Day 19 - Trekking Day 2

Today was the second day of our 3 day trek! After the party and drinks last night today was going be tough. Thankfully we were still beside the river and the freshness of a really cold swim in the morning helped, along with the hot coffee, boiled eggs and toast that we had ... and we were all set for off!

 

Sam had prepared our lunch for us as well and wrapped it up in a banana leaf tied with bamboo string so we were all prepared for the trekking.

 

Well we thought we were prepared for the trekking until we reached the first hill about 5 minutes into the trek, then the beer started to show, about 20 minutes later it was definitely telling as all of us were soaked with sweat by the time we reached the first water stop at the top of the FIRST hill!

 

Lunch at the top of the second hill was really welcome as we had been climbing for more or less the 2 1/2 hours of trekking that morning.

We stopped at a purpose built hut at almost the top of the highest peak that we were to reach, 1650 meters above sea level. After lunch we just chilled out and enjoyed the scenery before setting off again ... uphill ... I knew there was a reason for this long break, thankfully though this was the last hill for the day because afterwards it went downhill. Downhill is supposed to be easier but all that does is use and tire out a different set of leg muscles!

 

On the way down I had some very interesting conversation with Mr Sam about the government and the upcoming elections as well as the advantages and disadvantages of trekking and eco-tourism on all the local hill tribes especially Mr Sam’s tribe the Karen Tribe. Unfortunately not all the money paid for the trek goes to the trekkers and the host families but what does, can make a huge contribution to the villages and people!

 

After another almost 3 hours of trekking we start to come back into more rice fields which surrounded the hill tribe village that we were staying in and we stopped at a river running next to the.

This was to be our shower/bath stop. Everyone looked a bit puzzled by it but after getting into our swim wear and into the river the soap and shower gels came out and it became normal enough, well as normal bathing/showering in a river can be I suppose!

 

After getting dressed we made it onto the nearby road/dirt track and made our way into the village. The village was a well organised place with the centre along the river, rice fields surrounding it and loads of animal pens beside and underneath the houses also!

 

On the way into the village Mr Sam offered us the option of dinner or barbecuing a pig ... Which we all went for ... What we didn't realise as that we were going to eat one of the pigs that we saw on the way into the village, and the reason we were asked so early was so that the villagers had time to kill and skin the pig before night fall!

 

Well we had a small dinner first, with the choice of rice with Thai Green Curry or roast pumpkin which both were very nice, then we sat and waited for the pig to cook over the just built barbecue!

 

We also played a few games of cards when waiting for the barbecued pig, Uno, Asshole and Ten! We also played a drinking game called 0-0-7-Bang which was great fun.

You did have a choice of 3 penalties ... sing a song or dance, take a 3 second drink, or get a black face. The black face consisted of taking a blackened pan or pot used on the open fire, wetting the black grease/dirt on the bottom and drawing lines or patterns on the players face. By the end of the game, when the pig was ready, most of us were drunk and blackened completely.

 

The pig itself turned out to be lovely, the local villagers had done all the cooking and carving and kept carrying it to us. We made a small dent in the entire pig, before we were all stuffed, but thankfully the locals took the rest of it because no one fancied carrying the rest of it for the 3rd day!

 

After a few more beers and some more pig we all headed off to bed, in our little 'airy' shack ... full of beer and some lovely barbecued pig!