Farewell Thailand

My final few days in Bangkok...

After spending the night in Bangkok on Khao San road... loud obnoxious backpacker/partying mecca I was ready to leave the big city. I headed down to Hua Hin, enticed by nice beaches and a cool national park. The town itself was nothing special... at all. Lots of resorts and older men and families go there on vacation, or to hook up with young Thai prostitues. It's really sad and I saw it all over the place. But the beach was nice and the park was quite the expedition! I rented a motor bike in order to do a self guided tour of the park and actually see the whole thing rather than pay a bunch of money and only see portions of it. My first stop in the park was to a look out point. 2 minutes up the trail a group of 3 people were hurrying down because they had just been attacked by mean monkeys. They had their water bottles stolen and warned me not to go ahead, especially by myself. I went another 20 yards and saw the monkeys and even worse heard their viscious growling. I quickly rushed back down myself.

My next stop was at the first of three caves. I parked the bike at the bottom of the desserted trailhead and started hiking up. No one else was on the trail or anywhere nearby and at the entrance sure enough the monkeys were lingering about. I risked it and ran past them, I hadn't hiked all the way up there for nothing. The entrance to the huge cave allows some sunlight in but soon after that it becomes pitch black. It was so dark, dead silent and quite scary. Luckily I had thrown my headlamp in (the guidebook says there are lamps for rent and the bottom, but there was absolutely no one around) so could see my footing in front of me and used my camera to take pictures with the flash and then I could look at the photo and see what lay ahead. After much hesitation and careful stepping I eventually made it to the end. It was huge and full of amazing limestone stalactite/mites... I felt so proud of myself for making it to the end but rushed back out as quickly and carefully as I could. Past the monkeys and back down the hill. Cave number two was a much more popular attraction. And quite a sight! So beautiful! And the third was much like the first but even darker though not quite as long.

My last day in Bangkok was spent trying to figure things out for the rest of my travels. I was able to find a family whos organic farm I am going to be working on in Austria about 100km W of Vienna, for 3-5 weeks depending on how it goes. It sounds really great, a couple with two daughters (11 and 14), lots of farm animals, gardening, making cheese, teas, herbal remedies. I'm excited about it! And it's a huge relief as I was getting quite nervous about whether or not i'd be able to afford 3 months in Europe, this should help a lot.

I wandered about see some more of Bangkok I hadn't visted yet, I spent some time wandering around China Town and my lungs started feeling horrible from breathing the gross Bangkok air and made my way to Siam... the shopping district. I found refuge in a huge air conditioned mall... not exactly what I want to spend my time doing, but scored some new contacts (no prescription necessary) which I really needed because I only have one extra pair and I have been having lots of problems with these. So I got another years supply for $25.

Thailand was great...
Next stop: Nepal