Day 15: Hill Tribe Tour Day 1

Woke up bright and early and headed out to the northern region of Thailand to hang with the Hill Tribes. As far as the experience went, I have to call it Qualia. Qualia is a concept we've discussed in our Philosophy class, and it means the sensory experience that can't fully be understood until you've experienced it- i.e. the bitterness of a lemon, or this trip. I'll explain it to the best of my abilities, but I don't know if that'll really do it justice. Here goes:

Our first stop was the Mork Fa Waterfall which was fabulously cold and so much fun to swim around in.

From there, we dried off to the best of our abilities and rode about 30 minutes to lunch- our last before the tribes! Once we were all full, we drove another 30-ish minutes to arrive at the foot of a mountain. 

We started hiking almost immediately and it was the beginning of one of the most physically demanding activities of my life. The hike was absolutely grueling- in part because of the heat and that we were hiking mid-day, but also because the mountain wasn't so much an incline as a 45 degree angle. Furthermore, the climb was tough mentally because as soon as you reached the 'top' of the hill you'd see a bend in the path that led to... you guessed it! More uphill! By the time we got to the actual top of the mountain, I was completely drained but had to push through the downhill. Yes, I said push through the downhill! The incline down was just as steep as the ascent upwards and the easiest way to deal with the steep gravelly decline was to run through it. I've never been more drained in my life when we FINALLY arrived to the Karen village. 

The town was very small but the houses were extremely well-built and well-kept with tons of dogs, chickens, pigs, and water buffalo running around to keep things interesting.

Katie G, Chanelle, and Tou hanging with the piglets

the palettes we slept on

Katie G with the bathroom

me on our 'front porch' 

naturally growing fruit from the area.

Everybody from the village was extremely welcoming and made us a huge, delicious dinner with rice, stirfry, pineapple, and platters of spring rolls. After eating there was some guitar-playing and csinging, but we were all in bed (in palette?) and ready to sleep by 9 pm.