neesh.

April 8th, 2015

Chiang Mai

We woke up early in the morning had a fruit, muesli, and eggs at our hotel and then we were picked up and we drove about 2 hours into the mountains outside of Chiang Mai. We were dropped off with a man named Cam. He was from a little village up in the mountains. He was 40 years old but he looked like he was 28 and he was our guide for the day. Little did we know we were in for the hardest hike of our lives. We hiked for about 90 minutes and made it to the first water fall. At that waterfall we swam and ate Tamarind (a fruit that grows on trees inside little brown shells and taste like the best sour patch kids ever) About 10 minutes later we ended up in the Hoi Hoi village. It was incredibly humbling to see this. Then we hiked what seemed like forever through rice fields and villages and had lunch in the middle of the jungle. We had pad thai and watermelon that Cam pulled out of his backpack and it was some of the best pad thai ever. After lunch we kept hiking we went through lots of villages and more waterfalls. The last waterfall we went to we could swim in. I never in my whole life have been more excited to jump into water. We were so sweaty and disgusting and had just hiked 8 hours. We ended the day crossing bamboo bridges and walking through the most gorgeous rice field. This day we climbed what seemed like every mountain in Chiang Mai and in those mountains no one had more than a house made of bamboo walls and a roof made of leaves but they are the kindest, happiest, hardest working people you will ever meet. I couldn't feel my feet and my legs hurt more than ever but this day more than anything I was humbled and grateful. Happiness doesn't come from money, status, or things. Happiness is an attitude and it is a choice. So while we were hiking I decided each day I was going to try and wake up and decide to be happier than I ever have, and then rub that happiness off on someone else. On our hike we past kept passing locals. They would do the same trek as us just to go get water or go fish in the river for food. This whole day of hiking was a spiritual journey for me. As I watched Cam hike he was steady, kept his pace, didn't have a drop of sweat once, and he never really ate anything beside some sticky rice. I hope in my life I can be as steady as Cam. Not physically steady but steady with everything around me, with my life, family, emotions and faith. This day really changed me also, I was so sore. As soon as we got to our hotel we jumped in the pool and at night we got dinner, walked around the markets, got Scott a custom suit, and went to the fish spa. It was a really cool experience!