Oh! Julie!
Hmong tribe’s house where we slept one night
Hilltribe village
I met Julie from Montreal in the jungle trekking in Maehongson, Thailand.
Her style of speaking was funny. She was too polite. “Is it possible for you to hand me the toilet paper?†Besides, whatever she doesn’t remember or find proper word she was looking for, she explained it with a word, “thingâ€, “What do you call it the thing that cut your finger nail?†“nail clipper?†“yes…†“Haha you know what the thing is, now keep going on..â€
She was a very unusual backpacker. She had been traveling for 3 months before meeting me and said she would travel to Laos and Vietnam for another 3 months and then go back home.
I had never seen such a well-prepared backpacker before.
On the first night, we slept in a Hmong village house - no toilet and no electricity. I took out my small flashlight to brush my teeth. Suddenly I felt bright light coming from behind me. That was from Julie’s big flash light worn on her head. She looked like a miner in a cave. She offered me some lotion to protect from bug bite.
She was always taking some kind of vitamin or pill even though she wasn’t sick, and she had big bags of them. Enough for 6 months.
On the second night, we were sleeping on the ground in the hut that our guide built.
It was the coldest night I have ever experienced so far. I couldn’t sleep at all through the night due to cold chill. The sleeping bag I received from the guide was too thin. But Julie was sweet dreaming next to me in her duck down sleeping bag she brought.
When it was the time we had to separate, I felt sad because I knew we wouldn’t be able to meet to each other again easily. Her home was Montreal in the west and my home was Korea in the East. I had to go to Changmai. She said she would head to Laos.
A few days after, I was browsing the busy night market in Changmai. Somebody grabbed my shoulders from behind. When I looked back, it was Julie! We were jumping with joy as if we had been life time friends. How could it happen!
Author:maangchi
Link:http://maangchi.blogspot.com/
maangchi says:
more pictures of hilltribe trekking are on my blog!
July 23rd, 2006 at 3:03 pm