Kuhn Yuam, Eastern Province, Thailand

It's been a slightly surreal and grounding couple of days, as we left the well worn track for the much more less travelled one.
I am currently in a very small town North East of Chiang Mai, on the Mae Hon Son loop called Kuhn Yuam. This is where Lucy's mum is based while she works with the nearby Karen people. We drove here Thursday via the Inthanon National Park. Stopping off at waterfalls along the way because everyone loves a waterfall. The roads were extremely windy as we climbed through the hills, quite close to the countries peak Doi Inthanon at over 8,000 feet. The views were breathtaking, with lush, green hills that just seem to fold into each other, lined with the occasional village or rice field.
When we got here we dropped off our bags and headed straight over to a nearby Karen Hilltribe village of Ban Cam Suk to meet some of the children that Vicki has been working with and befriended over the last couple of years. I will leave you to look at the links i have given about the Karen people but Vicky has been working with a specific trust that supplies local schools with teachers, school buses, builds clean water projects and funds the childrens education in schools and universities.
The children we met were wonderful, healthy and happy with huge beaming smiles that completely lit up thier faces. We were extremely lucky to be invited to stay with one of the families overnight and it truly felt like a priviledge as they allowed us to stay in thier home and cooked for us. Last night they made us two types of rice and marrow with a spicy chilli dish..they love thier chilli here and i've definitely upped my tolerance factor. The huts are all wooden built on stilts with cows, chickens, pigs that live below and pens around the house. In our house they even had a monkey hanging out below. We spent the evening playing with the children and a couple of girls who are here with the trust volunteering for thier gap year. The family consisted of a mum and dad both of whom are in their 40's, a 12 year old girl, Dim and 15 month old little Pla who was the cutest kid you have ever seen. It was so interesting how we bonded playing games like Snakes & Ladders as with very little common language between us it was at times difficult to interact. Especially when it came to bedtime, as with such a small living space we were struggling to see how we could change into PJ's and prepare for bed and where we would all sleep. In the end we just slept in our clothes under bundles of blankets they loaded onto us.
I slept extremely well but woke at around 5am this morning to chorus of cockerals, women pounding rice, cows mooing, dogs growling and snoring coming from little Dim. They had cooked us breakfast and i struggle to eat cornflakes at 10am in the morning let alone rice with pumpkin and eggs stewed with tomatos at 6.30am. It was sad to say good bye and i can't imagine how some of these gap year students feel after living with a family in such close proximity for 6 months at a time and then having to leave.
The villages are sparce, littered with cow shit, hay and whatever else but their houses are extremely clean inside and they seem to have everything they need because their needs are very little. It's definitely grounding and spending just one night with them makes one reflect on what one has and very lucky we are.

Currently Reading: Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
Currently Watching: Thai Soaps
Temperature: Hot!