Waterlogue

True love is carrying your spouse across a river 64 times.

So we got rid of the moped only to punish ourselves (me) on a ten mile hike. Jess's footwear of choice: sneakers, mine: sport sandals. Knowing full well the journey would require crossing the river a bunch of times I thought, why not be a sport and let Jessie keep the dry feet. Besides, sneakers take a long time to dry.

We followed the Mae Yen river along the valley floor, through banana groves and rice fields. The local farmers were happy to see us as not many a foreigner trekked out their way. Once we got into the canopy it was peaceful and quiet...and challenging. The river wasn't very high or moving very fast but the water was wet and the sand quite coarse.

We met a hiker 2 hours and some change into the hike who mentioned a short cut over a ridge that would save us a bunch of time. So we took it, which was great as we the scenery changed and we were walking amongst giant groves of bamboo. By the time we got to the waterfall we'd hiked for 2 hours and 45 minutes. We were ahead of the guidebooks estimates by a longshot.

My feet however were cut and rubbed raw.
So on the way back I decided to have Jess carry me instead.

Of course that didn't happen.
Luckily I had some dry socks that buffered the sting a little and made the sand a little less abrasive. And true to chivalry I again helped to keep her sneakers dry. Looking back now I can say it was worth a little bit of pain. We'd gotten soft with all that relaxing.

It was just a reminder to us that the good stuff is just around the next bend, if you're willing to take that extra step.

=s=