Day 17 Lost in translation 1/17/14

Our adventurous day started at 9:30am. Nick, Ryan, and I stood in front of our apartment to flag down one of the many sangtaos that drive by. We flagged some down and bargained prices. After the third one,we were able to find a reasonable price. Nick talked to the woman and told her we wanted to go to the lake. She didn't know English,but she responded when she heard the name of the lake and offered us a ride for 600 baht, which was 400 cheaper than the other offerings, so we decided to take it. She drove for about 40 minutes through town and up a steep windy mountain road. The drive seemed to be taking longer than we had anticipated, and the ride was starting to make us feel queasy.She finally stopped in a parking lot of a small tourist congested mountain town. When we hopped out we didn't see a lake or any signs for one. We asked her where the lake was, and she just looked at us with confusion. She made a gesture signifying that she would wait there for us to be done. We walked off in search for the lake. The town was super small. There were a few food vendors and surplus of carts selling your typical tourist souvenirs. Nearby we found a map. The map showed that there were a few hiking trails to waterfalls but all of which were a few miles away.We walked around for a bit hoping to find a hiking trail nearby, but our search was useless,the town was a tourist trap. After aimlessly wandering for 45 minutes we walked back to the parking lot where we saw our driver. When we reached her we asked her about the lake. She still had no idea what we were talking about. A man buying chicken next to her, saw our translation mishap, and asked us where we wanted to go. We told him that we were looking for the lake where you could swim and we told him the name. He knew of the place, and told us that we were far from it. He said that the lake was at the bottom of the mountain closer to Chaing Mai. He translated for us, telling the woman we wanted to go there. She said she could take us for an additional 400 baht. We tried to bargain her down to 300, telling her that was where we wanted to go initially, but she refused to take us for anything less than 400. We felt stuck. We didn't want to stay in the stupid tourist town, but we were also annoyed that we agreed upon 600 baht for her to take us to the lake. We realized there wasn't much we could do, and we had to remind ourselves that things like this happen when there's a language barrier.So we agreed to pay the extra four hundred baht for her to take us to the lake. When we finally got the to lake we realized it was much closer to chiang mai than we thought. We each paid the 20 baht fee to enter the lake. Our driver told us that she was going to wait at the lake and when we were ready to leave we could find her. We thanked her and walked off in search for a place to relax. The lake was really big ,with beautiful mountains behind it.There were a  hundred bamboo huts bordering the banks of the lake. The place was quiet and peaceful. With the exception of a few huts we had the place to ourselves. We found a hut we liked near a concession stand.After we put our things down, we went to order food. There was a small a little girl maybe 6 years old working at the front who took our order. She didn't know any English besides the word big and small. Ryan and I ordered chicken fried rice, and Nick ordered rice and a plate of deep fried frog for all of us to share. The little girl asked if we wanted a small or big plate of rice, Ryan and I both went with big since we hadn't eaten all day. When the food arrived the rice portions were enormous. The plate wasn't big size,it was super size me portions. The deep fried frog wasn't too bad either, deep fried anything always taste good.After we ate we sat around and shared travel stories. Nick had some really good travel tips and stories to tell of his time the Philippines. He told us that many of the  homeless women we see in chiang mai holding their babies and begging for money, are really beggars who paid another woman to borrow her baby for the night so she could make more money on the street. I thought back to the time when Ryan and I gave a homeless woman holding her baby some money, and wondered if she was one of these women. We exchanged stories for a while, enjoying each others life lessons. The place was so quiet and peaceful we all ended up taking a little nap. Around 4pm we decided to head out. We grabbed a doggy bag for all the extra rice we had and then  found our driver. We got back to our apartment around 5 and felt completely tired. We decided to stay in for the rest of the night and watch movies.