The country of many wonders
From the mountains to the beach, from the barreness of untouched beauty, to the crowds of Bangkok, we have experienced much on our 3 week trip.
So, where i left off.. after a relaxing night in Khon Kaen, we headed back up into the mountains, this time without any of the Kosa Hotel staff. Our contact drove us up and dropped us off, where we met up with our guides Montree and Ponsak and were off to venture into the caves. We saw 3 beautiful caves, 2 that connected to each other through an underground tunnel where we came upon a Budhist ceremony, being that it was the Chinese New Year, and sat in the dark, listening to the chanting for over 20 minutes. It was really amazing. After caving for the day, we headed back to the campground where we had a home cooked meal by one of the women who lives on the compound and dined on the outdoor patio while watching the sun go down. Who says you can't experience luxury while camping.
Early to bed and to rise, we watched the sunrise from our tent and then headed back up the mountain to try and find a beginner climbing crag, at the request of our contact. So, we bushwacked up the mountain with 3 ropes, a trad rack, helmets, shoes and harnesses, through bamboo, bush and steep hills, having to scramble the last 60 ft (without our packs which we ditched) and did in fact find what he was looking for. After much discussion, we had discovered the desire of the Kosa hotel is to make money. They want to funnel all climbing through them, where climbers would have to take tests to become accredited and go climing with guides. We made it clear to him that this would not work with the climbing community, they would simply go elsewhere. We realized what he wanted was an amusement park for outdoor adventure, for people with money to come and try out climbing, mountainbiking, kayaking, etc. while making themselves a nice profit. Our investment in this project clearly plummeted and despite the large amount of bigwall climbing possibilities in majestic settings on seemingly great rock, we set out to find what he was looking for. We decided to make the most of our opportunity and visiting areas that had not been visited by many people, discovering new places and meeting locals not yet jaded by tourism was indeed an amazing time.
Our last day up north was spent riding around in the back of a pick up truck, through dirt roads, small villages, open fields, mountains, visiting rivers and waterfalls and other possible locations, taking pictures for our contact to be able to see what was available. In fact, the driving was one of the highlights with everything that we saw.. It was so beautiful and pure. And so, we returned to Khon Kaen, put together a presentation with our ideas and suggestions and key photos, and decided it was time to go to the beach. We said our goodbyes to the nice people of Khon Kaen and headed via Bangkok to Cha Am, a small beach community 3 hours south of Bangkok where again, there were few tourists. It was pretty amazing, on the busride down we met a french Canadian man from Riviere du Loup who was now living down there and offered for us to come to his house, drop our bags and he would help us find a place.. He did, and had us over for breakfast the next morning, supper the next night and showed us amazing hospitality. He is a wonderful man who truly made our trip memorable. And of course, so did 5 days by the beach.
Arriving last night to Bangkok, we were bombarded by tourists, merchants and cars. Wandering around the streets, we walked into a store and I turned around to someone saying to me, "Didn't we meet in Australia?" 5 years ago I had travelled with her for about a week on a trip I had taken and we had become good friends. Losing touch over the years, it was a shock to run into her in Thailand and we spent the night catching up.. What a small world, even here in Bangkok.
Today was spent visiting the sights and preparing to head back to Kentucky early tomorrow morning. Photos will be up once I get back and sort through them all. There are about 800 of them.
So, where i left off.. after a relaxing night in Khon Kaen, we headed back up into the mountains, this time without any of the Kosa Hotel staff. Our contact drove us up and dropped us off, where we met up with our guides Montree and Ponsak and were off to venture into the caves. We saw 3 beautiful caves, 2 that connected to each other through an underground tunnel where we came upon a Budhist ceremony, being that it was the Chinese New Year, and sat in the dark, listening to the chanting for over 20 minutes. It was really amazing. After caving for the day, we headed back to the campground where we had a home cooked meal by one of the women who lives on the compound and dined on the outdoor patio while watching the sun go down. Who says you can't experience luxury while camping.
Early to bed and to rise, we watched the sunrise from our tent and then headed back up the mountain to try and find a beginner climbing crag, at the request of our contact. So, we bushwacked up the mountain with 3 ropes, a trad rack, helmets, shoes and harnesses, through bamboo, bush and steep hills, having to scramble the last 60 ft (without our packs which we ditched) and did in fact find what he was looking for. After much discussion, we had discovered the desire of the Kosa hotel is to make money. They want to funnel all climbing through them, where climbers would have to take tests to become accredited and go climing with guides. We made it clear to him that this would not work with the climbing community, they would simply go elsewhere. We realized what he wanted was an amusement park for outdoor adventure, for people with money to come and try out climbing, mountainbiking, kayaking, etc. while making themselves a nice profit. Our investment in this project clearly plummeted and despite the large amount of bigwall climbing possibilities in majestic settings on seemingly great rock, we set out to find what he was looking for. We decided to make the most of our opportunity and visiting areas that had not been visited by many people, discovering new places and meeting locals not yet jaded by tourism was indeed an amazing time.
Our last day up north was spent riding around in the back of a pick up truck, through dirt roads, small villages, open fields, mountains, visiting rivers and waterfalls and other possible locations, taking pictures for our contact to be able to see what was available. In fact, the driving was one of the highlights with everything that we saw.. It was so beautiful and pure. And so, we returned to Khon Kaen, put together a presentation with our ideas and suggestions and key photos, and decided it was time to go to the beach. We said our goodbyes to the nice people of Khon Kaen and headed via Bangkok to Cha Am, a small beach community 3 hours south of Bangkok where again, there were few tourists. It was pretty amazing, on the busride down we met a french Canadian man from Riviere du Loup who was now living down there and offered for us to come to his house, drop our bags and he would help us find a place.. He did, and had us over for breakfast the next morning, supper the next night and showed us amazing hospitality. He is a wonderful man who truly made our trip memorable. And of course, so did 5 days by the beach.
Arriving last night to Bangkok, we were bombarded by tourists, merchants and cars. Wandering around the streets, we walked into a store and I turned around to someone saying to me, "Didn't we meet in Australia?" 5 years ago I had travelled with her for about a week on a trip I had taken and we had become good friends. Losing touch over the years, it was a shock to run into her in Thailand and we spent the night catching up.. What a small world, even here in Bangkok.
Today was spent visiting the sights and preparing to head back to Kentucky early tomorrow morning. Photos will be up once I get back and sort through them all. There are about 800 of them.
posted by Kim at 6:47 AM
2 Comments:
Hey dude. You working too hard to post photos? What about climbing, can you fit any in? Or is it too cold there still? Is spring arriving on your end of the globe? XXOO
This is great info to know.
Post a Comment
<< Home