The Trek Part 9

The Lahu village was right on the river bank and was much smaller than the Karen village we had stayed the night before. There were maybe ten buildings in total. Almost all of the buildings were raised on bamboo stilts. We had a table on the porch this time, and also a firepit. The room we were staying in was much bigger than last nights, but had a similar set up with hard mattresses and mosquito nets. Predictably the village women descended upon us with their baskets of trinkets. However, they offered something that none of the others didn’t: Massage. After the hike I thought I deserved it and purchased one. They were quick to point out that it was a Lahu massage, not a Thai massage. Either way it felt awesome. It was an hour long massage, and there were two masseuses working on me. The only difference that I could notice between a Lahu and a Thai massage was that the Lahu massage doesn’t use elbows, and uses thumbs more.



While we waited for dinner to be ready two children from the village came to play on our porch area. They showed off their muy thai skills to us and we tried to talk to them in broken Thai. Unfortunately they didn’t speak Thai, they spoke Lahu. The dinner that night was not the most delicious that we had had, but it was still good. After dinner some people were tired and went to take naps before the festivities of the night, I went to take a shower before it got too dark out to see. The water was unsurprisingly frigid as I sluiced it over me.

Soon after, it was time to light the fire. In the black distance we heard the trumpeting of an elephant. It was very exciting. The trumpeting grew closer and we became more excited. An older man came over to Ar and squatted down and talked to him hurriedly. Ar informed us that he said he was afraid that the elephant would come and try to eat the bamboo buildings. He said that if the elephant does come we should not point any flashlights at the creature for it will likely feel threatened and charge. If it came to that we were supposed to run in a zigzag pattern. It turns out that at night elephants are rather unruly creatures at night and even their owners are unable to approach them. I followed one of the village men down to the riverside, where I could hear the elephant and see flashlights cutting through the darkness. One of the men shoot of a gun and the elephant retreated away from the village.

Back in the village, when we had a good blaze going a dog came and climbed into the firepit, a bit outside of the flames. We sat around, and although Ar didn’t have a guitar Ashton brought out his iPod and we sang along to that. Eventually Song brought out the Jungle Juice. The Lahu moonshine was very potent, theres no saying what proof it was, but I would wager far over 100. It had a rather sweet flavor, and mixed well with the cola that they also had for sale.

Ar wanted to show us how great the whisky was, so he poured a small glass, and splashed it into the fire. The fire ball that it created was quite impressive, and sent the dog scampering away.

We partied till what felt like late in the evening, although i have no clue what time it actually was, before heading to bed and praying that the roosters would not be too bad tomorrow morning.