from elephants to bicycles, oh the transportation methods in Thailand!

Elephant trekking

On Thursday morning we left for our two-night home-stay in the hill tribes, a weekend trip that all volunteers get to do at some point during their stay at Mirror. The 20 of us all piled into a couple of sawngtheaws and headed off. On our way up, we stopped in a town presumably for a snack, but soon found out that we were there for an elephant ride. It was an unbelievable experience to be on top of an elephant, but it was also quite scary. The seat on the elephant was very unstrudy and we couldn’t help thinking what would happen if we fell off! The movement from land to water was probably the worst part. Our elephant was very short and I feared we would fall in the water with all of the elephant poop floating by. FYI, elephant dung is enormous. When it hits the ground it sounds like a brick falling. After the trek we had the opportunity to feed the elephants; I preferred this to the riding.

Banana leaf lunches and waterfalls

After the elephant ride we were dropped off at a nearby waterfall and enjoyed our Thai version of bag lunches; instead of peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches there was sticky rice and fried chicken, instead of yogurt there was chili sauce, and instead of a brown paper bag it was all wrapped in banana leaves. From there we began our 3 km hike up the only road to the first village where we were to stay, which doesn't sound long but, because of the heat and the incredible incline, felt like a serious trek that was never-ending. James has never seen a road this steep anywhere, even in the mountains near Yellowstone. Without exaggerating, the hill probably had a 30-degree incline.

Lahu and Akha Homestays

There are about 7 major hill tribes in Northern Thailand and surrounding countries (as they tend to have more of a sense of tribal allegiance than nationalism). Each tribe has its own language, completely different from Thai, and unique dress and culture. Any Thai that we have learned while at Mirror was completely thrownA major goal of Mirror is to preserve these self-sustaining cultures while helping them to survive globalization. One of the ways they do this is with hill tribe home-stays, which gives more income to the hill tribe families (who sell their hand-made goods to their guests) and gives them an incentive to preserve their way of life.

Lahu New Year

Our first night of home-stay was in a Lahu village and happened to coincide with Lahu New Year, a 10 day festival of dancing and sacrifices. The Lahu believe that every new year they must make sure to give the gods many good things in order to secure a good year - in the center of the village there was a sacrifice altar with different meats and a pig's head for the spirits. The festival didn't start until the night so we spent the day hanging out in the village, trying to communicate with our host, and admiring the houses and roaming animals. Completely made of bamboo, the houses we stayed in were elevated on stilts and we could see (and hear all night long!) the animals, which live below the house, through the floor slats. Each house is made up of one big kitchen/living room/dining room (which is just an empty room with a fire pit inside) and another sleeping room, and the entire thing is rebuilt every seven years.
At night, the festival got started and we all danced around the sacrifice altar to the pounding of symbols and drums. We went to bed at 10pm with the hope that the party would die down soon, but the Lahu villagers continued partying, blasting karaoke and shooting off firecrackers until 7am! It seems as if the real party began after the farang went to bed.

Akha Village

The next morning (an hour after finally falling asleep) we woke up, had breakfast with our host and hiked about 5km to an Akha village, which looked similar, but was slightly more developed than the Lahu village (a few houses were made of cement and cinder blocks and some of the younger women wore jeans and t-shirts in place of sarongs or the customary Akha outfit). Before settling down with our host families, we were taken to a field where we helped (really observed) a few men from the village make a meal of rice, soup, chili and tea for all of us using nothing but nature and their machetes; they cooked all our food in large bamboo shoots over a fire, laid out banana leaves for all of us to sit on, and offered us tea in cups they cut from bamboo.
That night, we all got the opportunity to dress up in the traditional Akha uniforms and follow along in their dances around the fire (of which they have many). In return, we taught them the closest thing we have in our culture: the Hokey Pokey. The Akha women and children definitely had a good laugh.
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Despite falling down the steep hill and not getting any sleep, the homestay was definitely our favorite aspect of the trip thus far. Not only were we accepted into local homes, we were also able to see a different side of Thailand that many “normal” tourists will never experience.

Another fun aspect of the Akha village was that we were able to meet a product of the Mirror Art Group. The male in Sam’s homestay spoke decent English, which we found out he learned by taking classes at Mirror. Although we had never taught him, it was good to know that our organization is truly helping others.

Cycling to the White Temple

We returned back to Mirror on Saturday with the goal of riding bikes to the White Temple. Thellie, one of the coordinators at Mirror, claimed it was a simple 12k bike ride that would take about an hour. Three hours and 25k later, we finally arrived to the White Temple. We must have taken a wrong turn somewhere…

Even though it was a long haul, The White Temple was well worth the sweat and sore muscles. Walking up to the temple it first resembled an ice palace, wandering closer it was actually a huge temple made out of plaster and mirrors. Once inside the temple we approached the Buddha and a fake monk. The Buddha mural was absolutely stunning – turning to exit the temple we were faced with another mural representing all of the evils in the world. Although the White Temple was gorgeous, the Mural of Evil was a personal favorite….or the most interesting. The paintings of Bin Laden, bombs, and war were definitely understandable, but the Matrix, school buses, George Bush, and the NASA space-program were heard to grasp. I wonder who or what standards these were chosen. James also found the painting of the F-22, the plane he will work with at Boeing, on the wall. Perhaps the rest of the world doesn’t find the plane as necessary?