When In Roam: Day 17: Hill Tribe Tour Day 3

Day Three of the Hill Tribe Tour dawned bright and early and I was thrilled to be rafting down the river instead of hiking back! I couldn't really take pictures of everything because I had my camera and phone hidden away in a plastic bag in the recesses of my backpack. Because of this, I can't really give you visuals of the trip, but I'll do my best to describe it!

We took off from the Karen village with 5 or 6 people per raft and one guide per boat. We were given bamboo sticks as paddles and were just kinda thrown into it. I paddled in the middle of our boat and out of the 4 and a half hours I paddled a solid 4 hours of it! I got blisters in the web of my hands, but it was so worth it!

Paddling on the river was more of an exercise of standing ankle-deep in water and using the bamboo sticks to push off from the sides/bottom of the river. Overall, our boat was really good about not getting stuck on the rocks on the bottom, but there were a few times we needed to abandon ship to free our float! Of course, the whole time I was paddling, I had this stuck in my head. Seriously, it was all I could think about.

One of the most entertaining aspects of the trip was the fact that Ben, Tou, Jenny, Katie Gall, and Grace took their raft seriously and turned it into a pirate ship- the good ship Mai Pen Rai. They had battle cries and a flag (that eventually got stolen by other pirate-USAC-members) and their guide would occasionally jump out front and cast a net to do a bit of fishing. Seeing their spirit and enthusiasm made the trip more fun and provided tons of entertainment for the rest of us! Another cool things about our raft-journey was the water buffalo. It was insane! We'd be floating along the river and there would be a turn then BAM! a small herd of water buffalo would be wading in the water a few feet away. It was crazy!

Rafting was so much fun, but finally docking and getting lunch was thrilling! I was starving after a weekend of tough physical activity and absolutely inhaled lunch. Pat Thai has never been more delicious or absolutely necessary. Nate managed to polish off about 5 bowls before asking Jah Jaah if she was finished with her dish- I also finished off a bowl and a half and half of a pineapple- food had never tasted so good! I had such an amazing time on the Hill Tribe Tour, but I was so, so excited to shower and take a solid nap afterwards! Thank you so much to the Karen tribes we stayed with and to USAC for setting up the trip- it was definitely worth it!!!