Our second weekend in Pa Do Tha - sowing in Umphang Kee

Day 74-76, 2-4th June 2006

Umphang, Pa Do Tha and Umphang Kee.

Our second weekend in Pa Do Tha, began in earnest after school on Friday afternoon (school finished early at two) when James and I foolishly walked the 7 kms from Pa Do Tha to Umphang along the muddy cravasses and ridges of the dirt track in the blazing sunshine. Our mission was to find alcohol.

The bonhomie was in full effect as we anticipated our first taste of beer in 10 days and celebrated completing the best part of our teaching work. The merciless god Mercury didn't bother us in our sun hats, especially as we'd been assured it would only take an hour to walk to our destination. After a while, however, our chat dried up and we began to wonder where the road would end. I looked over the horizon at a building in the distance, but we both decided it was too far away to conceivably be Umphang. Of course, this inevitably meant that it was Umphang. I was burning in fierce light. By the time we rolled in almost two hours after departure, our feet blistered from trekking in Wellingtons, we wanted easy access to the internet and beer. It took us another half an hour of aimless ambling to find 'DotCom' the internet shack we'd used the weekend before.

Do you remember how good lager tastes after excercise? We soon forgot our feet and and were half-cut after a single large bottle of strong beer, as we hadn't eaten anything since lunchtime. We wandered out of the cafe back towards the supermarket to stock up on beer and snacks for the evening. This is where my problems began. In the last few years I have become increasingly absent minded - for what reason I do not know. I am sure that I 'misplace' things even more often when I've had a bit to drink. I should have heeded the warning when the lady from the internet cafe rolled up next to James and I on a moped, and handed me back my watch which I'd left on the counter. I was grateful, but continued to make the same mistake several times over: in one of the stores I left my water behind, and then the mobile top card I just bought in another. I was really on a roll.

With road beers in hand, and a sense of achievement from ensuring a decent supply of alcohol for the evening back in Pa Do Tha, we set off on the road home. By this point it was 6pm and, unbeknown to us, a search party had been dispatched from our anxious support team in Pa Do Tha to find us. When Gop, one of Supat's friends, and Kik, a teacher from the school in Umphang Kee arrived on moped, finding us a short distance from Umphang, we were just grateful that we wouldn't have to walk the whole way back to Pa Do Tha by foot. I'm not too proud to admit that I was drunk by this point and this is probably when I lost my wallet. I hitched my trousers up to sit on the back of Gop's moped, and I suppose the wallet must have fallen out. It had my credit card, debit card, driver's license and about 5,000 baht inside. Bulls-eye! I didn't notice this until we got back to the home stay.

We'd coerced Gop and Kik into racing each other back to Pa Do Tha along the dirt track, with me and James flicking V's at each other at every bend, which was another time when my stuff may have fallen out. Crestfallen after the belated realisation, and all the more dumb for being pissed and ruining Jim's birthday, Gop kindly drove all the way back to Umphang with me to search for the wallet. This proved a fruitless exercise so I had to make a call back home to blighty and cancel the cards. It was about 10pm by this point and James was starting to worry about me. By the time I got back, the home stay was crammed full of people from the village whom Supat had invited. James was ahead of me in the old beer race. It was a lovely atmosphere, so I let bygones be bygones and cracked open another can. The food on offer for the evening was even better quality and more plentiful than the excellent nosh we'd had so far.

The evening was topped off by Too Nduoy Por and some other village residents, performing a Karen 'good luck' ritual on James, to ward off bad spirits and to bring him favourable fortune. The process involved annointing lengths of string with chicken fat and herbs and tying them around James' wrists very tightly. The fat was also smeared on his clothes, which didn't please him too much the following morning.

Talking of Saturday morning, the plan was to get up early (!) and hike the 10 kms to Umphang Kee. James had the Jehovah of all hangovers, but we still managed to get on the way following breakfast just after 9am. I wasn't really in shape for a long hike and James certainly wasn't, but we did it anyway. As usual we were covered in sweat very quickly, and rivulets were pouring off the birthday boy's bonce by the litre. We stopped a fair few times on the track, which was even more steep and pitted than the road we'd become aquainted with the previous evening. Eventually we reached Umphang Kee, holed up with another of Supat's mates and ate lunch. Both this day and the following morning were spent helping the Karen sow corn seeds, following a month of field burning. We became familiar with some of the perils of the environment on our way to the fields. I was shocked by a tree snake slithering around the braches to greet us, after I'd almost fallen off a system of rickety bamboo poles bridging the river.

We enjoyed a dual role out in the fields, as we were paired up with girls who were learning English. More of the maize kernels, similar to last week, were thrown into the small holes dug the leading hoesman. It was a surprisingly social atmosphere, kept alive with plenty of laughing and joking. We got the hang of sowing a bit better this time, as we edged forwards up the steep incline of the hill fields. The young girls (about 14-15) were keen to try out their English and we tried to exchange a bit of vocab with them, pointing at the things around us. Everybody in Umphang Kee now knows what 'mud' means thanks to me. Supat tried his hardest to embarass us with suggestive remarks and noises about us and the young girls, but by this time we were getting used to his slightly naff sense of humour. After three hours I was beginning to appreciate how the work is a lot tougher than meets the eye. I wondered how much of a return the hill tribe got on their crops, which were mainly a commercial concern. I learnt a few words of Karen, but there were lots of questions I would have asked had I been capable. We were told that our efforts were appreciated by the locals via Supat, which was nice. We hadn't felt awkward or out of place whilst there.

After more sowing the following morning we headed back to Pa Do Tha. By Elephant. This is certainly something we'd never do again. James showed an interest when Supat mentioned it a few days before and said yes. I considered it, and reasoned that if local communities were supported by money from tourist elephant rides, and looked after them rather than possibly killing them whenever they threatened the village infrastructure, it would be acceptable if not ideal. It certainly wasn't.The elephant was much smaller than we'd anticipated, and the first thing I noticed was a small wound on it's head, and a chain around it's foot. The elephant was owned and lead by an old guy who bellowed agressively at the animal with every command. James and I were supposed to sit in a small basket on the animal's back which looked precarious. I climbed up on the elephant's leg, which I managed with a bit of effort, but James' almost fell off backwards when he tried it. Neither of us were happy, and James decided to get down after a minute or so because he knew it would bring on vertigo when we passed steep drops. I decided to sit further down on the creature's neck, where I thought my weight would be easier for it to carry. I felt it would be difficult to tell Supat that we'd changed our minds at this stage. The Elephant shuffled forward, as I deeply regretted agreeing to this, and I felt naive for thinking it would be OK in the first place. I repeatedly shouted at Supat not to hit the animal (well tapping it for not moving quick enough), but there is a very different attitude to animals in Thailand. Not one of total disrespect, but certainly one without much sentimentality. The Elephant often stopped to eat, and tried my best to make it clear I was happy with this, and not to disturb it. The guide paid no attention. Eventually, I decided to get off and walk the rest of the way to back to Pa Do Tha.

Some of the families in the village come to celebrate James' birthday.














This sort of excellent veggie Thai grub was served up everyday, it wasn't in the least bit greasy, but absolutely delicious. You can see the beancurd in it which I loved. I think I've put on a fair bit of weight.











Despite a deathly post-birthday-hangover, trooper James makes it over the ridge to Umphang Kee. If I'd have collected his sweat it would have filled up enough water bottles to keep Umphang Kee going for a week.











Cute. This little girl led this ailing Water Buffalo up the hill behind our homestay in Umphang Kee and washed him with a pan from water butt you can see on the right of the picture. You could actually see that the Buffalo liked the girl. All the livestock is well looked after. Shame the poor bugger will eventually be sold off for his flesh.