More from Chiang Mai

Spent the day trekking up a "hill" (seemed more like a mountain to me) to spend the night with a hill tribe. It was a tough walk, much harder than the moderate difficulty the tour led us to believe. But it was worth it. About two hours into the walk we stopped at a waterfall. We were the only people there for a good 30 minutes. It was paradise. After that we walked another 2 hours up hill to the village. There we were greeted by the Karen people. They were very kind in opening up their village to all of us. We ate a wonderful meal of soup, green curry and fried vegetables; food never tasted so good. The trek guide talked to use about the Karen people and his life, I got the impression he was trying to convert us to Christianity. It was funny to listen to him call non Christians enemies while the person who is our tour guide is Buddhist and they are food friends! We also met the village shaman and he sold us blessing to ward of evil spirits and bring good luck. For 50 baht ($1.25) it was worth it.

We went to bed early, 8:15, because there was nothing to do because there is no electricity or running water in the village. "Bed" was a mat on the floor under mosquito netting. Not the best thing for my back. Even with a sleep aid I was wide awake at 3:00 a.m. with crowing roosters, barking dogs, and one of our travel companions snoring.

Finally around 6 all of us gave up pretending to sleep and went out to watch the sun rise, then a breakfast of soft fried eggs, toast, and the local tea. We were supposed to walk back down the mountain, but it was the same path we took up and were not going to stop for the water fall. We opted to pay a driver 100 baht each to take us to the bottom. From there we took bamboo rafts along the river, it was a beautiful experience. We are now back in Chiang Mai and are trying to leave either tonight or early in the morning so we can get some extra time at the beach. We are meeting again with Beer, the tour guide at 1:30 to see what he could do.
More to follow for my next stop that has Internet access.