Day 23: Hill Tribes -> Chiang Mai

-Woke up after the worst night sleep ever. I think I may have slept for 1 hour, and that was after the sun had come up around 5am. Animals were trying to get into the room all night and then they were growling and cuckooing. Anyway, I didn't think I could put up with another sleepless night, so we changed from a 2 night trip to a 1 night trip like everyone else (we lost $3 each).

View in the morning:

 -Once we had some breakfast we set off again, this time down the mountain. This was almost harder than climbing up since everything was slippery from the day before. Our guide- Moonshine- cut us some bamboo walking sticks. A little bit about our guide- he was from a village across the mountain from us and received his nickname due to all the liquor he used to drink. He had approximately two teeth and walked barefoot the whole time. He does the hike everyday and is 51-years-old. He gets 3 days off a month.

Moonshine cutting some sticks:

-Back to walking... Moonshine told us about the burial rituals of the Lahu tribe. Something about throwing an egg in the air and seeing if it cracked when it lands. I couldn't really understand him. We kept walking until we got to a waterfall. Once there we stopped and swam for a little before continuing on our way. Moonshine kept telling the people passing us that they were an hour away from the waterfall, when they were actually 10 minutes away.

The waterfall:

-Next up was whitewater rafting. It was a lot of fun, despite the rain. I was just sad there weren't more rapids. The people in the front (Marco) definitely got the worst of the water. We passed some elephants bathing. Working at elephant rehabilitation centers is a popular thing for tourists to do for a week or a few days.

-We stopped mid river to climb over to a bamboo raft for some traditional rafting experiences. Our raft started sinking a little so our butts were all wet. Plus there was this massive bug by me. Otherwise, it was quite the experience boating down a river on a bamboo raft.

-That was the end of the adventure. We had one last lunch with the gang then all squished in to the tuk tuk for a ride back to our hostels. Once back we figured out our room (the hostess was surprised to see us back a day early) and took a nice warm shower. We were disgusting mix of dirt, rain, mud, and sweat from trekking. For dinner we went to a place by the river and had some nice western food.

-After dinner Marco and I met up with Daniel and Sean, friends we made on our trekking trip, to go to a Thai boxing match. Thai boxing, or Muay Thai, is a very popular tourist attraction throughout Thailand. I had no idea what to expect at I had never been to a boxing match before, nevertheless one in Thailand. I was shocked when the first round was between two skinny little 10-year-old boys! Luckily the fighting wasn’t vicious at all, but still! There were 5 different rounds, each getting more intense. The guys were interested in betting but we soon guessed that the matches were rigged. The matches were pretty even and the guys judging the fights weren’t even looking half the time. We had a suspicion that the matches were judged according to the bets on each person. The last match was quite hilarious as it ended with a completely fake knock out. Needless to say, it was quite the experience, although I think we could have done without the ring-side seats.


10-year-old boxer: