 'pinchers'!

We reached a lookout at one point that had a raised platform. Here is where Ah showed us where we started our trek that afternoon. It was a tiny mountain you could barely see in the distance, and it definitely wouldnt show up on my camera. We were very proud and exhaused by the time we saw the distance traveled. In the first picture below you can see a peak in the far distance. Not the first or second row of mountains you see, but look for the third.

Below is the same exact picture, just zoomed out. I find it hard to comprehend that I walked that far in one day!

After this lookout we had 20 more minutes of our walk. The hills were most certainly doing wonders for my calves, but I was pledging to stab someone if we had to go up another one. We had to go up at least two more after that statement. When Josh asked who I was going to stab, the most appropriate answer seemed to be 'myself.' We walked past banana farms and the local school, then saw some other farangs (or white foreigners) in another guest house (the first ones we had seen since leaving Chang Mai that morning). We walked up to a shack on stilts and a local village man said "Welcome to Hotel California."

to be continued...