Journal 3/08/09 Khun Yuam
On Friday night, after Ploy came back home where I was waiting for her, I went with her and another teacher friend of hers who I had met a few weeks back to a goodbye/thank you party for some volunteers. There was a goodsized group of them, all workign through a charity called the Karin Hill Tribes Trust, based in York, ENG. Nearly all of the volunteers are English, although 2 are from Scotland, one from canada, and one from Maryland, Lindsey, who I had met before. seeign them all together talking about their experiences over the past monthes (most have been here since October) made me a bit jealous- while their teaching situation was a lot like mine, they managed to get enough lessons after a while, as well as live in the village in pairs, and often get together on the weekends for adventures. I could see how having that support would be nice. Most of them, for the second part of their work, go to build water systems, then will spend varying times travelling. Many are on their 'gap year', while a few have graduated from 'uni', Claire with her teacher certificate, and one man is here with his son- I heard that he sold his business and home in England, and came out here and starting building dormitories with his own money, where he met up with these guys at some point. I left later on with Ploy, glad to ahve gotten some advice and to have had some company, but still pleased that I'm doing this my own, seat of the pants and unorganized way, just because it suits me.
The next morning, sitting outside after talking to Ploy and some police officers for a while about English here, four of them (Sophie, Claire, Johnny and David) stopped by on their way to the waterfall, and invited me to go along. We walked a bite further, then hitched a ride in a truck bed the rest of the way to what is pretty much the bottom of the Mae Surin Waterfall I had seen from the top, and quite far off. Talking to them, I realized they mostly get around, from their villages to towns by hitching rides, and that most Thai's are really happy and fine with giving you ride when they have the space.
The waterfall is quite beautiful up close here at the bottom, where it is less dramatic but surrounding by huge rocks, trees, and vines, looking straight out of the jungle book, with thai kids scrabbling around, staying dry and taking pictures. we left out things at the bottom proper, wade in, and start climbing up. Since this part of the falls resemblers more stairs than any huge drop, you can climp up the different levels, either straight up the rock that most of the water is coming down, which we did a few times and is exhilerating, as well as great fun, or go around more of the edge, where some of the thai kids manage to find paths where you barely get wet- we did not. It was a lovely afternoon of frolicking, climbing and wading, getting our pictures taking by some of Johnny's students who were there, and snack and a nap while we dried out, after we made it back down (which seemed considerable more perilous to me than going up.)
We decide to walk to 1 km to the police checkpoint, where we're more likely to get a ride back to town. A truck stops for us, but its bed which has bars around the sides to make it hold more stuff, is full of stacks of blue crates, so all five of us end up standing on the two bars that stick out past the tailgate, holding on dearly. We stop 7km from Khun Yuam, at one of the mens homes, for "just a moment.' we get off, and a minute later the truck takes off. We stand there with two thai guys, fairly excited to talk to us at first, and one of them 'off his tits" as claire said. The other asked us where we were from, probably about ten times each, talked to Johnny about football a bit, the majority of his English knowledge, and spent quite a bit of time naming American movie stars, and famous people, Brittney Spears (sexy lady), Jackie Chan, accompanied by karate moves and noises, and Obama, who seems to be a pretty big hit over here. I think I was teh cool kid, being American, and the rest had to keep reminding him that they weren't. The other volunteers have a range of a lot to quite a bit better Thai than me, but the language barrier was still pretty amusing. David got cornered by the inebraited one with the box of plants, who continually asked him if he knew what they were, or if they were in America, (no, no) and would wave his favorite vigorously at all of us, and made a very funny joke about the little one being a 'baby', and then big one being the 'father' and the middle one a 'mother' plant. The truck finally gets back, but they start shuffling crates around so that the basket of plants can go in the middle of a stack which is horizontile under two other stacks. We're all quite ready to go, thinking about walking and finding a new ride, but keep getting reassured we're almost reading to leave. Then, two more plants come out of the house, whose porch has slowly filled up with girls watching our charade. Eventually, we go, after another man has a little bamboo up of whiskey from a bag, which we all decline. The driver, thankfully, seems sweaty, but sober, and some of us climb in with the crates to sit.
When it stops again, this time about 4 km from Khun Yuam, Sophie is too fed up, and gets off, so we all unload, thank them, and start to walk. This time, they really do pass us in a few minutes, waving and hollaring a bit. A teacher they know picks us up after a bit, taking us to where they're staying, and I go with them to dinner at the 'hot pot' place. It's pretty neat, with a little clay pot that sits inside of what looks like a flower pot with a few holes, filled with coals, that you stick in chicken, egg, and some differed veggies, and glass noodles to cook your own little soup. We also got a platter of fried fish, herbs, and what one girl said were locusts, amazing dipped in the sweet chili sauce. (For breakfast I had also eaten a soup with little tiny squid in in, so my strange food was doing well.) I walked with some girls to the 7/11 after, to get chocolate, near the outskirts of town opposite for the outskirt Ploy lives on. We walked back, and I left Sophie at the hotel with a hug and a promise to find me on facebook.
I walked to Ploys, on my own, in the dark, for 45 minutes, with out getting lost and mostly feeling perfectly safe. People here are too nice, and respectful, and there is no probablem with a young foreigner trekking through the dark home, because it's small enough that most people know that there are volunteers, and in general, it's just safe. I got back to Ploys, and it was all shut up, but I went around back and in the room I was staying are Ploy, her mother, and another girl. We were just wondering about you, Ploy said, smiling. How was it? So I told them my day, and went to sleep quite content.
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