Sugar cane and boonie stomping

I rode in the back of a truck - an actual moving one - today. Somewhere I know that my mom (hi mom) is shuddering, but, if my little sister can ride around Thailand on a vespa with her slight man-child boyfriend, I must be able to join in the local custom of riding around in the back of beat-up pick-up trucks.

This is, after all, what they do here. I was headed to my first boonie stomp, which is exactly what it sounds like.


You go to the boonies,













you stomp,













wade,













thrash,



















walk past the remnants of latte stones,













go through a little bit of jungle,



















occasionally grapple,



















and hopefully make your way to some kind of particularly gorgeous piece of sort-of-unspoiled wilderness,













where you take off your clothes and sit in the falls to cool off for a while.













On the way back, we were accosted by some friendly kids living in the housing just at the mouth of the trail. They asked me to take their pictures - and offered me some sugar cane. One of the older boys wielded a machete and passed out the treat to the other kids. They showed me how to peel it down, and then bite down and suck out the juices. They also asked me when I was coming back - which I thought was a funny question.

But, maybe they're friends with all the hikers. At any rate, if I can ever figure out how to get to the trail on my own, I might go back and interview them for the kids' publication I used to work for in New York.

For now, I thought I'd post their pictures. Because these kids were sort of adorable.