Trekking Day 3

We woke up early for breakfast at the park at 8:00 today. Some weird porridge was for breakfast, but it tasted pretty good. Then we left for trekking at 9:00! First we walked through the forest to see some waterfalls. On the way there I saw 2 dead scorpions on the road! The forest was beautiful, and the trails were nice. We ended up seeing the same waterfalls we had seen yesterday, but from the other side! The tour guides took us to another waterfall level that was beautiful! The water was clear and there were so many fish! The fish were pretty big and the guides told us we could stick our feet in the water and let the fish eat off the dead skin!

Afterwards we headed to a different park where some ancient caves existed deep in the forest. We went from park to park while sitting in the back of pick up trucks. That was one of my favorite parts of the trip so far! The views were phenomenal! We could see mountains covered in trees, a huge dam, and a variety of Thai houses. We arrived at the park and had a great lunch of fried rice, eggs, chicken, and vegetables. The tour guide told us the hike from the base area to the cave was 600 meter, but he failed to mention that it was 600 meters of steep stairs. My legs were DYING! It may have been one of the most physically taxing things I have ever done. The outside of the cave at the top was beautiful! There was gorgeous flora and fauna and the cave itself sported stalagmites and stalactites galore! Unfortunately, I did not go into the cave. Although I have been in caves before, this cave really scared me because the entrance was itsy bitsy! It was the sixe of a small doorway and only one person at a time could fit through. I decided to pass because situations like that freak me out, and I know I wouldn’t be able to enjoy what was inside if I was freaking out about getting back out safely. Apparently the inside was very spacious; a big room with 30 meter tall ceilings! 

After hiking, a bunch of us went to get some ice cream and get changed for swimming in the river. I had the most delicious strawberry ice cream that I have ever had! Unfortunately, I hadn’t brought a swimsuit because I didn’t realize swimming would be an option. Most of us just swam in our clothes. The water was so pretty and there were fish everywhere! I let the fish bite off the dead skin cells on the bottom of my feet. Most people didn’t like it, but I didn’t mind. It just felt a little tickly. On our way to the river we got an unexpected surprise, Monkeys! There were monkeys just hanging out in the trees surrounding the river. It was absolutely unreal to be swimming in a gorgeous natural river, with waterfalls on either side, and monkeys jumping through the trees above me. I also swam back and stood behind the waterfall! On my way back into the swimming hole I hit my leg on a rock and got scratched up pretty well, so that was the end of swimming for me.