Saturday, February 5, 2011

The Bees Knees


(PICTURE: Bees.)

Here's a lesson in being careful what you wish for: As you might remember from a couple days ago, the morning before our trek we ate amazing crepes with fresh bananas and honey. The honey was from local bees and was ridiculously delicious. Before we set out for out trek, we were asked what we wanted to eat for breakfast the next days. Unanimously everyone wanted the crepes again with more fresh bananas and honey. Well, we got exactly what we wished for.

After hiking all day, we arrived at the homestay and discovered we weren't the only guests that night; besides us there were thousands of bees. Apparently that day a local beehive had fallen and for some reason all the bees were gravitating towards the stilt house we were staying in. None of us had ever been around as many bees as were swarming above us at the house. Sebastian in particular was scared of bees, but that fear was quickly passed on to all of us. Seriously, there were thousands of bees. Oddly they were attracted to the fluorescent light in the ceiling...which happened to be right above where we ate dinner.


(PICTURE: Huyen and I were the last ones to leave dinner. We're wearing out bee keepers outfits.)

In the end, only one person got stung -- Huyen. I guess the bees didn't like foreign cuisine. Overall, I gotta say how impressed I was with everyone who made the best of the situation. Despite the near threat of being stung to death, everyone kept up good spirits and joked a lot about the situation. In fact, it might just have been me, but the honey the next morning tasted extra sweet.