Ame’s next lesson was with the sling shot. He had carved a couple of slings and we practised shooting at banana leaves. The aim was to hit the stem and watch the leaf tumble down. After a few practice shots to find my range, I soon had my first success. Ame was not easy to impress.
“It’s easy. It’s not moving!”.
Ame was more interested in shooting things that moved. It’s not only the fish that are scared of Ame. The bird’s have reason to be fearfull too.
Ame goes hunting.
Ame is not only a game hunter. He knows a thing or two about the fruits in the jungle. The golden rule was that virtually everything is edible in the jungle. Just make sure that Ame eats it first! We tried passion fruit, lychee and sweet figs. There were nuts that seemed similar to chestnuts and miniature apples with a extremely bitter taste. It turns out that Ame uses these more for entertaining the children. They make nice spinning tops.
We continued our trek through the jungle. The views from the top of the ridge were spectacular. From every view point all you could see was the green of the trees. We were in the middle of nowhere. We hadn’t seen anyone since we started off in the morning. With the daylight fading we noticed the first signs of human life. An abandoned hut. Then we came across a fence to keep the buffalo from straying into the jungle. The sound of a distant engine could be heard over the jungle chatter of the crickets and birds.
First signs of civilization.
We came to a clearing where the buffalo grazed lazily. The huge male gave us a curious look and shuffled a bit closer to us. Monica’s hand tightened on her machete. Richard was armed with the sling. I was wondering what good the walking stick would be against a 500 pound beast. Ame just laughed at us and went to say hello to the bull. Well, more like he went to kiss it.
We had reached the village of Huai pu pattana, where we would be staying the night. It is a “Lahu” village. We realised how much the base camp of the Akha Hill village had been modernised to deal with tourists. That was a “dipping your toe in” place. The real deal was here. The village consisted of a number of wooden huts built on stilts. There were no cars, no roads. No signs of running water, electricity or any form of communication with the outside world. We walked across the dusty earth that was the village square. The local children were playing in the mud at the side of the huts.
View from our home.
Our home stay was the home of Chlaa and his wife Napar. They lived in the hut at the corner of the village. We sat down on the large terrace area and admired the views. The terrace was multi functional. It was the dining room, the laundry room and food preparation area. The inside consisted of three rooms. The first room had an area set aside for the fire. The room on the left was a store room that doubled up as the guest bedroom. The room at the back was the master bedroom. Our bed for the evening was a mat on the floor under a large mosquito net. Not exactly five star. I’d worry about the sleeping arrangements later.
On the terrace with Richard.
