Trekking in Pai, Thailand

This is how they brought us into the cave on a bamboo raft thing. Here is Nic ready to go with his headlamp. That thing came in handy on this trip!

The last part of our trip was a stop at a huge cave. We got to explore it for 1 hour. It was massive. I have never been in something like that before.

After dinner the village women wanted to show us some of their dances and songs. They made us do it with them...it was fun. Afterward they wanted us to perform something and the best we could come up with was the chicken dance. They were amused.

This was our dinner prepared for us by the Lahu people and our guide. Chicken with rice and sweet sauce and pineapple. The soup was my favorite potato with coconut milk and corriander. We ate by the candle light inside the hut.

Jasmine a Swiss girl we trekked with was showing some of the Lahu village children their pictures on her camera. These kids LOVED to have tourists in their town. They were a little shy at first but after awhile they were grabbing onto our legs as we walked and kept wanting to get twirled around. The sad thing was, they were absolutely caked in mud and cow dung. Oh well they were having to much fun running around and playing.

I think Nic was their favorite, he gave out so many twirl rides his arms were soar. He made sure to wash his hands before dinner though!! We had fun playing with them they were so happy and full of life.

This was where we stayed the night. We slept on a bamboo floor with a few blankets they gave us. The Lahu tribe was not very big, maybe a handful of families. They could not communicate with us at all, but we learned how to say thank you and hello, which they seemed to appreciate. The nights get cold in the mountains and we could have used a proper sleeping bag! The bathroom was exactly what you would expect in a remote tribe, a basic hole in the ground and no TP (don't worry we came prepared).

This is a shot of us before venturing into the village. We were tired from hiking all day. They were making popcorn over a fire for us when we arrived...it tasted SO good. I never expected to get popcorn on this trip so it was nice. We lounged around when we got there and talked with our group. The other American couple with us was beginning their year of travel. They are in their late 40's and are going to be traveling to more than 20 countries!!

Here is our guide Noom making fire out of a stick of bamboo and a machette....nothing else. He was so knowlegeable...could tell you anything you wanted to know about the jungle, what plants you could eat or how to make a rat trap.