Thailand- day 28

Day 28 Sun 9/23
As we watched Bente pack her bag, Maggie and I realized how ill prepared we were for our three day trek. She packed band aids, flashlights, a multi purpose scarf, medicine, hiking shoes, a head lamp, and a whole travel bag. I didn't even have a pair of long sleeves or pants for the jungle. The truck picked us up at 9 am and we drove around picking up the rest of our group. Our group was made up of a good variety of people: 2 couples from Israel (Ido, Chir, Ronen, and Shahar), William from Scotland, Eugenia from Chicago, Russ and Hannah from England, Takka from Japan, Elmar from Italy, Bente, Maggie, and me. We started the day with the orchids and snake farm, which were just alright. Then we went to Karen Long Neck camp, which was something I thought was really only seen on TV. You walk in to a street lined with shops, like a normal tourist area, and then the booths are run by the "long neck" women, who have gold chains around there necks. It used to be said that the longer the neck, the more beautiful the woman, but now it is based on tourism. The older women usually have more gold rings, but even the little children had rings around them. Our guide, Good, said that the chains were religious because there was a belief that a tiger bit the women's necks, so they wore it for protection. The bangle wraps around and is burned together at the end. The girls necks never actually get longer, but the heavy gold bangle pushes down their rib cages and allows for more room for another loop of the bangle. We hiked straight up, two and a half hours, to the little village in the mountains where we were sleeping, Lahu village. The mountain view was gorgeous, and it was really cool to experience the life of the people in the village, especially the children. I got a Lahu massage and had two people working on me, one of the girls was ten, named Da. The guys in our group played soccer with the local boys and Maggie and I even joined in for a point, and then got our hair braided by two of the village girls, who must've been about four. We gave them the bracelets we were wearing and they loved them. I went to bed kind of early that night because I felt light headed, while Maggie stayed up and got good use out of the cards she brought. The toilet at the village was a squat toilet and I feel like I've been getting a lot of practice with them.