Hold On, I Have a Rock in My Shoe…

After I arrived in Mae Hong Son, I booked a trek through Friend Tour to run around in the Thai jungle for 4-6 hours. Crazy, right? Well, I just finished reading Survivorman Les Stroud’s book Survive!: Essential Skills and Tactics to Get You Out of Anywhere – Alive last week, so I was excited to test out some of the skills he covers. Unfortunately, Mr. Stroud would have been very disappointed in my lack of preparation. Fortunately, my trek didn’t have any accidents or emergencies, but it did have a little hiccup:

When I booked the tour, they said there would be a local guide and an English-speaking translator. Oops, when I got to the tour agency, they told me the translator had an emergency and wouldn’t be able to make it. They handed me 200 baht and said “Ok?” Sure, I guess that’s better than missing the local guide. (Honestly, it turned out not to really be an issue because the guide spoke pretty good English and I speak survival Thai.)

Soon came the only other brave soul who would accompany me, a gangly Frenchman from Ethiopia. We met our guide Patii (emphasis on TII), a member of a local Karen hilltribe. We all hopped in a van and 10 minutes later were dropped off on the side of the road. I sure hope Patii has done this before.

We walked into the woods only about 20 meters before Patii stopped to show us something. Oh joy, it’s a giant wood spider about the size of my hand. (I quickly turned back to the truck, ready to make a break for it, but it was already gone.) Turns out the jungle is literally crawling with these gigantic spiders and Patii stopped me from walking into their webs several times. Every time I thought, gee it’s been awhile since we’ve seen a giant wood spider, he would stop us and point one out. He even showed us this wonderful nest with hundreds of their babies. Fantastic, Patii! (

The Final-ish Goodbye

Yesterday was my last day of school. I’d finished classes the week before, making over 400 Thai-English Apples to Apples cards so the students could play this super fun game while I snapped photos of them.

Apples to Apples (Thai Style) VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Hang Chat Spotlight: Lung Ween and Lung Geet

With just a few weeks left in Hang Chat, we're happy to present another Spotlight feature on our favorite people and places in our little town. 
 
In this post, I'll introduce you to three of our favorite adoptive family members: Lung (Uncle) Ween and his wife (Mrs. Lung Ween, of course) and Lung Geet (we think that’s what he said).  

Lung Ween and his wife run a typical Thai restaurant in the giant front room of their home. Sara and I love their fried rice; it is the most flavorful in town by a mile. They are always happy to see us, and we go see them once a week for lunch like clockwork.

How ‘bout those Hill Tribes?

Jack had to go to Chiang Mai this week to extend his student visa so I hopped a bus on Friday to meet him and spend the weekend on a little getaway. Every time I visit Chiang Mai I like it a little bit more, probably because we avoid the other farang (Westerners) and get into the rural surrounding areas. This time, I wanted to visit some hill tribes so we wandered a bit to find the best price on a tour. Pro tip: The way most of the tour companies work here is that they all book on the same tour: usually no matter who you book through, you will be on the same minibus with the same people. Knowing this, we can shop around town for the best price (which can be as much as $10 difference) on whichever tour we want, as long as we pay attention to the descriptions. I had already found a place I wanted to book with online, but on the way we spotted these guys outside a tour company and I started snapping photos.

Hang Chat Spotlight: PaPan

May I present a new section of our blog, Hang Chat Spotlight, where we’ll give you a peek into our daily lives by introducing someone very special to us. Today I’d like you to meet PaPan (Aunt Pahn).