seeing the things that are truly wild and free

NOTE: these anecdotes are being collected as I have been trekking for 2 and 1/2 weeks through the Mae Hong Son mountain range in Northern Thailand. I have lived in 6 villages, have hiked over 70 miles, and have again not had contact with anyone on the “outside world” for this time. my journey in the depths of the jungle has consisted of many memorable moments, so I decided that I would frame this post through the stories of my adventure.

as many of you may know, about 7 months ago I had ACL surgery after an embarrassing incident that happened while I was working in California. having not have gone on a run since surgery, never mind doing any hiking, I came to Thailand far before I was fully healed with the hopes that I would just figure it out along the way. with this being said, I didn’t realize that our trekking would be 8+ hour days on trails with cliffs on either side, through rivers that came up to my waist, pulling myself up rocks with vines, and up muddy, extremely steep orange-dirt hills with no switchbacks. we were traveling like the villagers used to do years ago when there were no roads and had to hike mountain ranges to communicate, and I soon learned that they were much more hardcore than I was.

I kept thinking: how could I ever be able to do these gnarly treks when my mind doesn’t even trust my body to take me on a 1 mile run?

expecting the worst, I set out on our first hike, and to my complete shock, I had no issues with my knee. all of a sudden something clicked between my right knee and my brain where I regained full control of my body and my mind regained trust that with the hard steps, my knee would catch me. after spending 7 months feeling like my right leg was a complete foreign object that was just attached to my body, having being able to accept it again in my mind was glorious. I am so grateful that my knee was able to carry me across this entire mountain range.

on another note, I am a huge fan of Planet Earth (yes both the floating rock in space and the show, but here I am talking the show). all you fellow Planet Earth lovers will understand when I say that I have always had this strange relationship with Planet Earth where I really love it but everything on it is so magnificent that it is hard to believe it is really out there.

well, trekking through the deep Thai jungle doesn’t really seem like you are in the kind of place where something like that would be filmed until you literally find yourself witnessing a scene on one of the episodes. at the end of one of our hikes, our local guide stopped us and pointed across this valley to about 30 yards away. sure enough, swinging through the canopy of the jungle was wild gibbons. WILD GIBBONS!!! having a total geek girl moment I just stood in awe as I watched them swing crazy distances and sing their absolutely stunning songs.

on another strange but related topic, another leg of our hike consisted of us having to be absolutely silent for 2+ hours because of what the locals call “crazy bees”. These are huge wasps that are attracted to the vibrations in human voices. so, if they hear us talking they will immediately come and try to find the source. so as we walked through their habitat, we had to not make a sound in order to not disturb the crazy bees. talk about power of nature being no match for us- even our voices disturb the lives of these creatures. we constantly just think that we have power over nature and that we can survive whatever comes our way, when in reality there is nothing stronger than it.

I was overwhelmed with feelings of awe and was realizing that a lot of times it’s so easy to believe that we are what the Earth was created for and to forget that we are visitors on this planet. watching this species live out their epic little lives, I was completely overwhelmed with feelings of awe but also feelings of sadness. the fact that these little dudes are being pushed out of their own trees and habitats because of human impact is so heartbreaking, especially when they are doing no harm by living their jungle lives. what happens when all the trees are gone? when they have nothing to eat? when they are scared in their own homes? what happens when the gibbons no longer sing and the crazy bees no longer buzz?

I am so changed by watching this and then by watching how we live and how we impact these crazy monkeys, and I want to do everything in my power to work to live a life that protects these creatures along with all the other rad species out there. love the ones that are so unbelievable that it seems like they don’t even exist, because they are out there, and are groovy as heck.

take it easy,

aria