Well, we got back from our trip on Friday night, but have been so busy
ever since that I've barely made a dent in the 2000 posts waiting for
me, much less had time to post.
First, about the trip.  The trip was great.  It was so nice to fly
instead of taking the overnight train like we usually do.  But the
flights are so cheap now that it costs less than $10 more to fly, so
why not?
In Chiang Mai, we didn't do much besides look for furniture.  We've
been there 5 times before so had done all the touristy stuff anyway.
We were extremely happy with the furniture shopping, much better
prices than where we live or in Bangkok.  We ordered a dining room
table with chairs, a bed, bedside tables, a coffee table and an accent
chair.  Woo hoo!  The table and chairs and accent chair arrived
yesterday, everything else is getting made so that will arrive in
about a month.
On Valentines Day, we flew from Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son.  Mae Hong
Son is only 250 km away but it would take over 8 hours to drive there
because the road is so windey and steep.  We got in at 10 am and
walked around the town.  Frankly, we were disappointed.  There hardly
seemed to be any decent places to stay and the town was deserted and
pretty much boring.  (We later found out that the area is aimed at
high end spa tourists and you need to stay at these exclusive spas in
the surrounding hills.  Sounds nice, but not what we were after for
this trip.)
So we decided that rather than spend any more time there we would hop
on the bus and go to Pai.  Pai is the original backpacker hippie
hangout, a most amazing place.  We spent one night there last year and
liked it so we were happy to go back.  The bus ride of 110km took 4
hours (ugh) but it was worth it.  We got a really cool rustic wooden
bungalow by the river with a bed under a mosquito net with the best
white cotton sheets and thick down comforter.  The reason for the down
comforter is that this town is way up in the mountains and even though
it gets up to 30C in the day, it gets into the single digits at night.
It was so great to be snuggled up under a cozy blanket!  We haven't
had the chance to do that very often in the last 4 years!
We had booked a 3 day 2 night trek to the hilltribe villages for the
next day.  There were 4 other people on the trek, all Americans and
all way younger than us.  We had a really funny guide, an older
Burmese guy who had been a drug-runner and in the rebel army in the
'70's.  He had great English and told us all about the history of the
golden triangle, etc. as we hiked.  The hiking was very hard and steep
and the trail practically non-existent.  Unfortunately it's the dry
season so everything was very brown and dusty.  But it did make it
easier for the hiking because you tended not to sweat so much.
On the first day we hiked 20 km, stopping for lunch at a Karen
hilltribe village and spending the night in a Lahu village.  The Lahu
village was tiny, only 2 families and the families were gone to
another village to celebrate the New Year.  This hilltribe celebrates
the New Year after all the families have finished cutting down the
bamboo for their houses for the year.  Apparently the bamboo cutting
season is only about 6 weeks long.  So we stayed in this bamboo hut in
this tiny 3 hut village with cows and pigs (with newborn piglets!
squeal!) and chickens.  Along with the guide, there were 2 porters and
they made a fire and cooked us some curry.  We also got to try some
homemade rice whiskey which tasted like sake to me.
The guide entertained us around the campfire with stories of how he
was in the rebel army with several kg's of opium in the 70's and he
and the others had to hike from China to Thailand to sell the opium to
buy guns to take back to China.  Apparently they had also been given a
bunch of Maoist literature to distribute in Thailand but they couldn't
be bothered to carry the heavy books through the jungle so they
ditched them or used the pages as rolling papers for their cigarettes.
I guess the communists in China found out they had smoked the books
and questioned them about it but they just said that they were
uneducated and thought that by smoking them they would absorb the
information!  LOL!
Anyway, this village also had 2 cats.  One was a tabby and one was a
purebred looking Siamese!  I was completely baffled to see such a cat
in the middle of the jungle only miles from the Burma border.  Both
cats were female and the tabby was in heat and very frustrated.  Both
let us pet them but petting the one in heat proved to be a mistake as
she rubbed herself all over me and became my bestest buddy for the
whole night.  All night long, she would periodically yowl and meow at
the top of her lungs.  At 4 am the roosters started crowing.  There
were pigs snorting under the bamboo hut.  It was freezing and we only
had thin sleeping bags on the bare bamboo.  I may have slept a total
of 30 minutes that night!
The next day we hiked 14 km but it seemed much harder than the first
day.  The lack of sleep probably contributed.  We did see some very
beautiful wild orchids growing off of tree trunks and we stopped at a
waterfall for a shower.  Unfortunately the water was so incredibly ice
cold that my feet turned numb and I felt like I was going to have a
heart attack.  I ended up only splashing some water on myself.  Ok, we
*have* been living in the tropics for 4 years so maybe that had
something to do with why all the Americans went in and Dennis and I
didn't ;-)
We spent that night in another Lahu village but this one was much
bigger (26 families) and in a valley whereas the first one had been on
a mountain top.  This village had been officially recognized by the
Thai government recently.  Actually, most of the bigger hilltribe
villages were recognized, just before the election actually.  How
terribly coincidental because recognition gives them the right to vote
;-)  Also a real coincidence that Taksin, the prime minister who was
up for re-election, gave every family in the villages a solar cell
with some fluorescent lights and a radio in December.  He got
re-elected by a landslide too, how coincidental ;-)
Anyway, so this village was downright luxurious.  We even got a very
thin mat to sleep on, so it wasn't nearly as cold during the night.
But what we hadn't realized is that this village was celebrating it's
New Year the next morning and their tradition is for every family to
sacrifice a pig at sunrise.  Great way to wake up at 6 am, squealing
and the sounds of bamboo connecting with pig skulls!  Ick.  They had
the pigs skinned and cut up in no time and by 8 am we were served a
big plate of freshly BBQ'ed pork.  Mmmmm, the freshest pork I've ever
had and will ever have :-/
After that Atkins-friendly breakfast, we set off for our last day of
the trek.  We only had to hike 6 km, which was a good thing because I
was totally worn out from all the hiking and no sleep.  After lunch at
another village, we set off on elephant back for almost 2 hours.  It
was a real treat to be able to sit and relax...well, as much as one
can relax on the back of an elephant, desperately clinging to the seat
as it sways back and forth over 10 feet in the air!  Unfortunately
Dennis and I got the male elephant and the others had female
elephants.  Our elephant got ummm...urges...and displayed a rather
large 5th appendage, much to the constant amusement of our fellow
trekkers.  Oh well, at least he didn't try to mount the female in
front with us sitting on his back!
After the elephant ride, we arrived at the river and continued from
there by bamboo raft for another hour downriver.  This was really nice
and we saw some nice scenery in comfort as we floated by.  We passed a
lot of waterbuffalo wallowing in the shallows.
Finally we got back to some semblance of civilization and the truck
picked us up and drove us an hour back to Pai.  We couldn't wait to
get cleaned up and checked into our wooden bungalow from the first
night.  After a looooong shower and nursing our various wounds, bites,
blisters and bruises, we went for a beer and a Thai massage.  Aaaaaah

Checked the internet real quick and got the great news that a certain
worrisome area of our Australian visa application had been accepted,
so we celebrated with some more beers and falafels.  This *was* a
hippy village and where hippies go, there are always good falafels ;-)
We would have loved to stay up and see some of the bands in the bars,
etc, but could absolutely not stay awake past 9 pm, so headed to bed.
The next day we took a minivan to Chiang Mai, flew to Bangkok, picked
up our car and drove home.  Vino was very happy to see us, as usual
and he's been gracing us with his constant presence in a most velcro
like manner ever since.
We have several hundred pictures from the trek, so I'll post a Yahoo
album once I've had a chance to go through them.
Yesterday was mine and Dennis' 9th wedding anniversary, so we went out
to a nice restaurant (Cabbages & Condoms, supports AIDS
research/relief) and treated ourselves to a nice dinner with a great
bottle of wine.  Unfortunately, today Dennis' time off was over and he
left at 2 pm to head back to work in Burma.  He'll be away until March
23rd, but I'm sure the time will fly by as usual.
I've got a lot of catching up to do with the NG, I've only skimmed it
so far.  Some very interesting developments, LOL!  Purrs and headbutts
and hugs and whatever is needed go out to all deserving recipients :-D
--
Britta
Sandpaper kisses, a cuddle and a purr. I have an alarm clock that's
covered in fur!
Check out pictures of Vino at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album