Mr Sam, the Music Man

Taking a break during the hot bike ride up Dong Chaio mountain
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Ron sez:

So, after finding un-helpful guest house owners who warned us of the dangers of hiking due to the BEES (the first of many examples of 'Guide book rot' we encountered-- essential a place that was likely good once, got a good review by one of the guide books so that all of the tourist flock there and the place becomes hardened, cold, greedy or just overwhelmed and are now a lousy place to stop), we headed to the national park to find a campground as advertised in the LP.  The park folks were incredibly nice to us, but there appeared to be no campgrounds-- when we asked the assured us we could camp and then showed us to set up our tents on the concrete patio that the workers used to play pool!  We actually spent a great night there, and it was perfect as it rained that night but our tents stayed bone dry.  that night we walk3ed into town for dinner, and found nothiing open except a restaurant owned, unbeknownst to us, by the mean guest house owner.  However the night was rescued by the wonderful waitress who tried hard to talk with us, and then gave us 2 free bottles of water when we gave her a small tip.  AM also gave us all an embarrassig laugh as we came across what appeared to be a party-- AM asked about dancing only to be told it was a funeral--oops.

AM was #1, I was #2, and Don, who was mostly quiet was #3

Temple at the top of the mountain
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the next day we did a difficult 'nature walk' into town for some great breakfast noodles-- so far we were safe from the bees!  then once the heat of the day was building we headed straight up the road (we were implored by the park superintendent to saty on the raod and off the trails) of the park toward a hill tribe village (Lhisu).  We were joined on our hike by a local dog who bounce along up hill with us-- a truly friendly happy dog that even am liked.  after hiking straight up hill about 5 miles, AM realized we were crazyt and hitched us a ride in a truck that already had a bunch of supplies and 8 people in the back.  It was a bit crowded, but got us to the top-- the only sad part was the forlorn look of our dog friend who we had to leave behind.

Are you my mommie?
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when we made it to the top, we saw the village but didnt know what to do next.  there we about 40 buildings, mostly thatch/bamboo perched on the side of a mountain with incredible views. we stopped and ate lunch when one of the locals invited us to tour the town.  He showed us around, and ultimately introduced us to sam the music man.  when our first friend went back to resume building a new homestay we stayed with sam and his family who served us tea.  It was great.  AM had bought a hill tribe phrase book so we could communicate in small bits.  AM was really on this day and Sam loved it-- she found picture of the instruments he was playing and asked about his wife and kids.  I tried to talk , but my attempt was so poor it made Sam laugh deeply for a good three minutes.  Sam then declared that AM was #1, I was #2, and Don, who was mostly quiet was #3.   These names, aptly given, have stuck with us through-out the trip.  After a brief rain the sun came out and we walked back down the mountain-- upon leaving the park we were even re-united with our dog friend who appeared not to hold a grudge for our abandonment.  We fed him some  nasty treats that none of us would eat and headed back to start our journey to laos.