Thailand - Day 10 - Monday
Waking up in the home stay was COLD. Wow, it was a cold night. All of the blankets and jacket were necessary. They cooked breakfast for us in the morning, and it was eggs with pork, rice, and coffee. From here we said goodbye to our gracious host and continued on to our next village. The destination was the Hmong Hill Tribe Village. The Hmong people are a sub-group of the Miao people, and live mainly in Southern China, Vietnam and Laos. They have been members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) since 2007.
The lodge here caters to locals and tourists alike with a local experience. Once here we were shown to our room, which was a building that had 4 rooms in it. The actual room was HUGE, but simple. Since we were still up in the hills and elevation of Thailand, there was a space heater in the room, which we did use this night.
After getting settled Aiden decided to use the pool for a bit, but it was still very cold. Since the weather is typically so hot here I don’t think they actually have to heat any pools! There were a couple more little kids in the pool, but no one lasted very long since it was so cold. The pool overlooked a beautiful valley marsh area that was very picturesque.
We met Waza near the front way and met another local guide to give us a hike through the woods and countryside. We walked through woods, farms, local villages. I think that walking through the local farms on the sides of mountains might have been my favorite thing to do in the entire trip.
For dinner here it was once again “one of everything”. They didn’t have a buffet, but Waza said we pre-paid for the buffet, so they actually made us everything. It was worrisome that they brought out so much food that we couldn’t possibly eat, but we were assured that no food would go to waste.
After dinner there was a local tribal show, showing the heritage of the people. Aiden didn’t seem to have much interest in this as he sat by the camp fire with Waza.
Sleep here was more comfortable than the home stay, but still cold at night; but it was OK. Beds in Thailand so far have all been so hard! I guess Americans are used to their plushy memory foam mattresses. My back was just now getting used to sleeping on something so hard.
