I'm Such a Dweeb

So today I booked another tour. It was OK, but stupid me -- I left my camera on the bed back in my room. There was, however, an Italian couple on the trip who took many, many pictures. If nothing got lost in translation, I should receive some photos via email that I will post later. And Ornella -- these folks are going to San Francisco soon and don't speak a word of English. I gave them both of our phone numbers, just in case.

Anyway, this was called the "rainforest" tour. We started out at a mineral hotspring waterfall, with plenty of pools to soak yourself in. The water was a little cooler than usual because of a major rainstorm last night, but it was about bathtub water warm. They say that there's healing powers in the water due to the mineral content, so I soaked as long as they would let me. I really need the scrapes and bug bites on my legs to heal.

Afterwards we drove to Sra Morakot to the "emerald pool". This was a beautiful pool about 1000 meters deep in the rainforest. As we hiked in, we passed lots of butterflies, chestnuts that had dropped on the ground, flowers, and very green pools with lots of moss growing on the bottom. The sounds were incredible -- I never knew the forest could be so loud. If I only had my camera, I would have taken a bit of video for you all to hear. We finally came across the pool, which is a fairly large pool with beautiful emerald colored water. It varies from 1-2 meters deep, so swimming was good. Water runs in at one end over some rocks and runs out over some rocks at the other end. About half of the people there were Thais families out for a day trip. Read this for more information as well as some photos (I just found it and it will have to do until I hear from my Italian friends). Back at the van, a family served us lunch while we chatted. Unfortunately, the group consisted of 2 Italians, 2 Germans, a Japanese family with 1 kid, and an Israeli family with 2 kids. Only the Israeli father spoke any English, so for the first time, I really didn't talk with anyone very much.

When we finished eating, the guide walked us over to the edge of a rubber tree plantation and quickly showed us how they tap the tree for rubber. I was surprised to hear that rubber production is the #1 industry in the Krabi province. Palm oil production is #2, followed by fishing and then tourism. Various food productions (rice, pineapple, banana, etc.) round out the top 10. I'm so glad it's not just tourism here!

We then went to Wat Tham Suea, or the Tiger Cave Temple. This was my entire reason for taking this trip. This place is a real working Buddhist monastery and a center for meditation. Monks were everywhere and there were several temples at the ground level. There's also a 1200 step climb to the top of a mountain, where there is another temple and a view overlooking Krabi. My knee has been holding up surprisingly well, so I really wanted to go up. Unfortunately, the guide wouldn't let me. Apparently, there wasn't enough time. He suggested that I stay and they'd come back for me later and charge me an extra 1000B. That's the cost of my room! Well, I refused and was very disappointed. But I did see the cave where he claimed the tiger used to be (but that is apparently just an old wives tale for tourists) as well as lots and lots of monks and monkeys. The monkeys there are far more aggressive than those I saw on Tuesday. The poor fools who bought bananas had monkeys climbing all over them. I also saw one try to steal a camera. Did I mention that I'm so over monkeys?

When I returned to Ao Nang, I went to talk to the travel desk that booked me on the tour. Weerawan (that's her name) wasn't too happy. She's offered to arrange a cab for me to go back out there and do the climb. Depending on the weather, I'll go either tomorrow or Saturday. I WON'T FORGET MY CAMERA! And of course, I'll go back to see my elephants again before I leave (don't you just love how I own them now?).

But here's the question: should I do a day at the Thai Cooking Academy? I might have to 'cause I just don't know how I'll get along without my pad thai ...