Dual Nature

Evening fire by our sleeping hut

Naturally, as soon as I decided to do a multi-day trek, that’s when the travel gods decided to afflict me with food poisoning. Figures.

Ride the elephants, jungle trek uphill for several hours, sleep in a village hut and then have your bowels come under full frontal attack. All in a day’s work.

I did make it through the night. This is surprising, given the noise. Several people slept in the hut, and given some of the snoring, I fully suspect that a grizzly bear snuck in late in the evening as well. Crafty fellows, those bears.

The large hut was on stilts, like all standard southeast Asian dwellings, with a layer of bamboo for flooring. This made the floor creak louder than a haunted house at ghost family reunion, and when anyone shifted their weight in their sleep you’d feel the bamboo ripple effect move under you as well. Never mind when the grizzly had to step out to use the outhouse.

The next morning, I multitasked. Part of me watched the gorgeous scenic sunrise over the green Siamese hills, while the other part of me waged intestinal war and guess-which-side-will-evacuate-first.

Shunning breakfast (and even the smell of breakfast), I nevertheless put my gear back on and continued trekking, my face as pale as the morning fog sifting through the forest floor. I felt and heard the rumbling in my stomach as I walked, admiring the pristine scenery while also on a constant lookout for a nice, private place to fertilize the soil should the need arise.

Down hills, past chilly waterfalls, through virgin mountain streams, over rocks, boulders and logs, and up narrow twisting paths my intestines and I trekked, the sublime nature on display outside inversely mirroring the misery of nature at work inside.

Not the way I’d envisioned the nature trek through northern Thailand, certainly, but memorable just the same.

Sunrise above the clouds