Trek out of Pai

January 26th we did a 3 day 2 night trek out of Pai to see some caves, waterfalls and hilltribes. it was so super cool! It was us 4, plus Dave a 51 year old American who's been travelling the past 7 years, and then our 36 year old Thai Guide Gon who spoke very good english, and Too, a 40 year old Karen Hilltribe guy who was like Gon's helper. his english was kinda rough but he was hilarious! such a little kid stuck in a 40 year old's body, except that he actually was super tiny.

The first night we camped in the forest after picking up 3 more Hilltribe guys to help set up camp at the village we stopped at for lunch. The villages were pretty touristy however still authentic so it was still really interesting seeing them. Kinda funny too how they had solar panelling for lights, cell phones, rudimentary running water, but then used an inside fire to cook, and lived in bamboo houses with dogs, cows, cats, chickens and pigs all living together all over the village. we came across some Chan people on the first day along a forest path that were illegally coming into Thailand from Burma, that was pretty crazy once Gon explained what was happening. anyway the first night was amazing how they made so much out of bamboo! they made us a tent, bowls, pots, spoons, cups, even shot glasses using only a machete and the bamboo trees around. they used banana leaves too for the roof and floor of the tent. then all the guides got wasted off of homebrew whiskey and we had a merry old time teaching them english and learning various hilltribe languages. Too caught some frogs in the stream and we barbequed them on the fire. hehe they were good. The rest of the trek was really interesting as well, and Gon was a super cool guy, young and easy to relate to. a bit sketchy though. he told us how he and his friends cheat people at gambling to make some extra cash! hahaa pictures soon. Chris took some amazing pics with his fully manual super flashy digicam. Pictures