This past weekend, Joey and I went to a waterfall that we visited last December. Then, we only looked at the easy to access waterfall because of time limitations. But this time, we went on a hike to the other "levels" of the waterfall. These levels are other little falls of the same river. It is an interesting concept for a hike, but unfortunately none of the waterfalls were extremely large. They were nice and quaint though and the jungle entangling the areas around the water created a nice rainforest scene.
Like most of my ideas, nothing works out exactly as planned. We decided to ride our bikes to the zoo, where lots of buses wait to take tourists up the Doi Suthep, the Wat at the top of the mountain. But we didn't want to go all the way to Doi Suthep; we just wanted to go about ¾ of the way up to the National Park. So we negotiated a cheaper price and waited for the bus, aka song-tow, to have enough people to leave. Song-tows usually like to have at least 6 people before they make a trip.
The driver dropped us off at the selected site and we approached the National Park office to find out the cost of entry. For $12 we could go in through the road; locals had to pay half of that. We decided to skip the road and blaze a trail through the woods behind the office to avoid the fee.
This went surprisingly well and we found the main road again without a problem. We then followed that road for about three kilometers to reach the waterfall that we saw in December.
We hung out there for a little bit and then started on the hike to the other waterfall levels. We got to the second level without any problems, but from there we lost the trail for a little while. We tried one option, but that didn't go very far. It ran straight up a large rock that seemed very dangerous to climb. So we went retraced our steps and looked for another trail. On the other side of the river, we saw another trail going up the mountain. We took that one next.
This one was more successful. We were able to get to level 5 or 6. But we again lost the trail and this time we were unable to find it. The levels we did see were enjoyable, and it is too bad that the trail disappeared on us. But by this time we were ready to head home, so we were ok with losing the trail.
We walked the three kilometers back to the highway, and took another shortcut to circumvent the Park gatehouse. This shortcut was more painful than the first. I had lots of needles in my skin after this one. Once on the highway, we tried to get a song-tow, but that didn't work. Instead a car driven by French people picked us up and took us down the mountain to the zoo.
It was very nice of them. I tried my limited French, but was pretty unsuccessful. I was able to show one of the passengers my photos, so she understood where we had been.
From the zoo we biked back to the guesthouse and took showers. I had to get all those needles off of me! The waterfall excursion was a nice afternoon, but not exactly what I expected.
Guesthouse
I told you last time that we rented a room in a guesthouse. We are still doing that, but the first room we had was temporary. Another person was in "our" room, so we were waiting for them to leave. In the meantime, we got a nice large room to stay in.
This week we moved into our new room. It is considerably smaller than our original room, so we are have to readjust to the smaller size. Too bad we didn't move from small to large! That would have been much easier. However, we have managed to rearrange furniture and put suitcases on top of and inside one another, so we have enough room.
We continue to cook. Last night was breaded chicken and veggies; the nights before were Mexican. So, we have been able to maintain a relatively varied menu, which is nice. I like Thai food, but I couldn’t stand it 3 times a day, 7 days a week.
Like most of my ideas, nothing works out exactly as planned. We decided to ride our bikes to the zoo, where lots of buses wait to take tourists up the Doi Suthep, the Wat at the top of the mountain. But we didn't want to go all the way to Doi Suthep; we just wanted to go about ¾ of the way up to the National Park. So we negotiated a cheaper price and waited for the bus, aka song-tow, to have enough people to leave. Song-tows usually like to have at least 6 people before they make a trip.
The driver dropped us off at the selected site and we approached the National Park office to find out the cost of entry. For $12 we could go in through the road; locals had to pay half of that. We decided to skip the road and blaze a trail through the woods behind the office to avoid the fee.
This went surprisingly well and we found the main road again without a problem. We then followed that road for about three kilometers to reach the waterfall that we saw in December.
We hung out there for a little bit and then started on the hike to the other waterfall levels. We got to the second level without any problems, but from there we lost the trail for a little while. We tried one option, but that didn't go very far. It ran straight up a large rock that seemed very dangerous to climb. So we went retraced our steps and looked for another trail. On the other side of the river, we saw another trail going up the mountain. We took that one next.
This one was more successful. We were able to get to level 5 or 6. But we again lost the trail and this time we were unable to find it. The levels we did see were enjoyable, and it is too bad that the trail disappeared on us. But by this time we were ready to head home, so we were ok with losing the trail.
We walked the three kilometers back to the highway, and took another shortcut to circumvent the Park gatehouse. This shortcut was more painful than the first. I had lots of needles in my skin after this one. Once on the highway, we tried to get a song-tow, but that didn't work. Instead a car driven by French people picked us up and took us down the mountain to the zoo.
It was very nice of them. I tried my limited French, but was pretty unsuccessful. I was able to show one of the passengers my photos, so she understood where we had been.
From the zoo we biked back to the guesthouse and took showers. I had to get all those needles off of me! The waterfall excursion was a nice afternoon, but not exactly what I expected.
Guesthouse
I told you last time that we rented a room in a guesthouse. We are still doing that, but the first room we had was temporary. Another person was in "our" room, so we were waiting for them to leave. In the meantime, we got a nice large room to stay in.
This week we moved into our new room. It is considerably smaller than our original room, so we are have to readjust to the smaller size. Too bad we didn't move from small to large! That would have been much easier. However, we have managed to rearrange furniture and put suitcases on top of and inside one another, so we have enough room.
We continue to cook. Last night was breaded chicken and veggies; the nights before were Mexican. So, we have been able to maintain a relatively varied menu, which is nice. I like Thai food, but I couldn’t stand it 3 times a day, 7 days a week.
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