We made a trip this morning to see some gem-toned volcanic lakes, which were beautiful, but the hike back down the mountain was more interesting. Many of the plants were different from what we’d been seeing, and I liked the big pine trees whose smell reminded me of camping back home.

It was nice to go for a walk that wasn’t in a city for a change. As we started switchbacking down the mountain, beautiful views of the valley and ocean below came into sight.

It wasn’t completely zen though, as it was starting to get hot and I was getting tired of plodding downhill. It had been almost two hours, and we still weren’t at the shortcut that would allow us to skip a large portion of the main road on our way back to Moni. We started passing little plots of cultivated land and simple homes. Adults with a load of unthreshed grains greeted us, “Hello Mrs., hello Mister!”

We saw a group of school kids off in the distance. Apparently they saw us too, and soon we were surrounded by their curious faces. School uniforms have varied throughout our trip from standard white shirts with blue trousers, to the girls who wore traditional Lao skirts with a western-style white blouse, to students in Jakarta wearing beautiful batik patterned shirts. But these kids’ outfits won the prize for most awesome. They were wearing woven vests, probably lovingly made by their moms, as each one had a slightly different design. My favorite was the little guy wearing only a vest and shorts. But the vest-as-hat look was pretty cool too. One of them pointed to my camera asking for a picture. I hesitated, but then pulled out my camera anyway. They kids started screaming and jumping as they not so calmly posed for a snapshot. Giggles ensued as I showed them the picture on the little screen.

After the photo, the little animated posse joined us as we finally veered off the paved road and onto a dirt path: the shortcut at last. They were with us for a while, pointing the way down the hill until we reached their village.

Alone again, we continued the trek downhill. Most of it was along a thin dirt path, barely visible between swags of tall grasses. My pants were covered in those little pointy grass seeds, and the rest of me was dripping in sweat. At a couple points the path forked, but luckily this was usually near a village of some sort (say, 5 houses). Twice we started heading the wrong way, but then a kind villager would appear in a doorway and, smiling, point us in the right direction. Finally, three hours later, we made it back to Moni. A little bit dusty, a lot bit sweaty, but we had a good time.