Chiang Rai Hill Trek Day 2: Bamboo cups and Crazy Aunty Anne 21st Jan

The following day we were again rather rudely awaken by the pigs and roosters, who seemed to be having some sort of barn party around 5 am. Although we were used to this from our stay at Naga Hill, it still baffles me that the village tribe don't get sick of the din which they have to put up with every day. The family woke up around 6 am and thankfully Jahe didn't need us to get up until 8. Sleepily we headed down for our cold showers and wandered into the kitchen, where breakfast (rice,vegetables and fried fish) was already waiting for us on the table. Now I am rather used to having nasi lemak in Malaysia for breakfast every now and then, but these guys have the same thing every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It makes you really think about how lucky we are to have the choice of steak on one day and pasta the next!

We packed up our things and said our goodbyes before heading up to 'The viewpoint', which is a little hut up in the hills about a half hour walk from the village and the view from up there is spectacular. What you get is a panoramic view of never ending forest and blue sky, and the only sound you can hear is the running fresh water that they directed down from a source in the hills, so that they can go up there and cook a meal and chill out. We sat there and took in the view, had a snooze and then got to work.

Jahe and his friend started chopping up bamboo and in about 5 minutes they made some bamboo cups to drink our water and tea from. They then chopped up longer pieces of bamboo and lined them with banana leaves, then instructed Leon and I to fill these with rice and some water. This was to make sticky rice, and Jahe used another bit of bamboo to make an egg dish (basically an omelet but steamed inside a bit of bamboo). Leon then attempted to make a couple more cups- the first one was a little small but he soon got the hang of it and made a perfect one the second time. We then made some chop sticks out of bamboo, whilst Jahe got to work on making the soup. By the time lunch was ready we were all starving and the food was amazing! The thais love to eat a chilli paste/salsa with every meal, and they brought some along to add some more flavour to the meal. After lunch and some washing up, we sat outside the hut and had a mid afternoon nap. Definitely an afternoon that we will never forget.

Having awoken from our post lunch nap, it was time to leave our scenic hill top view point and begin our trek to the next village. The walk through the hill side wasn't too tough and as the main heat of the day had subsided it was much more pleasant than the ascent to the viewpoint. Having slowly climbed the hills for the duration of our walk , we had a perfect panoramic view of the Akha tribe as we descended to the village. We had been given an overview of what to expect in terms of village differences by the Mirror Art Group the previous day, and even before we entered the village you could see quite a marked difference. The Lafu are pretty much fully self sustained whereas the Akha are farmers second and trading entrepreneurs first. This in turn means the Akha are more affluent. The majority of the buildings in in the Akha village were made of timber ( apart from one bamboo hut near the entrance) with corrugated iron roofs whereas in the Lahu, they were all made from bamboo.

As we entered the village , you could immediately feel that the inhabitants were very used to tourists and Alicia and didn't get a very "authentic" feeling compared with our previous days experience. That being said, we remained open minded as we made our way to the center of the Village. Having left us on our own for a few minutes, Jahe returned and lead us off to our evenings dwelling. It did take me somewhat by surprise when we started making our way back to the village entrance and noticing that there were many many tourists staying I half expected they might be full and that we would be spending the night in the forest....Thankfully this was not the case and Jahe introduced us to our hostess for the evening who Alicia and I slightly unfairly named "Crazy Auntie Anne". Anne lived in the one bamboo building in the village near the entrance to the village I referred to earlier. Tonight Alicia and wouldn't be spending our evening in Anne's house, but in the quarters that had been assigned for visitors next to the house. The sleeping shack can only be compared to a garden shed and had a feel to it a similar to what I imagine a solitary confinement cell in a Japanese prisoner of war camp might be like....Again here I am being a bit mean, but the we had become used to the relatively luxurious accommodation of the night before. We then had a meal of fish, vegetables, chili salsa rice and tea followed by a display of traditional Akha dancing by the women of the tribe. Anne insisted Alicia and I dress up as one of the locals for the evening which was also fun...We then retired for an evening of restless none sleeping.