DAY 1
Friday morning we got picked up by our guide Peetuk in a hooded pickup, slightly nervous and curious of what the weekend entailed. After stopping at the (name will be placed here)waterfall , Peetuk told us that there are about 1200 curves on the road to Umphang, so the girls took the anti-motion sickness pills and Greg sat in front, while I settled myself seated forward on the floor of the bed with an ipod. Music is my medicine. The drive was absolutely gorgeous, although yes, it was curvey and I am glad I did not get ill - the girls were passed out on the seats in the bed, and I somehow got stuck with the job of holding their bodies when the truck hit the hairpins so that they wouldn't fall. The view was just simply breathtaking. It was like a scenery from a postcard or a special on discovery channel; the mist was rolling in and out through the lush green of the jungle that continued far into the horizon, creating an illusion that we were flying through the waves of a green leafy ocean.
We drove passed numerous corn fields and rice fields, as well as Umpyiong refugee camp that we had only known in the proposals and reports we wrote, and stopped for thai omlette lunch at a rest stop. We continued further into the jungle, occasionally passing Karen and hilltribe people's simple huts. Umphang is a small mountain town popular for tourists who seek aquatic and alpine expeditions. Since it is a rainy season, there were hardly anyone there when we arrived, which we found exciting. It's at a little bit shy of 1000 m above sea level, and consists of many trekking, rafting, and kayaking tour groups and attractive lodges that cater to western taste of vacation. We were brought to one of them, which we absolutely loved - wooden log-house compound surrounded by various tropical fruit trees and exotic flowers. Peetuk collected some star fruit (which became a staple during our trip) from the tree and told us to rest a little before he took us on a trek to (name will be placed here) waterfall. So Greg and Annie went to sleep, while Ilana read and I wrote. Then we put our hiking gears on and went out (Annie was so groggy from the motion-sickness pill which was quite funny...) in the soft quiet drizzle, out to what seemed like an endless patch of rice paddies. Then Peetuk led us through the ledges of the rice fields (where Greg continuously slipped into the rice paddies and made Peetuk yell out "Mind the rice Mr. Greg!"). He told us that during the dry season, you can drive through where the rice pddies are and get closer to the waterfall, which made sense because there was no trail. We were just following the footsteps of rice farmers who use the ledges to go check on the growth of their precious crops. So we continued on, getting muddy to the knees, ducking under the trees and crossing the small river by walking across slippery logs. The utter simplicity of it all, the childish drive for adventures through the rice paddies and the log crossing made me feel giddy, reminding me of my Japanese heritage and how the sight of all this was somehow familiar, in my blood, even though I was born and raised in a big city away from untouched nature. Parts of this trail was pretty tricky, slippery from wet leaves and mud. But we made it to the fall, which was very pretty and Greg went swimming in his Speedos while the rest of us sat and had some sunflower seeds and took multiple pictures. On the way back, Peetuk found us tart wild limes which we tasted (and Annie accidentally squirted into her eye) and learned that hilltribe people use them to keep snakes away. All tired, giddy and expremely happy, we made our way home to our lodge, thankful for the hot shower waiting for us.
We were ravenous by the time Peetuk picked us up again for dinner. We were brought to a restaurant just down the street from our lodge, and multiple platters of delicious Thai food were served: broiled whole fish (sorry for being ignorant but i couldn't tell what fish it was... may be an equivalent of Japanese tai fish?), fried egg salad, coconut tom yum, and port stir fry and endless supply of rice! I LOVED THEM ALL. They were trully delicious whether it is because I was hungry, because I was happy, I ate like I had not eaten anything in days, and enjoyed every bite. Full belly and a day of travelling hit us like a hammer and we were all of a sudden exhausted, ready to hit the pillow. Peetuk took us back to our lodge, and told us about the following day's plan, and left us to sleep. Lulled by jokes and stories told by each one of us we slowly dosed off into dreams in our cute bunk-bedded bungalow.
DAY 2
My watch alarm went off sooner than expected, and there was a hint of sun leaking into the bungalow through the skylight. I awoke the rest of the team and packed my bag for the rafting/trekking, double bagging everything inside my pack with plastic bags. After another delicious meal of Thai breakfast (spicy shrimp salad, salty egg salad, boiled rice, fried pork, and fried dough with condensed milk) we were brought to the upstream boat drop-off point on the Umphang river before it meets Mehklong river where we will be rafting for the rest of the weekend. We met the rest of the crew, a cook, a river guide, and his girlfriend. So we all pile onto the pink rubber raft much like the ones used in the North America, with Peetuk's hand made (very very well made) paddles, our camping gears, and food supplies for the next couple of days. The river was fairly fast flowing and contained few grade 1-3 rapids. Soon after the launch we merge onto Mehklong river, and the scenery begins to evolve into jagged clifs decorated with bamboos and teek trees and fig trees. The sun was out by then, unexpectedly and completely to our surprise. Everything was beautiful. 
The bottom of the clifs that soar above our heads were stolactites of all sizes dripping rain water like thin laces into the river. Magpies and dragon flies in many different colors kimmed the suface of the river we were embraced by the peace of the nature, alive but serene. We ate star fruits when we got hungry, and we hummed when we felt the music emerging from the insides. Peetuk told us stories about caves we came acrosss, and the vegitation we encountered. Annie continued to jump for any tickle on her leg or a sight of a bug in her vicinity, nearly jumping off the boat a couple of times our of erachnophobia. Everyone except for Greg and I were sympathetic and helped her stay spider-free. Along the way, we docked shortly to swim in the hot spring (ah, the joy of a natural spring! Halleluia for being Japanese!), and then to have lunch; another scrumtuous meal prepared by the restaurant back in Umphang, carefully packed in individual to-go boxes. After another couple of hours of rafting, we reach our destination where we repacked our packs with sleeping bags and put on our hiking shoes (well, for Ilana, a pair of gum-boots and bumble bee wool socks that came up to her thigs, which made her look like either a commando or a Jersey farmer gone wrong). We left the boat, rafting gears, the raft leader and his grilfriend who planned to fish overnight at the site. There were a couple of other people there fishing, tying their hammocks onto bamboo posts they made, carefully pitched under the cliff where they were shltered from rain. Oon, the cook led the pack, and Peetuk stayed on the tail. Annie and I followed Oon most of the way, joined by Ilana in the middle of it, until we were too behind from Oon and too far ahead from Greg and Peetuk so we were essentially hiking on our own. The trail was half paved and half unpaved, 75% of it uphill, at at least 45 degrees slope. It was hard. The bitter recognition of how out of shape I am punched me in my face. My right hip-felxer (which I had hurt before) began to throb, but kept a good spirit singing rugby songs because the scenery and the scent of the rich vivacious forest could not do anything but give me vitality. The weather held up, and the time passed fast while three of us girls chatted about life and took fun pictures.
We hit a Y after a few hours (which turned out to be the entrance to our camp site) and since there were no Oon in sight, we decided to wait for Greg and peetuk, swarmed by mosquitos and fighting back with deet. Then it happened. We heard voices of our loving grandpa and Peetuk, and the sight of Greg's bare, lanky legs. He arrived in his speedos, socks and hicking shoes still intact, waving and smiling wildly at us. The three of us bursted into uncontrollable laughter, and Ilana took a fantastic portrait of Greg flaunting in his outfit making a peace sign with his hand. That photo, my friends, will be framed and hang on my wall in honor of the craziest middle-age man I have ever met whom I secretly admire to become. So we make the last 300 m poking fun at Greg and laughing, to the comp site where there were already some tents pitched by other trekkers. Exhausted and hungry, we propped our stuff on the benches and stretched, while Peetuk busily set up the tents and Oon hastily began preparing our dinners, and Greg terrorized the women at the concession stand by still flaunting in his little speedos, strangers at the concessing stand, strangers laughing and connecting through odd humor that somehow lacks border. After the cold shower, we began playing rummy. Greg didn't remember how to play it, so we taught him how, and Ilana continued to learn (she was a rookie a couple of weeks ago) until we were interrupted by yet another delicious meal prepared this time by Oon. We were greeted with chicken soup, pork and green beans stir fry, vegitable stir fry, and mixed drink made with Thai-style sake in a beautifully hand carved bamboo cup (made at the camp that day). We again devoured everything like we were animals, truly enjoying the momment of unrestrained contentment. Oon came to the table when we were finishing up, and showed us tricks on a string, by which we were thoroughly amused, and began our rummy tournament by the candle light that ended up making everybody to hate me revealing their competitive nature. The point is, that I won, landslide, getting far from Annie who was at the lead in the begining with my face-card runs and three-of-aces. Ilana started off in the middle but Greg who scored negative 60 in the first round somehow outdone her and ended up at the bottom. I had a lot of fun while each one of them bitterly (and obviously half jokingly.... at least I thought so...) commented on how it's fun because I was winning. Darn tough crowd. By the time the lights were turned off (we were all pitched under a roof where there were lights) we were all exhausted and the bugs got really bad so we decided to call it a night. Except excited Peetuk came to each tent and told us that he found a glow-in-the-dark mushroom and showed us pictures he took. I think Annie was passed out by then, but Greg, Ilana and I went out and checked it out. It was phenomenal, utterly psychadelic! It was a genuine glow-in-the-dark shroom shining green like a night light at the edge of a concession stand. Ilana and I felt even more adventurous, so we headed out to the bathroom where we kept hearing mysterious barking sound to find out who was making the noise. We were acting like a couple of teenagers at a summer camp. It was nothing but fun. We found out it was a little dinky frog with a monsterous croaking while Ilana tried to scare me by "boo"-ing. After the satisfaction of successfully finding out what it was and a slight dissapointment of it being just a frog, we went to sleep in the tent, cozy in the complete darkness and the silence, little flickers of fire flies fading as the depth of sleep took over our consciousness.
DAY 3
As the sun came up so were the campers. I had forgotten about this aspect of camping. Luckily they did not start making a lot of noise until my watch alarm went off so I was able to doze in and out of sleep until the momment I had to get up. I re-packed my pack which was begining to smell (I'm sure you wanted to know that detail) and got out of the tent for a fresh air. The sky looked slightly sketchy, and by the time we sat down for breakfast it was begining to pour. Feared by nothing, we got out to the Namtok Thi Lo Su waterfall, the most famous waterfall in the entire Thailand, that is just about 1.5 km away from the camp site. The waterfall was just beautiful. I got the same soul shaking sensation I get whenever I'm standing by an amazing creation of the forces of nature; a sense of connecting with the past, the monumental power of earth that made first man shake at the sight of the beauty the way it touched me now. The mist rested in crystaline beads on our eye lashes and we all took momments of peace to ourselves indulging the view. I could not help but sing my favorite river song (even though I can't quite remember the second line of the verse... ha ha ha) and appreciate everything that made my presence there possible. Annie, Ilana and I hiked out of the waterfall before Greg and Peetuk, because yet again, Greg went swimming in his little speedos. We had early lunch after that, prepared by Oon and enjoyed by all, some egg-tofu soup and stir fry of various types. Magically, by the time we were leaving the camp to trek back to the raft, it stopped raining, and so we were once again back on the trail, climbing uphill that seemed like forever.
It felt shorter though, because the length of the uphill was actually shorter on the way back. We were happy about that. Once we reached the cave where our river guide and his girl friend awaited, they had already got the boat nealy ready, and had caught a good sized catfish. We had some starfruit to regain some energy before getting on the raft, and we were off again, afloat on the Mehklong river to make our way further downstream. Then Annie jumps up to the sky at the sight of a spider. Then we pass some wild orange orchids. Then Annie stares down at the tree branch that was about to brush her head to make sure the spider was not jumping on her. Then a gigantic (quite phallic) stalotite with Peetuk grinning in the back yelling "The big boy!" A boat full of laughter. We hit a strong white water and the front half of the raft gets splashed with cool water. More laughter. Then a long high-pitched shrill like someone was getting killed. A rather giant spider on Ilana's knee that the river guide's girlfriend swiftly got rid of. We laughed so damn hard then, that everyone's stomach hurt. I don't think I have had this much fun in a while. Everything was so perfect. I loved every momment of it. As we made further downriver, we heard some trees fall that we all fell silent for, to hear every break of every branch, to imagine the size and the type of the falling tree, thinking about how long it lived and why it was finally falling, until the forest regained its normal sounds.At Peetuk's call for "paddle harder please!" we turned our raft onto a merging stream upstream, paddled hard for few meters and reached our final destination. The raft got pulled out of water as soon as we got out, was deflated, and soon after, the truck arrived to pick us all up. deflated raft and gears on the top, all of us piling onto the hooded bed among our packs and leftover star fruit and the freshly caught catfish. Peetuk was making jokes with catfish, moving its jaws and trying to make it talk as I drifted into shallow sleep lulled by the roaring engine of the truck beneath my feet. We were brought back to the cottage where we stayed the first night where we were able to take a shower. After the shower we were fed some pad thai and Thai sweets, and all got back onto the truck (the bed was lined with bamboo mats and cushions for our comforts) and made our way back to Mae Sot. The ride home was curvey and we all got kinda car sick... (except for Annie, of course) I was knocked out from the motion sickness pill, and wished I could keep sleeping as we rolled into our lovely Mae Sot.
I truly enjoyed this expedition, and I recommend anyone who is in the area to do it. Esapecially if you have extra love for wilderness and adventures, go contact Peetuk! I will put the contact information here in the near future.
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