One month of these traveling shinanigans

Written on the 15th or 16th... Dont remember as all my days get jumbled together!

Well, it's official... I have been traveling for a month. One down, three to go.

Cliche I know, but it really is crazy how fast the time has gone by. There is so much I have already seen- and yet so little too!! I'm starting to get panic-y deciding how to plan out my time between now and Christmas (when I have some very dear and quite crazy friends making a trip out to Thailand) and Jan (when I start at CCPP) . I know I don't have to rush anything yet but I also don't want to waste too much time in one spot either- though 'wasted time' here is really not a reality I believe. I almost wish I had someone else around to make these decisions for me but I got myself into this grand adventure, so dammit, I will be the one to make these decisions all by my self. And when your choices are: hiking in the hills and riding motobikes in northern Thailand OR heading to Laos for some waterfall swimming and tubing, you really can't complain too much, ya know?

Despite the huge stresses in my life of planning out where to go next, I have been enjoying my life in the mountains very much. I got a few solid moments of alone time in Pai which was muchly needed for my sanity. And also got some great meeting-awesome-people time as well. There was the french dude that was huge and burly and had the name Blaize (belongs on American gladitators) and the large group of loud but oh so sweet Isrealis that I ran into every 8th minute of the day. I talked for a long time with the women who worked at the bungalows I was staying at- Ann who was this friendly little ball of sunshine, told me about a bad car accident her and her sister were in just a couple weeks ago (her sister is still bedridden with 6 broken ribs and a fractured pelvis so send some lovin thoughts their way) and Wi, who was one of the owners and was just as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside. There was a whole slu of Thai vacationers staying at my place too that I met and bonded with while they played poker and drank dirty liqour. (Good practice to perfect the art of 'pigeon english' as our friend Nick called it). I got one last lunch with Anna, the kiwi, before she took off, and even ran into the girls I met on the train who I ended up spending the majority of my last night with (and a huge group of kids with them- 3 Dutch, 2 French, 1 south American, 3 English and one Aussie). All in all, I loved my time in Pai- such a beautiful and lively little town- and I am grateful for all the wonderful people I met while I was there.

I was starting to get a bit restless though so started doing some research of places I could go- somewhere in the general vacinity that would get me just a bit more secluded. I had found out the day before that I could steal wifi from my bungalow's hammock so jumped in and spent a couple hours surfing the web during the heat of the day. Found this place called Cave Lodge through travelfish and sent off an email to them as I went to go check what the bus schedule for Soppong looked like. Bus was at one the next day and yes, there was plenty of room so just show up anytime. Great.

Caught the bus at 1:50 the next day (always running late here) and made it to Soppong an hour or so later. Got off the bus and watched it pull away as I tried to find a mototaxi. When I asked where i could get one, I was promptly told that there was no such thing here. Awesome. After a couple minutes of anxiously looking around though, I stumble across a whole gang of them just hanging out- hand one of the guys my huge bag, and jump on the back.

Let me just pause for a second and describe where we are: from Pai, you go even further into the mountains, reach a huge summit, follow the ridge for a bit and then desend down into more beautiful, green, jungley forests. At the highest points, there are some crazy looking evergreen trees (makes me so happy to see) and as you start driving down, it returns to loads of banana trees and lushy vines and shrubs. Everything is green. Now, as I sit behind my motobike taxi driver, we are heading further into this lush jungle and through small little villages where the temperature is about 20 degrees cooler and the air literally smells like flowers. There is no English written on any signs or posters here, no 7-11's, and no one trying to put on a show. It is real life, plain and simple.

Get to the cave lodge which is tucked away a bit and try to find someone around to show me the rooms. I opt for the dorm as I have yet to stay in one yet and because it is the cheapest way to sleep here. Put down my stuff, talk to the other two kids who will be sharing the dorm with me and go to sign in. As we are filling out our names and nationality, I overhear a couple in the front room talking about going out on a little hike in a few minutes. I quickly invite myself as does the other two Brits who were signing in. So only 15 minutes or so after I arrive, I am now heading out with a Scottish couple and two Brit friends. The hike is out to the mouth of a large cave where swifts and bats switch places during twilight. Get to know my new friends on the walk down and arrive at the cave just in time to see the show begin. This little switcharoo that these bats and swallows do is really pretty phenominal. We never were sure if we saw bats or not but there had to be hundreds of thousands of these little birds swooping and diving and circling, first outside the cave and then in. We watched this little natural phenomonon go on for about 30 minutes before we decided to head back. It didn't really look like they would be letting up anytime soon and the smell was getting a bit overwhelming, so we decides to head back before it got too dark. Nice little way to start off my trip though.

Got back and had some dinner with everyone. Fortunately I had packed some food and had some leftovers from breakfast as the food at cave lodge proved to be quite overpriced (something you can get away with when you are out in the middle of nowhere). So the 5 of us and another French guy, John, all got to talk about our travels over dinner. The Brits and Scotts were both taking off the next day but John said he was doing a hike in the morning and then starting to head towards Laos- awesome, sounds similar to my plan. We check out the hand drawn map of our surrounding areas and decide on a few places we would like to see. Say goodnight to the crew and we all head to bed- 4 of us in the same room.

Morning comes and is, in every way, a relaxing event. Make some of the oatmeal I bought the other day and chat with the crew before they all leave. John goes on a little kayak trip and I take a look around the property- complete with a swimming pool and herbal sauna and paths leading up and down the river. Chill out for a bit reading in the hammock until John comes back. As we are talking about routes to go hiking, I saw something out of the corner of my eye in the bathroom. Go have a look to see a little snake slithering around our bathroom floor. John comes over with his sticky rice bamboo and chases this little black and yellow and orange snake out through our shower drain. (John found out later that this type of snake is actually very poisionous and was not so much the lighthearted event that we made it out to be.)

We started out on our hike with a few recommendations and pointers from a couple who attempted the hike before, and our little hand drawn 'treasure map' that our lodge gives their guests. 20 minutes to the first cave and 40 to the second is what we are told, right at the house for Christmas cave. Sounds simple enough.

Walk down the roads, turn when necessary, snap a few pictures of the amazing scenery and just enjoy this view. But we are suddenly going up huge grades in the road and it doesn't really seem right. No one said anything about steep hills, but we still haven't seen any paths so maybe just around the next corner? No, how about we just walk top of this hill and see... Oh there are just more hills... Maybe let's just try the next one. I am dying here. The first couple steels were fine but, the lack of shade while walking in the road is just getting unbareable. I think we have passed it bit I have already confided in John that I always get lost so my suggustions are quickly ignored.

We finally find a path about an hour into the hike and even find a house. Actually it's a village and the trail to the right leads us only to the road again. We come across a few hillstribe people who live here in the village and ask them, through sign language, if it's okay for us to pass (they don't speak Thai). The little old lady carrying various things with a basket supported by her forehead waves us through and really doesn't seem to give a damn about us. We go through the bamboo gate and follow along the path that leads through their tiny village and fields of (what appear to be) wheat and corn. We continue to follow this for a bit before I throw in the towel and tell John I want to head back. It is absolutely gorgeous where we were but I felt bad being on tribal ground without much knowledge of which tribe and if we were really allowed, and if we are where I think we were on the map (which was a correct asumption), then we were only 3km from the Burma border (which made me nervous after recieving numerous emails from my mom about hikers who are imprisioned in Pakistan(?) after crossing borders unknowingly... See, I do listen mom). We bow our heads to the hillstribe people as we leave and descend the huge steeps we had just hauled up. Go figure, we find both trails way down the path on our way back- think we went almost 2k out of our way. Shower after carefully inspecting that our shower was snake free, eat some dinner, finish another book, and now I'm here. Legs exhausted but feeling good and full and ready for some sleep. John and I priced out a few options for heading to Laos and are taking the long/cheaper way, so heading out tomorrow morning. Bus from Soppong to Pai, bus to Chiangmai, bus to chiangrei, stay the night there, bus to chiang kong, ferry across to Laos, visa pickup and slow boat to luang prabang (two day trip with a stop at a town along the way). It's gonna be a long one. Ready to travel again but also know I will be sick and tired of sitting on buses and boats by the time I arrive!