Back to the HIll Tribe

So we said goodbye to Phuket. No more smoky haze, lines and lines of rubber trees, and beautiful white sand beaches covered with tourists. No more gibbons. No more screaming high school students at 8am. No more motor bikes. :) We were there for a month and it felt like we were there for a day.
On our way back up to chaing mai we had the bus drop us off near a national park called Khao Sok. We hitch hiked the rest of the 40kms to the park. It was still a tourist area but was very quiet and peaceful. Ahhhhhhh. We paid to get into the park but we camped for free for two nights. This park is part of the biggest nature reserve in Thailand and is 160 million years old. It was said by some scientist to be older and more diverse than the amazon. It looked old with big trees, birds everywhere and vines covering everything. It had wild elephants, tigers, bears, deer, gibbons, monkeys, all kinds of snakes and over 150 different species of birds. Skyler and I took a hike the day that we spent there. We hiked up the side of the main mountain and found a good place to swim in a river all by ourselves. We tried to go off the beaten trail a few times but could never get very far. It was thick and well, you know, there were tigers around. Out of all the amazing wildlife that was there we got to see some lizards, spiders, mosquitoes, birds and some beautiful butterflies. No tigers or elephants but I'm sure that only few are so lucky. The forest was so wonderful just to walk around in. It was very refreshing to get away from the crowded tourist spots and big cities. There was a little town right outside the park for food and drinks. The first night Sky and I hung out at the Spirit Bar which was just a camp fire and a tiny stand selling drinks. The guy who owned it also made money giving tourists dread locks. It was fun and very interesting to hang out with a thai hippy crowd. There were also many Germans around. It seemed like anyone else that was white was German.
The day that we left we needed some money and the ATM was out of cash. We needed money for the bus to get to Sarat Thani because we had already bought train tickets all the way to Chaing Mai. We had a mini panic moment and we were asking around at what our options were and some nice thai lady at a mini mart just gave us the money that we needed to get to Sarat Thani. We had no way to repay her but she just gave us her card to say, send me business. It was so nice of her. So we got to Sarat thani and got on our train okay which was a sleeper. Very nice way to travel. Then at 3am the train stopped and everyone started getting off. We were confused until an english speaking thai man told us that a train in front of us had gone off the tracks and we had to get off and catch a bus the rest of the way to Bangkok. So we got off and waited, and waited. Another train pulled up with another load of people needing to be bussed to Bangkok. We had a train to catch to Chaing Mai at 8:30 so we started to get a little worried that we wouldn't make it. Then finally one bus showed up. Suddenly there was a mob of people all running towards the bus. So Sky and I started laughing and ran as well because we knew that we needed to be on that bus to catch our next train. There was young men pushing old ladies out of the way and I caught and old thai lady by the backpack who almost fell backwards out of the door. It was so hilarious, but we pushed out way through and got on. The way sky explained it was, " It was like we were all starving dogs and a bus full of bacon drove up." We got to our train with 15 minutes to spare. It was a long two days of travel.
So now we are in Chaing Mai again. Ahhhhhh, the first hot shower in over a month was the best thing ever. This evening we are getting picked up by a man who lives in the Karen Village that we went to over a month ago. We are going to stay with them for 2 weeks. They said they have a house for us to stay in and that they will feed us while we are there. Skyler is going to teach english and I'm, ah, going to help him i guess and just help out with daily chores that they do around the village. I don't really know what to expect but I'm excited to learn from them. I won't really be able to talk to anyone but I hope that they will show me how they farm and how they make their clothes and how they cook. There will be no Internet or cell phone service so I will be unreachable for two weeks. Don't worry to those of you that might, mother, we are going to be with good people and they have transportation into town if anything happens. So, I will tell you all about it when I get back. Sawatdee Ka!