Day 9: Sleep with a rat in our roof. Full day of trekking in the jungle and visiting a waterfall. Back to Chiang Rai.

Last night, Justin told me he heard something in our roof and asked and they told him it was probably JUST a rat. Great. Well, that rat woke me up several time during the night with loud squeaks just above the bed. I hid under the covers and Justin died laughing at me. Back to bed.

I awoke to an amazing sunrise just off our deck. I quickly walked up the road to get coffee from the village and back to my bungalow so I could enjoy the rest of the sunrise with my coffee. At 9am we are met by our Akha guide who speaks broken, but good enough, English. His name is Atit, pronounced like "A Teet"...which of course makes me giggle inside. He introduces us to two other men that will be joining us for the day to help with cooking and making things out of bamboo.

A steep and warm hike takes us 2.5 hours into the Jungle where we come to a creekside and a small hut. The men unpack their pack filled with fresh Thai greenbeans (which are at least 15 inches long each), cabbage, carrots, tomato, union, mushrooms, peppers, and noodles. The show build a fire and cut 3 pieces of bamboo that are about 3 inches in diameter and 3 feet long. I didnt realize this but the seems you see in bamboo are solid all the way through. So, these 3 foot long sections had a bottom to them. One was filled with fresh chopped veggies and water and put in the fire to steam cook. The other was filled with chopped veggies and eggs and placed into the fire. In the end we were served hot noodles with steamed veggies, and egg omelet made in the the bamboo pipe, and a fabulous, but firery hot, pico de gallo. I tried to explain to the guide that his dish is very popular in Mexico and called pico de gallo. I don't think he understood. We continued to hike after lunch.

We stopped in the jungle and were handed very sharp machetes (not something a guide in the US would do!) to make cups & chopsticks out of bamboo and bamboo floor mats. Justin and I weren't too great at it...don't think we will be going into the bamboo crafting business.

Around 3pm we reach a waterfall deep in the jungle. We quickly strip to our bathing suits since we are both hot and sweaty. The rocks are slippery and I'm more cautious than ever here. I have seen so many tourists with injuries and I don't want to be one of them! The water is cool (for me) and I only stay in briefly but enjoy the view from the rocks for a while. We get our clothes back on and begin our trek back to the village. On the way our guides make small bamboo guns, collect "bullets" for us (little hard green berries), and jungle war ensues.

Once we arrive back at the village a hot shower is all we want...even if it is just a small water trickle. Justin is itching for internet (which the village has but does not work well) so he can tend to matters at work. I want to stay one more night so I can enjoy another sunset and sunrise; however, I don't want to spend another sleepless night with the rat above my head. So we pack our bags that evening and head back to town early (we were supposed to leave at 9am the next morning).

We check into a modern hostel in the city Chiang Rai and prepare to fly out the next day to Koh Samui, an island in the Southern portion of Thailand.