Jungle Love

It has been a while since my last post and in time you will see the whole picture but mostly it was because I was low on internet and electricity. I am now in a comfortable spot so I can tell you more of my story.

It is now July 2014 but again I want to go back in time to the point where I fell in love. My friend, Jui,  and I have always had a connection but it grew to a big slap-in-the-face love. I have never, ever been this sure and perhaps I haven't felt true love before but this is it guys. So we met last October, this was the setting of the last part of my story, and things grew pretty rapidly. We spent so much time together and he was the reason I came back to Thailand to try and work out how we can be together.

I was lucky enough to spend more time in the jungle living as a local, with Jui. The moped journey became the norm, so did the cold showers. I would eat what his father had caught in the jungle, there was lizard, snake and a variety of bugs. Some delicious, some not. We would cook together for the family digging up fresh ginger and turmeric and picking fresh chillies. There was so much fruit around too. We would eat lychees, mangos, chompoo, jack fruit and sour sop straight from the trees. The real treat was the honey. One day Jui found a bee hive. He found a perfect one that wouldn't harm the bees if we took the honey. I've never eaten honey so pure or fresh. With sour mangos it was divine.

The more time we spent together the more inseparable we became. It became clearer and clearer that we could not be apart so we decided, in April, that we wanted to get married. The happiest times I've ever had. We thought it would be fitting to get married in November this year, then we would have known each other a year and my parents were thinking about coming to see me around this time.

Nothing would keep us apart, or so we thought....

My First Time a Guest up the Mountain

Well, technically, this was my third visit to a Hill Tribe considering I had been trekking twice. This was the first time I visited Jui's family in the Doi Inthanon National Park.

Jui is my friend who I met on my first trek. He is from the Karen Hill Tribe and grew up in the Doi Inthanon area in an original Karen House. A whole world and perhaps a century or two away from my comfortable upbringing in England. I dare say, this was the biggest culture shock by far on my travels. But this shock and fear of the unknown started on the journey up the mountain. I hired a motorbike and Jui drove as I was a bit sketchy on it to say the least. We drove out of the city towards the mountains then, the bit I wasn't expecting was the long, steep-uphill, slippery, sharp-cornered, off-road part of the journey. Wow, was I scared. 

Then we arrived to the house, sometime later after visiting a friend of his in a neighbouring village to buy moonshine rice whiskey. The house is made of wood and bamboo. All on stilts with storage underneath and free chickens running around. The fire-pit for cooking is on this level too, which amazes me. They also have a toilet/shower block outside, a water tank which collects water from a mountain spring and a solar panel - but these are pretty new editions. The school in the village only starting using solar energy around 7 years ago. And these new editions only came from volunteers and donations. A real sobering realisation (until I had some of that rice whiskey - Oh My that stuff is strong).

At first the house and village wasn't at all a real shock because I had trekked through a Lahu village, with Jui, and a Karen Village too - so I kind of knew what to expect. Trekking only takes you to the village in the afternoon, you eat, talk to other tourists in English, love the cold shower after walking up the mountain, sleep, wake up, eat then carry on trekking. You don't get to stick around and soak it up. After a few more hours in the village the 'culture shock' started to creep up on me. The thought that my friend, who is younger than me, grew up in such conditions. My heart broke so many times. 

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my time and loved the happy people but at first it was tough. I longed for a hot shower and better than basic electricity. I look back now and think how silly my own thoughts were at this time. The more time I spend up there, the easier it is. Well, normal to me now - normal being such a personal thing, Jui finds it tough spending too much time in Chiang Mai. Normal is subjective.

We headed back to Chiang Mai after two nights. On the day I left Jui's lovely mother gave me a Karen shirt, hand-made by herself. I was blown away with the hospitality they showed me and this was the icing on the cake. I love it and wear it with pride. 

Need a Job in Chiang Mai. What to do?

Oh OK, well done you (me). You decided to move to Chaing Mai, go ahead booking the flights and not looking past the tourist visa. Hmmm, that was smart. I want to volunteer, to visit the Karen Hill Tribe family I know in the jungle but I have to do that boring thing called work (or business). 

Teaching here should be easy, right? Right, looking for a TEFL course to do and hope for the best. Looking a the Immigrant B visa rules gives me a headache so I will cross that bridge when I come to it. It's a future problem so no need to worry now.

That was me in January. Well, I was so right not to worry. Worrying is a waste of energy and I have proved that right to myself again. I enlisted on a TEFL course in the city and completed it at the end of February. Without bragging, OK a bit of bragging, I passed all the exams with high A's. I may have even found a gift that I never knew I had and let me tell you it satisfied the urge of satisfaction I was looking for. I can do this. 

Then they offered me a job, starting in May when the new school year starts, they sort the Imm-B visa so even less worry. Sheer luck or fate. Who knows but I'm loving life and loving life here.

Now I have time to learn some if the language, do a bit of yoga, buy a motorbike (so excited about this YAY!!) and volunteer if anyone will want me.