6.7.24

John was fast asleep by 9pm last night, I wasn’t far behind him.

‘Larry’ told us we need to be on the road by 9am, then get the boat to Phraya Nakon Cave as the hike is very long and steep.

He said to make sure we were at the cave by 10.30am so that we would see the sunlight on the Kuha Kharuehat Pavilion.

He didn’t tell us about the muddy swamp beach to get to the boat !!

He also didn’t mention the 430m steps to climb. Intense sun and very humid.

It was 10.50am by the time we reached this little temple.

Built in 1890 for King Chulalongkorn (Rama V)’s visit in 1890. Incredible.

To be honest if it was totally crap we would still sing its praises as we were still alive and still breathing.

It wasn’t crap. It was magical.

A guide with a first aid box saw us looking at the time and looking at the sky, he asked if we were waiting for the sunlight, yes we said, have we missed it? No it only happens in November. We were 4 months early. Maybe my heart rate would come down if we sat and waited til November.

We don’t actually believe Larrys ever been there!

The last 130 metres was downhill, which meant 130m up on the way out.

The rest was easy peasy, downhill all the way.

Near the bottom a lady was saying to her friend that she wasn’t sure if she would manage it.

I told her I’m 63,and I managed it. She was motivated to carry on!

I’ve officially turned into an old biddy on this trip. I have no idea what the coins are and have done that thing where I let the cashiers help themselves.

It feels like only a few years ago that I was rolling my eyes at the old biddies telling me to take whatever coppers I needed while working as a Saturday girl on the tills at Sainsburys. Now I’m telling people my age!

We were very lucky to see some Dusky Langur monkeys near the bottom of the rocks. They were gorgeous, even a little ginger baby one.

We had lunch in the big restaurant at the bottom of the mountain. Spring rolls for me.

John fancied sweet and sour, but the menu only had pork or shrimps. He thinks he’s eaten too much pork and wanted chicken. The waitress didn’t understand, so I flapped my wings and went bub bub bub. Ahhhhh Gai.

She took great delight at telling the other staff. They were giggling. It amazes me that restaurants and cafes at places  of interest are no dearer than anywhere else, good business sense and plenty of customers

My spring rolls were probably the best I’ve ever had, but there again eye of toad and toe of newt would have been a good reward. I literally look and feel like a creature from a mud lagoon.

The bad news was that we had to go back through the mud, first to get onto our no. 16 boat, or walk 30 minutes up and over the mountain. The guy at the desk called the boat for us.

By the time we had waded through a little bit of mud he was there waiting for us.

We had the joy of de mudding using the hoses outside the cafe where we bought our drinks at the beginning of our adventure this morning.

Next was the National Park. About a 15 minute scooter journey.

I’ve really been looking forward to exploring. Also nervous of wild elephants and reports of big wild cats. Larry said they’re at the top end, but we should see eagles and other birds of prey and water otters.

I needn’t of worried.

We showed our ticket from the cave which includes the National Park entry fee and were directed to the board walk. I asked what time they closed. 3.30pm, it was almost 2pm. Hoping we had enough time to do the nature trail, off we went.

It took us about 7 minutes to complete. We saw one crab, some lizards and another mangrove.

Across the road reportedly there was a porcupine cave and a horse shoe trail.

No idea whether it would have been worthwhile following the signs because we were being eaten alive by some kind of fly/mosquito things, which land and draw blood. Ewwwww.

Back on our scooter, and off to 7 Eleven for drinks and snacks.

John couldn’t buy beers, between 11am and 2 and then 5pm is ok, but not at 4pm.

We discovered the machines where you can serve your own drinks. I opted for something orangy brown thinking it might be caramel or toffee milk, it wasn’t, no idea what it was. John had diet cola.  We’d almost dtunk them by the time we got to the till. We’ve lost gallons of body fluids today.

John had cheesecake, which was ok, I had toffee cake, which was amazing, after a well earned shower back at our Blue Beach room.

Apparently there’s a night market on a Saturday. I’m trying not to get excited for fear of disappointment.

John is on research duties, we haven’t anything booked after tomorrow. Very unlike us, but we left it blank in case there was anywhere we wanted to go back to.

We fancy doing a train journey.

John looked at options and hatched a plan.

By the time we decided to go to the market it was raining very hard.

We waited a long while, it got worse, then a bit better, but no sign of stopping. Umbrellas at the ready and off we went. The puddles were huge and obviously no Saturday night market.

There weren’t many places open, it was 7.45pm and some places were starting to close.

We ended up at the place where I had the coriander crunchy rice. There was an Indian menu. The young girl recognised me and confirmed it was a different chef.

However, he wasn’t there, 10 minutes, then 15 more, etc etc. Just like Turkey! He eventually appeared, said 5 minutes, which became another 45 minutes.

But wow, definitely worth the wait. He apologised profusely and genuinely cared whether we enjoyed our food. He was from the north of India and gave some tips about where to visit.

In 7 Eleven we had bought some dog biscuits and before going out John decanted some into a small container. He found a cat and tried to make friends with it by shaking the container. The cat was having none of it. John had brought my coffee instead of the biscuits.

The rain had stopped, everywhere was miraculously puddle free.

Just like the puddles John was steaming when we came back into Blue Beach car park.

Our scooter was on the ground, covered in mud. In its original space was a large Blue Beach van, so they had moved it. He marched off to find the resort owner. He was with other people, one of them laughed, then the owner laughed.

He came back to the scooter, the owner came over. He said it’s ok, the ground is soft, realising that wasn’t helpful he said he was very sorry.

John went out and cleaned it all off, hopefully no harm done.

To add to that drama John is now trying to book train seats, the site keeps crashing, then his tablet battery was dying.

I’m keeping quiet and hoping it all gets booked before more steam comes out his ears.

It’s been a lovely day in this stunning area, even with all the mud. It’s gorgeous.