Trekking Part 2

After our elephant rides everyone except the Dirt Squirrels showered up and ate. Damian and I moved some furniture in the open bar so that the eight from our group and two British girls from another tour could all sit around. We quickly decided that we needed a drinking game to start the night out and not so quickly decided which game. The final conclusion was Never Have I Ever. Someone says "Never have I ever __________", and if you have done that deed you to take a drink. We bonded over Chang beer and realizations that we were all bunch of disgusting, amoral, perverts. The bar ran on an honor system and the sheet to mark down what you had drunk filled up fast. The bottle of Hong Thong mystery liquor I had brought on the trek was disappearing fast. Our guide seemed to like me... a lot, so a new rule was added to the game. Every time your guide touches you and you feel awkward you take a drink. I vaguely remember slurring that "This will be funny till it's not." With everyone well liquored we powered down the party making the long march up the hill to the longhouse.

Day Two

Simple breakfast, elephant showers in the river and off again. An air conditioned mini bus picked us up at the village. Some of our group said that they had seen Chat, our guide, doing shots at the store across the street just before we pulled out. At our destination our guide talked with some people and then asked us to make sure we had all of our items out of a pickup truck. "Chat, we came in fucking van," someone yelled.

We made a quick hike up to a waterfall that you could slide down the rocks and into the pool below. Chat was getting weirder by the second. He tried to grab me at the waterfall while mumbling incoherently and I snapped a little, slapping his hand away and making some loud and open ended threats in front of a dozen or so travelers from other groups. As we departed the water fall our guide retreated quickly to squat facing a wall to gnaw on a chicken bone.

Some of the girls were getting worried about the making the much longer and harder, next leg of the trek with our drunken guide. I was firstly worried about my physical ability to make it up the mountain and secondly about the very real possibility of Chat touching me again and me throwing him off the mountain. So I did the manly thing and convinced one of the concerned girls that she should get a bike to the village at the top and I would accompany her to make sure she got there safely. The group walked back to the road, chat flagged down a passing scooter, hopped on the back and said, "See you tomorrow" and took off.

I was feeling bad about inconveniencing the group but they seemed more pissed at Chat then me and the other biker. We complained about Chat for a while and discussed just taking off and attempting the trek ourselves. Another guide from the same company as Chat stopped and checked on us and we told him the situation. A lot of the group asked for a new guide but where told that it wasn't possible and that Chat was always drunk and we would be perfectly safe on the trek. So the group waited and bitched and waited some more. Chat finally came back with one scooter and driver and claimed that another would come. The girl who wanted to ride up the mountain refused to go up or stay behind with out me so we waited some more.

For some reason Chat decide it was a good time grab at me again. It looked like an incoming hug at first and then I felt something graze my package. I got a little rough with him. Threats were made feelings were hurt but in the end I left him relatively undamaged, only for the sake of the people who actually wanted to spend four hours climbing up the mountain. Chat made a phone call and got two scooters to come down from the village to get us as our other scooter had got bored of waiting and took off. The trekkers set on their way as Tiff and I waited.

The scooters arrived. My driver seemed a little nervous as I climbed on behind him. I should have known that the ride up would be an ordeal when the other guide had told us that the road up the mountain was to dangerous for trucks. Dust, rocks, and deep ruts were my first impression. My driver couldn't control the bike with me on the back and we drove into a couple of deep ruts and then powered out on a steep incline. We stopped and transferred my twenty five pound camera bag to the other bike and it seemed to give the bike enough relief that we could continue. The drivers feet almost never left the ground as the scooter groaned up the mountain, listing between deep ruts in the road and the sheer cliff. The ride got scarier and I realized that I could steer the bike from the back. Our lines between the rocks, ruts and cliffs became cleaner and we even managed to start in to a couple of the steeper parts in second or third gear. As we summited and entered the village I let out a whoop and my driver cheered as well. The villagers pointed, smiled and shouted as we drove by. I can only guess at what they were saying but it must have been something like, "Holy fuck, look what Bob just brought up the mountain on his scooter!" I paid and tipped my driver for not killing us, bought a pack of cigarettes and a beer and sat down to wait for the the trekkers.

To Be Continued...