Monday, March 30, 2009

Jungle Trek

This past weekend we headed off on motorbikes towards Tak and stayed overnight at the National Park. We had this awesome bungalow that had a balcony overlooking the mountains. Beautiful. We started with a hike through the jungle to see a Tall tree and a mini waterfall. The tree was actually big, the biggest I've ever seen. We were just a person short to make a human chain around the base (there were 9 of us). The waterfall was fun to cool off in. There was even a little rock slide. On the way out we picked a different way and got detoured and had to off-roaded for a bit because of a bunch of fallen trees. Ben ended up finding 6 leeches on his feet and another friend, Matt had one, but it was big and made him bleed everywhere.That night we hung out on the balcony watching the stars.
There was this crescent moon black bear at the park. You could get right up to it's cage and feed it food. The gate was lacked with a cheap lock. The bear came down and just hung out with us for company for a bit. When we went to go home the bear got all rilled up and began pacing the tree and standing up (I think it saw a rabbit).
There was a pickled baby bear in the visitor center on display and some really really large beetles.
The next day we stopped at this roadside market and then tried to find a natural rock bridge. We got side tracked by a cow herder and ended up at this cool cave temple complete with file cabinets. Just what every cave temple needs. The guy at the temple motorbiked us to the rock bridge entrance up and down these steep dirt paths. It was a bit difficult to communicate with him, but ended up finding a local man who spoke a little English. He got a group of children to be our guides. It was a good thing we had this troupe of children leading us through the jungle because it ended up being confusing, unmarked (except for a tiny piece of paper cut into a 2 stapled to a trunk of a random tree), and steep. The children were like little men. They saw myself and a couple others struggling with some of the slippery parts. So a few of the boys stayed back moving leaves off the path so it would be less slippery, holding banana leaves out of the way for us (but throwing them in Matt's face hehe), and even stopping at the creek and reminding us to wash our faces to cool off. They jumped around the trail in their flip flops and bare feet as if it was nothing. Many of them had red hair dye or had bleached their hair in patterns. At one point we got to this flat spot with lots of bamboo trees and windy vines. The boys attacked it and climbed on it like a "jungle gym." The jungle truly is their playground.
The rock bridge ended up being really cool. There were all these mini caves around the rocks and fun rock slides. We did not want to leave, but rather wanted to camp out for the night.
The journey back was easier (they took us a different route) and we saw some women farming the mountain hills. They must have massive thigh muscles. There were lots of banana and avocado trees. It felt a bit like we were at a place most people don't see.
The boys were just amazing. They were so polite and kind and they taught us how to shoot slingshots.
The ride home to Mae Sot was also beautiful. The sun was setting over these huge mountain peaks. It was a beautiful peaceful ride, all but the dog that jumped down from the median in front of our bike as we passed (what is up with these dogs!)

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