Completely in the Dark

June 17

Yesterday was a great day. Really awesome. I am glad I did the hiking trip.

We started off the morning being picked up at our hotel. We met our guide, Meng. We rode about 17km away through other villages. When we stopped, there was a river and no bridge. Then, a small motor long boats pulled up and we made our way across the river in that. The boat was so slippery that my shoe kept slipping out from under me when I tried to stand up. We then saw our first cave, the elephant cave. It's called this because the way the stone formed makes it look like an elephant. There was also a brightly colored reclining Buddha statue there as well. The locals come here to pray.

We walked to a small village and made our way through it. We then proceeded to climb over a bamboo fence and make our way through a field. It was kind of similar to how the corn field in Chiang Mai was with the moats on both sides. There was sticky rice and corn growing. Rice throws me off still. It looks like chives growing in the ground in a bunch of water. You leave it in the found for 2 or 3 months and then you pick it and the rice is the part in the ground. Rice needs a lot of water to grow and right now, the farmers are having a tough time because there isn't enough rain to grow the rice.

We had to walk through a lot of plants and shrubs and leaves. I wasn't sure where the path was and where the drop offs were. Bart and Meng had already gone ahead far enough that Melissa and I couldn't place our feet directly where they had. Melissa fell at one point and grabbed me for balance.

Then we began our first mountain climb. 250 meters up. The office had said it was an easy climb and Matt said he had made the climb in his sandals so I didn't wear my hiking shoes. Bad idea! The first climb was ridiculous. It was really difficult. Some of the rocks were larger than me, so that was fun to try to climb. Half way through I started feeling really nauseated and dizzy. There wasn't really anything anyone could do though so I kept going. Later I started to feel like I was going to hurl. Luckily I never did but I did end up telling the group I felt sick and we went a little slower. Stopping to rest made me feel worse when we started again. I don't know why I felt sick. It could have been because it was too strenuous for me, Bart thought maybe altitude sickness (although I didn't ask the elevation but I don't think we were high enough for that), dehydration, breakfast could have not settled well, there could be a million reasons. It was also really difficult because there was a lot of mud and my shoes just slid on every surface. The traction is really bad. We were of course, all sweating mass amounts. My body was like oh hey you're overheating so lets dump out every drop of liquid in your body. Cool. Thanks for that. It was a really hot day as well. It's supposed to be rainy season but it is late and hasn't come yet. While climbing we also had to duck under trees and such. I sincerely hoped that it wouldn't be like this all day, even though the terrain was really cool.

When we got to the top, I honestly wouldn't have known it was the top without Meng telling me. I guess it was kind of obvious because we started going down, but it just looked like everything else. And there wasn't a clearing or any area to walk around. Just lots of rocks and trees.

The way down was a little easier. I think they should put a warning on the tour for vertically challenged people. There were many times when Meng would be telling me where to step and even if I say down on the rock to get closer my foot was still dangling. My butt was also getting so dirty because we had to sit down on the rocks and slide fairly often. I was constantly using my shirt as a rag for my face so my clothes were pretty much drenched. (Everyone else's too so at least I want alone). There were areas where we had to climb up or down bamboo ladders and walk along planks to get across large gaps. I fell on my back 2 times. It didn't hurt too much. My bag was a good padding haha. Slipped a million times on the mud.

When we climbed down the mountain, we ended up in a clearing. It was beautiful with mountains all around us and fields as far as the eye could see. We walked through the corn and I got lost for a minute. I kept getting left behind because I would stop to take a photo. Sounds like me. So at one point I was just wandering through a ton of corn stalks and had no idea where I was going or which way to head. Obviously the corn stalks are way taller than I am as well so I couldn't try to see their heads. Then I heard them calling my name. All good! No getting lost in corn fields for me! These corn fields didn't have the most business either. Meng said people actually climb here to plant and hardest things. There is a small bamboo hut in the middle and he said sometimes people will sleep in it. I can't imagine climbing a mountain to get some corn.

We also went through a bunch of weeds and shrubs. Like it was almost hard to see the path because there was so much of it. The area is called Secret Eden. It was really pretty. I made a mental note to check for ticks and other creatures later. Luckily none were found.

This led into a clearing surrounded by many trees with a little house on stilts with open sides. It was time for a swim and lunch. We went down to the water. It looked really nice but I didn't want to swim because I didn't want to hike the rest of the day being wet. I dipped my foot in. Bart had swim trunks to change into so he went in. He said all the little fish were biting him. The middle was pretty deep. Oh, by the way, Bart is like 6'4" at least. There were so many butterflies here too. Really pretty ones. My camera is great. I got some really nice photos of them. The colors are so bright on some of them. I honestly couldn't believe how many of them there were. 2 landed on me at one point. One on my back and one crawled on to me and was checking out my toe.

Meng made us lunch. It was amazing. He barbecued zucchini, tomato, onion, and pork on a stick for us. I think it was in a ginger sauce but I'm not sure. Then we had a baguette and fried rice. This was served to each of us on a banana leaf. We had 20 minutes to rest and then we were off again. I still felt a little nauseous but it wasn't too bad.

We walked through the secret garden area again and headed for the next mountain. This one was the easy one but I wasn't too sure what that was going to actually mean. At lunch he had told us the first one was the difficult one and the easy one was next. Matt had only one the easy one on a half day trip so that made me feel better about the fact that he did it in sandals.

The second mountain was 150m up. This one had steep inclines but it wasn't too bad. The rocks were smaller and there wasn't any mud because all the rocks were pretty much shoved together. There were still some bamboo ladders and rocks climbing down that were difficult for me to descend because of my height, but it was a ton easier than the first.

Before we climbed down we went into another cave. This cave was a lot bigger and darker. There were no lights except for our flash lights. We actually climbed through the cave as well. This was really difficult actually. The stones were very slippery and there were areas where there were large rocks again to have to climb up or down. I needed a lot of help haha. There were times when we had to go across areas of water and I could barely get from one wooden thing to another. They were really small as well. Maybe the size of the ball of my foot. I dragged my foot in the water at one point on accident. The flashlight he had given me also fell of its string. I was pretty much just a mess in there haha. At one point we turned our lights off and stood in the total darkness. It was a really strange feeling. There was absolutely no light but I kept expecting y eyes to adjust to the darkness and see things. When that didn't happen, my brain started making it seem like I was seeing things since I had already seen it and known what it looks like. The cave was really cool. Most people don't get to go through something like that. He said its a local cave too and not many tourists get to see it. They eat bats from in here. :o

We continued down. I started laughing at myself because I was going down most of it on my ass at this point because the rocks were so large. It was a good time. When I got back and took my clothes off I was so filthy. It was funny. There are huge mud stains on the butt of my pants and my shirt had been dyed pink in some areas from my sports bra because I was sweating so much. My shirt is also covered in dirt on the shoulders, probably from wiping the sweat off my face, and on the front, probably from wiping my hands. I sliced my hand on a rock at one point a well. They were really sharp!

When we got off the mountain we went through corn fields again, and a village. We saw children playing in the water, villagers working in the rice fields (they take rice from one field and plant it in another to harvest it a few months later. I don't totally understand why.

We then crossed a bridge (took a photo of the 3 of us... Me in the middle so I look even shorter than I am) and headed back to the hotel. We gave Meng about $2.50 each for a tip because at lunch he was talking about how happy he was that there was left over food so he could feed his chickens and he is pretty poor.

He actually fell a few times on the mountain as well so I didn't feel too clumsy about my falls haha.

When we got back, I was so dirty I just wanted to shower and lay around and do nothing. I let Melissa shower first and tried to upload my photos to Dropbox but the Internet was too slow. If I can manage to work it, I should be able to post photos for you to see! Fingers crossed!

I will need to do laundry at the next place solely to wash these clothes haha. It's terrible. I did laundry here for 15,000 kip and washed 3 underwear, 1 pair of socks, 4 shirts and 2 pairs of pants.

The rest of the evening I just chilled out. Went to dinner with. Melissa at one point too. That was pretty much the day! I did fall asleep without brushing my teeth or taking my contacts out at like 9pm. I realized this at 10:30pm when I got up to do this. So sleepy all the time. It's good for night time.