Blood Hawk - Day 5
The day started early as I woke up early this morning. Since I was the only person awake I lay in the bed for a while but I was getting restless so I got up and started getting ready – which basically involved washing my face and cleaning my teeth as there were no showers or anything and I wasn't keen on dousing cold water on myself this early in the morning. By the time I had cleaned by teeth and washed my face Dan was up as well. The best time to see village life is early in the morning, so we decided to go walking and take some photographs. Dan was a bit reluctant in taking photographs as he felt it was intrusive but I just asked people for their permission before taking snaps, so I didn't feel guilty about it all – which is as well because I a couple of lovely shots.
Hut by the stream 
Place where we slept 
Misty Village
Dan exploring the village
Feeding the piglets while the baby and the pig look on
Karen Village 
The misty mountains 
A kid with toy bow and arrows
Father and baby 
Rural life 
Local woman enjoying a smoke while working
Amanda awake and sussing out the morning
3 kids playing
Photograph please!!By the time we returned to the hut, everyone else was waking up or was awake and we had a basic breakfast consisting of boiled eggs, toast, butter, jam and pineapple. Pineapple seems to be a staple part of the diet in Thailand because it is served with almost every meal. Once the breakfast was done we packed everything up and were set to go. The plan was to walk to Huey-nam-dang elephant camp by lunchtime, have lunch there and then take an elephant ride close to the next village. Chiaya arranged a moped for Sylvia, so she didn't have to walk with us to the elephant camp. That was a good move because on a trek you are only as fast as the slowest person in the group. This also meant that we could trek by a harder route and get to see more of the country.
Thailand Scenic
Amanda looking on as John waits for our tour guides to catch up 
The long trek
Beautiful ThailandThe trek was nice and I guess anyone with moderate fitness can do it. We stopped over at a rest point, where Chaiya got us to search for some fern plants to use for making a dinner dish. The second half of the trek was definitely way harder as we climbed right up a mountain and it definitely made me wonder about my fitness levels. I was thinking that I needed to be more fit in order to even think about doing Mt. Kinabalu sometime in the future.
Joy and Alan are the first ones to reach the rest stop
Kelly, Dan and Amanda follow through
Alan, Dan, Amanda, Kelly & Joy in search of fern plant
Me with some fern plantsAnyway we got a breather once we got to the top and after that the trek wasn't too bad till the last hour or so which was when we started going downhill. Kelly had injuries in one of her legs and she was finding it hard to balance on the downhill without putting enormous amount of strain on her injured leg. So for better part of the downhill I was walking behind her and holding onto her bag whenever we needed to climb downwards in order to balance her. It worked out great but we were joking that if I lost my balance – I would yell to warn her and then we would both roll down the hill but I would make it look graceful while Amanda, who was walking right behind us, would yell to everyone else for help and point out where we rolled down. Luckily we didn't need to use any of the contingency plans as we arrived to the elephant camp soon afterwards.
It was an exhilarating feeling seeing elephants out in the nature and not under captivity. Thailand has about 5000 elephants – 2000 of them wild while 3000 of them are domesticated. And even then - most of the domesticated elephants are well looked after and live in the open. The noodles that were made for lunch were very yummy and while having lunch we watched one of the elephants get a hard on and another elephant do a little bit of foreplay with their trunk on the elephant with the hard on. Everyone found it very amusing and we were joking that we didn't get to see such stuff on National Geographic.
After the lunch it was time for the elephant ride and I had no idea that it would turn out to be such an adventure, especially since I've never had an elephant ride before and didn't know what to expect. My partner for our elephant was Alan. The odd thing was that our mahout decided not to sit on the elephant with us and then the seat we were sitting on didn't have any kind of stopping barrier in front of us. The elephant ride soon got terrifying as they start going downhill in order to cross the river and Alan and me were hanging onto dear lives, so we didn't accidentally fall out from our saddle. Alan was joking that if that did happen, we would have a hard time explaining to our insurance companies as to how we managed to get crushed by an elephant. Alan is afraid of spiders and some of the trees that we were passing by seemed to have cow webs and I asked him what he would do if a spider jumped on our elephant to which he replied that he would jump off the elephant – he would rather deal with the elephant because he knows what he is dealing with. He also joked that if I started to fall from the elephant, I would probably make it look graceful by rolling down it's trunk and then walk off without any injury. It's funny how my graceful fall at the waterfall seems to have influenced the perception of who I am. :-)
The team at the elephant camp
The Elephants 
Amanda & Dan on their elephant
Alan & me getting used to sitting on an elephant
Holding onto dear life 
POV
Kelly & Joy seem happy with their elephant
The elephant ride continues 
End of the elephant ride Our elephant was pretty chilled out and did what he was told by the mahout, who was walking an elephant behind us. On the other hand – the elephant that Amanda and Dan were sitting on was a real rebel and liked doing his own thing and when his mahout tried to control him by threatening him with a prodding iron stick, the elephant promptly picked up some dust using it's trunk and sprayed it on the mahout as well as Amanda and Dan. Overall, I was happy when the elephant ride ended after a couple of hours. I was too terrified and the ride too shaky to take any decent pics even though the scenery was beautiful. Once we got off the elephants we walked another half an hour odd to get to Pa-kao-lam village.
En route to the second village
The team finding their bearings after the elephant rideThe village was a bigger village than the first one we stayed at – it has 50 households with a population of 300. The village also has a boarding school, which houses students from other smaller villages. The boarding students go back home every weekend. Again solar power is something that is common within the village but the accommodation that we were staying in had no electricity or solar power – just candle light. Once we settled into the hut – all of us wanted to take a shower but for that our only option was to take a swim in the Mae-tang river, which was a stone's throw from our accommodation. So all of us minus Sylvia and John went to the river. It was very cold and I decided not to take a swim but by that point Alan and Dan were on the other side of the river (it wasn't very deep) and were playing skimming rocks with the local kids. It was a beautiful moment because neither of them could speak each other's language but they all seemed to be having fun and getting along just fine. Amanda was a little apprehensive about taking photographs as the kids were nude, so I decided to take the pics because it was such a great moment and it was all innocent fun.
Alan & Dan playing with local kidsJoy insisted on me coming into the river but I was reluctant because the river was cold. Kelly then threatened me that she would push me into the river and started proceeding menacingly at which point gradually walked into the river without even realizing it. And because my attention was so focused on Kelly, I didn't even feel the cold. Once in the river I got acclimatized really quickly and had a great time just chilling for a while. After the river bath, we lay in the sun for a while and had a beer – just soaking up the moment. Soon after Chaiya asked us if we wanted to see the village and also if we were interested in playing soccer with the locals and we were super keen.
Dan, Amanda & Kelly sunbathing
Local kids learning to climb a tree
As we were walking around in the village, I saw a really wonderful shot of a mother and her little daughter and asked them if I could take a pic and since I had my polaroid with me that's what I used. It was an amazing shot but the little girl asked me if she could have the polaroid and I had no option but to leave the photograph with her. I was feeling a little sad that I had to let go of such a beautiful shot but I soon put it behind me and joined the rest of the group in the school grounds. After getting a tour of the school, it was soccer time but I was the only one in the group who had any interest in playing the game. So Chaiya and me joined the soccer teams while the rest of the bunch sat out watching the game.
The first 5 minutes of the game were the hardest since I hadn't played soccer in 15 years - the last time I played it was when I was still in school. And also just getting used to the amount of running and kicking. After the first 20 minutes or so, I got more into the element and had a great game. The game went on till almost sunset and I am estimating that the game took an hour and half or so. A fair few players had battle scars but I guess you don't feel the injuries right there as your adrenaline is pumping. I think we lost the game 6-5 but more than the actual score it was the experience that mattered. It was surreal playing soccer with the locals in midst of beautiful Thai mountains.
The soccer game
The game obviously ran longer than it should have because Chaiya and Tsong and Yee came back quickly and started cooking the dinner. Everyone at that point was very hungry but there was no option but to wait. The long wait was worth it since the food was very delicious. And during dinner I found out that the team I was in had actually won the soccer game by 6-5 and that made the evening so much more special and I was immediately crowned king with an empty beer can for a crown, by the group. After the dinner we sat around talking and everyone was amazed that I had stayed up beyond 8.00 PM – which is when I went to sleep last night. I pushed the boundaries and was awake with the rest of the group till about 10 PM. As far as the title of this blog is concerned - it is a name deviced by Alan for canadian tampons - don't ask how that came about but it is an awesome name, so I decided to use it as title of the blog.
King Amit
When it came time to retire, it was harder setting up the mosquito nets and Amanda managed to do her net first before trying to help Dan and me. My mosquito net was non-functional, so the only option was to use Dan's mosquito net – since it was a double net, for both Dan's bed and mine. And from that situation hilarity ensued as it seemed like we were sleeping in the same bed and we were joking about it for a while – right up to the point when we actually fell asleep.Tomorrow we go bamboo rafting to our next destination and I don't know what to expect from it either. I am sure it won't be as terrifying as the elephant ride.
Later,
Amit
posted by Amit @ 4:39 PM
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