The Jungle

Day one: We hiked for about 4 hours through the thickest, densest jungle imaginable. We stopped around 2 pm to have lunch and built a little bamboo and banana leaf hut to hide from the rain that was threatening to overwhelm us. It was here, that it struck again; that sickening gut feeling that screamed, "I am not where I am supposed to be right now!" Feeling as white as possible (a prime target for malaria-carrying mosquitoes), hardly being able to stand still due to the sensation of being so out of place, trying our best not to just throw our hands in the air and yell! But thankfully our guide and porter just started hacking away at the endless bamboo trees, building a fire and giving us small tasks to complete like chopping carrots or digging a small hole with a bamboo shoot with one end sharpened with a machete. They cut several shoots and stuffed eggs, noodles and rice in the hollows, and helped us cut our own chop sticks out of other shoots. (Lesson learned: bamboo works for everything! Even eating). After roughly an hour and a half of continuous hacking, cooking, and mosquitoe-slapping we left the fire burning against a tree (while I could very audibly hear Smoky the Bear screaming at me to never do such a thing.) and continued hiking for 2 more hours to a Yao village where we stayed in a little barn-like building on the wooden floor, had fresh green tea (while piles of it were outside being dried before shipping off), and enjoyed the company of our guide and the family with which we were staying.

Day two: Rain. It had rained all night, woke up to more rain, and after hardly any sleep, made breakfast which consisted of eggs and about 6 pieces ofwhite bread toast per person (apparently its believed that Farang eat bread all the time and it takes half a loaf to satisfy each person over 5'6"), packed up, said "thank you" and headed out into the continuing rain. Hiked for several hours, fighting our way through razor sharp thorns, a million mosquitoes and leeches (no small task), stopping only briefly to eat our Pad Thai for lunch which we had previously packed into banana leaves. Continued on for another couple hours until reaching an Akha village where we stayed in a house owned by an elderly man and woman. Where we felt more like part of the family than guests due to the instant hospitality; cooking with them, trying to converse with the use of lots of hand gestures and repetitions. (The last 2 months of learning Thai didn't prove very effective with those who only speak Akha).

Day three: Woke up to sunny skies and had breakfast (eggs and half a loaf of bread again each), hiked out to a stream, helped dam a small section and proceeded to fish for small crabs, prawns, minnows, eels, etc with our hands for several hours. Took them all back to the house, cooked and ate them for lunch. Then packed up, said our thanks, and began the trek which was originally expected to last 2 hours, but quickly turned into 4 once we discovered the trail we were heading up: due to the rain and the recent use of the trail to herd water buffalo, we found the thickest mud I've ever seen. The steep inclines and decents proved to be as treacherous as glare ice while wearing moccasins. Having mud up past our ankles caused feet to slide if the terrain angled even a little bit, but soon turned to quick sand that would swallow the entire foot once it leveled off. Had quite a bit of fun with it and eventually made it to the Lahu village we were heading for. (Having the bottom half of our bodies a lot darker than before) Took a some time to rinse off, make dinner, hang out and eat, and then quickly fell asleep.

Day four: Woke up, ate breakfast, packed up, and hiked about 45 minutes down a washed-out road, caught a truck which took us to the river from where we took a boat to an elephant camp, rode elephants for about an hour, ate some lunch, grabbed another truck back to Chiang Rai, were dropped off at the bus station, said goodbye to our guide, bought bus tickets back to Chiang Mai, waited around at the station for a couple hours, then took the 3 hour bus ride back to Chiang Mai.

The trek through the jungle had originally been a two-part enterprise: firstly to see the northern part of Thailand and make contacts with the villager locals, and secondly to do a bit of sight-seeing and explore the beauty of Thailand's lush jungle. The first objective fell on the wayside once Courtney hurt her tailbone and Matt aided her in taking her to the hospital and back to Chiang Mai.

Through all of it, it was impossible for all of us to constantly be in awe of the beauty of creation (even the slicing of thorns and tripping of vines were equated to the snares of the Devil and remembering to look up and still give thanks for the beauty above our current situation.).


The LORD your God is in your midst,
    a mighty one who will save;
 he will rejoice over you with gladness;
   he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
  Zephaniah 3:17 (English Standard Version)

(Again, photos will follow once they are acquired from various cameras). But until then, feel free to check them out at Sarah Worscheck's facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/?sk=messages&ref=mb#!/album.php?aid=253466&id=584708398