Once again I awoke to the sounds of roosters, pigs, buffalo and the various other barnyard animals. Breakfast was rice soup with onions and lots of garlic. It takes a special kind of determination to eat such strong garlic that early in the morning, but I knew I would need my energy for the day. The trekking for the morning was pretty easy. We followed the river again, and then managed to convince Ray to take us up the hill path. Evidently, it hadn't been used in some time as the path was pretty overgrown and Ray had his machete out clearing the way. At one point we had to make a big detour; we were walking along a thin path around the side of a hill, and a large tree had fallen over, taking with it a very large clump of bamboo. The resulting blockade was very thick and high, and so we climbed down the hill into a dry rice paddy to get around. (Being the end of the dry season, the rice paddies are all dry and barren, although other crops have been planted in some).Back to the river, sandals on, and we trudged through some brilliant boggy mud. The thicky oozy smelly mud that is very smooth. It didn't really matter, as we were walking through the river so much our feet were never muddy for long. I did spot a few leeches on the path, but none of them got us. At one point we came across a village, and right in the middle of it, by the river, was a huge concrete bridge being built. Apparently a few years ago a big flood came down the river and wiped out the bridge, so they were building the replacement. It was just very weird walking through the jungle, with no signs of habitation, and then turning a corner and finding a huge construction project with tonnes of concrete.
We only walked for about two and a half hours, with only one stop halfway. At about lunchtime we one again emerged from the wild straight into a reasonably large tourist area at the site of a large cave complex, Tham Lot. Here we had a simple lunch at one of the eateries, part of our trek package. Also included was a guided tour of the cave. We followed an old Thai lady, who carried a large gas lantern, and she led us into the cave itself. The place is huge beyond imagination. At the entrance to the cave are thousands upon thousands of swallows, who were flying about. Apparently if you go there in the evening, you can watch the 50 000 birds leave the cave. It would have been a great site, but alas, we would not be there for it. Our little Thai guide spoke very little english, but had memorised the english names for the various things within the cave. We walked around inside the cave for close to an hour. The main chamber was so big, that the light from the gas lantern didn't reach to the far walls. It was quite eery walking along in total dark with nothing to see except the ground and your feet.
Running through the main cavern is a river, and we walked across a rickety bamboo bridge in the darkness, and then climbed various wooden stairs that had been built into the cave. I have been in quite a few caves before, but these ones were by far the most amazing. Apart from the very large stalactites and stalagmites, which were impressive enough on their own, there was also an abundance of other rock formations, some of which I didn't understand the geology of. There was a large rock formation that glittered with what looked like diamonds, little 'cups' that looked like small rimmed craters, a giant rock formation that very literally looked like it was covered in popcorn, giant hanging sheets of rock that looked like folded curtains, small ridges that ran along the ground, giant pillars and large sinkholes. There is also a small caveman painting of a deer, which they think is a few thousand years old. Overall, the caves were very very impressive.
We got back to the small village of Sappong by motorbike taxi. The trip was quite scenic, winding through the jungle and farmland, although that wasn't the most memorial part of the motorbike ride. Climbing up a steep hill quite slowly, a large SUV came straight down the middle of the road, forcing my driver to swerve into the grassy verge, and ever so lightly touch into the bamboo fence. It wasn't really an accident, as we were going so slow, but it didn't make my driver very happy. Ray stopped behind us, and we pulled the scooter out to continue the journey, although my driver went a lot slower! From Sappong back to Pai on the local bus, and I checked back into my same guesthouse, and got the same bamboo hut I had before! Unfortunately this time the electricity didn't work for some reason, but no big deal. The small remainder of the afternoon was spent doing laundry, updating this blog, and investigating transport to Laos. I only have a few days left on my visa, so need to get out of Thailand quickly. I booked a 9 hour minibus ride that will take me to Chiang Khong on the border, leaving early in the morning. In the evening I met the other person from my trek for dinner and a few beers, although we both had a reasonably early night after the last three days of activity.
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