Mountain adventure

So I went looking for a clearing up a little mountain that would give me a view of teh town. After climbing for a long time Giuliana gave up and went back down. I pushed on and stumbled upon some people coming up the mountain's side. I was a bit worried, this being the golden triangle and all, but I figured I was up a mountain now and if I didn't go right to the top I never would.

It turned out it was just a family picking rice from the SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN!!!! I guess they didnt get enough from teh flat bits, or maybe their village was lakcing land or something (some women had traditional dress). But the people weer all over th eplace carrying huge sacks of rice around their heads. Some people were carrying abamboo logs on their head...it ws crazy.

There was a whole network of paths along the edges of teh mountains and the people were moving along them with their loads. It was nearer the end of the day so I guess tey weer beginning to make their way home. I just wanted to get to the top and kept trying to ask people, they all said yes teh path led to the top so I kept going. Eventually I realized they all must have thought I wanted to go to the other side because thats where the path was going. Or maybe they didn't understand me at all.

Whatever the case I scrambled up the side of the mountain myslef and POW. WHat a scene. It was great. Whole mountains have had a lot of their tree cover removed so their are stumps and logs everywhere, but the grasses adn rice that has grown up hides these from a distance. There also seems to have been a lot of fires at the tops. Set by lightning or people I don't know. But the coolest thing for me at least was all the shelters. There are all these elevated huts built onto the sides of the mountains. You see them in rice paddies and fields in teh valleys too and they are just sun shelters for when people need to stop their labouring. Seeing them all over the mountain side was way cooler. It wasn't like there was one every 20 feet but here and there they were spread. There seemed to be a lot to me at least, but I guess it makes sense. If you just walked up a mountain carrying a 60lbs bag of rice on your head, do you really want to have to go looking for a shelter for your lunch or whatever. Some of them looked older and less used than others. I hope my pictures from up there turn out. The whole day was hazy because there were so many people in teh flat lands burning studd in their fields. COOL!

There were times walking past some people I was a little nervous though. They were looking at me funny, adn although it was probably "what's this idiot doing up here" I wondered if it might be "He'd better not find our huge amounts of weed" . Also across the valley on mountains where I was not walking there were some odd agricultural plots. Like lines of crops on teh sides of mountains, near the tops. Not tiered or anything like rice paddies just a few short rows running down teh hill. Who knows? But you have to wonder.

It was also fun today at breakfast when the village ladies tried to sell us their handmade whatevers adn when that failed, their voices would drop and they'd pop out a little bag of opium. Good times. If I was going to smoke opium this would be the place!!!!

Oh and one last thing. Kids in teh villages LOVE saying sabadee. It means hello and when tehy see you coming they start jumping up and down, waving and yelling it, always pleased to get that word back. Even teh quiet ones will smile if you say it to them. Sometimes you get "SAbadee, hello." then a goodbye when you're leaving. My favourite though was one girl who said "Hello how are you today" in very well enunciated english. Of course when I said fine thank you and you, she had no clue what I was saying.

Sometimes I think some of the kids think of us as "The Hello People". I'm sure they understadnt their own language's word, but the way they will whisper sabadee to one another and poiunt when they see us coming and then say it to us and wave when we arrive makes me wonder. White, black, Laos, Thai and Sabadee. All races of the world unite!

Tht's enough of that. Hope all is well with all. I have a trek tomorrowm so I must pack and sleep.