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Hi Everyone!
We've left the Karen Hill Tribe Lodge and trekked our way back a different route to finally return to Chiang Mai. However, as we've just arrived there's not much to tell so I'm going to rewind a little to give you a little bit "more" than what we left you with. Jocelyn's been forced to type everything on her phone and as you can imagine, typing everything on a small keyboard with your thumbs can get old pretty quick whereas I have taken advantage of the free use of the community computer that is always empty here at the Tanita House.
So, as I said, Jocelyn's been limited on what she's been able to provide you with so I'm going to backtrack a little and give you some more information. If she's feeling particularly adventurous she may go back and edit some of the previous blogs. She can read what I type here and decide if that's necessary.
So... ready?
I'll open with our first full day in the Karen Village. One thing I want to say is while Jocelyn and I will call it that, there's many villages all over the region and we have no real way to tell which is which other than location. There are over 3 million Karen people. Most live in Burma but about 500,000 crossed the border into Thailand and set up villages along the border and a little further in. Most farm rice and their main initiative, if you will, is to protect the land and the animals. Notice that I said "farm"?? We were a little surprised when we finally arrived to see that the lodge was right smack in the middle of a farming village. There were less than a dozen homes and all were raised about 6 feet off the ground. We later learned that before the reason for this was because the farm animals such as the pigs and chickens lived beneath the home. I can't even begin to think on what that would have smelled like. So we arrived and were greeted warmly and got to meet our elephant, Mesumai. She's lovely and I'm sure you've gotten a rough idea of how she is. Don't worry- we have plenty of pictures and I'll try and get some uploaded tonight if at all possible.
So we tucked in for the night into our beds (on the floor) and tried to sleep. This was somewhat successful until around 3:30am when the roosters decided that they needed to "Cock-a-doodle" their way into my sleep. Earplugs were on hand and sleep was somewhat successful after that.
We woke up (officially) at a little before 8:30am and prepped for breakfast. Prepping involved sitting at the little coffee table and shivering from the cold. We mistakenly thought that we would be in a nice, humid jungle. Unfortunately, we were wrong. I randomly threw in a pair of long pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt. Jocelyn's canadian roots were probably the only thing that saved her from whimpering as I would have if the roles were reversed. Breakfast was eggs and bacon... and fruit... and salad... and toast. We learned quickly that they were intending to stuff us to the gills.
We were then told it was "just a little walk" to go to see Mesumai. "Just a little walk" is actually Karen for "hike your ass up a really big hill". We wandered over to her living quarters and then her owner, the Mahout, went looking for her as she'd wandered off. While we waited, Jocelyn asked the question that I'm sure you're curious to know. "How does one come to own an elephant?" About 3-4 generations ago this man's grandfather caught the elephant and then it's passed down through the generations (as are it's offspring). Anyways, we got more formerly acquainted and then hopped on her back for a ride into the jungle to the river. We were giving her a bath!
Once we arrived, our guide (Susin), the Mahout and the other man that accompanied us began cooking lunch for us. The night before, Susin had asked if we'd like to try something different that is very common during that time of year for the Karen people.
(Mrs. Mason- you may want to skip this part)
Without thinking to ask what we were agreeing to we said, "Sure!" in the spirit of adventure. As it turned out, he was offering to let us try a RAT. This was followed with "Jungle rat is very clean. City rat is very disgusting and dirty. Do you still want to try?" Susin, being the great guy he is, offered us an out. I looked at Jocelyn with eyebrows raised and without a second thought she said, "YES."
So while the men cooked, us girls sat and took photos of Mesumai, and would then run over to take a quick photo of the rat we were going to try. After all of the food was cooked we sat down and once again, were given enough food to feed a family of 5.
And yes, we did eat the rat... it tasted like chicken (no lie!)
Then we ran into the changing room (they seriously prepared for the city folk here because before the lodge this place didn't have electricity let along changing rooms and western bathrooms).
Bathing Mesumai was a real treat. The water was frigid and we started by throwing buckets of water on her before she finally gave up on waiting for us to soak her and submerged herself under. There is a vine that grows in the jungle that, when cut open, and rubbed along an elephants wet skin actually foams. It softens the skin too and is, effectively, a shampoo! So I climbed on her back and scrubbed behind her ears and down her back and belly and Jocelyn took care of her sides. Aside from a couple of minutes where she tried (and succeeded) to wrestle away my shampoo vine to try and eat it, the bath was successful. Then it was playtime for Mesumai. Jocelyn and I sat for a while near the little waterfall and watched her play for about a half an our before getting on her back to trek back to the village. This took about an hour.
We were supposed to rest for a half an hour and then go meet a local village woman who weaves shirts and bags. THREE HOURS later we were woken to be told that we all had overslept (Susin included) and we had to get to our cooking lesson downstairs because it was 7:30!
I can't describe how good the food was. I have no photos but it was delicious. And I learned how to cook my favorite dishes so I'm making it when I get home! Coconut and red curry pork and deep fried pineapple drizzled in honey. When I realized they planned to give us fresh carrots, peppers and watermelon with almost every meal I had to explain my allergy. Their response was to show me how to deep fry pineapple! And as it happens, I learned a few months ago that I actually LOVE grilled pineapple so deep frying it wasn't too far of a leap for me. When they realized how much I loved it, they made sure there was a whole plate for us for breakfast our final two mornings.
Despite the three-hour nap, we were exhausted so it was still an early night for us. This time we both went to bed with earplugs from the very start in hopes that the roosters wouldn't wake us.
Those guys are loud!!!
Hope this "paints a picture" of the second day. Jocelyn's taking the next!
Updating soon!!!
- comments
Kim Washing the elephant sounded like a lot of fun.
Munchkin Did you say deep fried pineapple!?!?