Adventures in Thailand

 

I am still desperately reaching out for people and looking for friends - I feel like colleagues are not enough. This has a bit more personal reason, as well - maybe later I'll share that one, too. Enough is enough, this week, I reached out again on my usual social network I use for making friends: Couchsurfing. I went to Saraburi and messaged three people that looked interesting. W. met up with me immediately, the following day, and we went shopping, whereas S. had offered me to take me on a trip. She said, she had planned to visit the Krok E Dok waterfall for ages and this Saturday was the perfect timing for it. 

Remembering from my South American experience, I had expected a quick 2-3 hour hike, the view of a distant waterfall, and then maybe some sweating. However, this was not the case! :-D 

First of all, when S. picked me up (at 6 am in front of my apartment), she announced that one of her tires had gone flat! Now imagine looking for a car mechanic at dawn (it was almost dark then!). Luckily, we found one, and right on the corner of my apt, who quickly replaced her tire, then fixed it and we set out for our trip. When we got to the parking slot, we noticed that the road had been closed and we were informed that we had to buy tickets in advance and a separate bus would take us to the starting point of the hike. I liked this idea, because this meant that we would hike with a guide and not possibly lose our way. 

Anyway, that time, I was still smiling, naively: 

Little did I know... (this is S., by the way).

... that the hike will start with crossing this river first: 

After getting wet enough as a warm-up for waterfalls, we started our steep hike. I really rely on people and like when people organize events for me - therefore, I've just checked that today's elevation was 700 ms and it was a 3/5, so for an experienced hiker anyway! The waterfall is really huge! It had 8 different stops and we crossed the river (which at some point started to become a narrow brook), several times, too. I did not expect that! On the very top of the waterfall, we had to hold on to ropes and basically climb cliffs and rock in order to get this view: 

It was scarier on the way back: narrow paths, slippery rocks and so on. Actually, at one point, I even fell into the river and bruised my thigh - but nothing serious! :-) (Although, I'm sure, I would be unable to get up tomorrow, because it was a really hard hike! My muscles will be sore as hell, for sure!) We got even lucky with the weather! :-) It was cool enough but hasn't started to rain yet during our hike! Nevertheless, I got all wet... normally, the river was up to my knee (but the first etap was until my thighs), and on my upper body, I've just sweat a ton. It was humid, though! Anyway, what an experience! :-) 

Here are some more pictures (S. took them with her camera): 

It was a wonderful day and now I'm very relaxed - I'm sure, I'm going to sleep like a baby! :-) It was also nice that I could spent some time in the forest too - it healed me a bit from confusion and from overanalyzing things, as well. :-) I haven't been out on a hike for such a long time, I almost forgot it how good it feels afterwards! (Also I haven't met any snakes or "krok-e-dok" which I suppose should be crocodile?) It's really high time for me to learn something in thai (other than "Kaimuk" which means bubble in the bubble tea :-) ).