Phuket Trip Day 6!

Today we were up very early in order to see the sunrise, and the mist crawl over the mountains.  We got into a military bus, and drove to the spot.  We then had to climb up a slight slope (but due to the fact I haven't been doing much excersize, it felt like a whole mountain (hehe)) before finally arriving at the top of the hill.

It was well worth the slight hike though, the sunrise was pretty cool, even though we didn't really get to see the sun rise, we saw the mist, which was awesome!!

So here is a picture of the mist creeping through the jungle.  It was really awesome to watch, and in some places it looked like a white foggy river running through the trees.  There was some long story about how it resembled a snake and stuff, but I can't really remember....oops. 

 Another picture of the fog crawling through the jungle with a  little bit of the sunrise in the background.  It wasn't cold out, but I was feeling tired due to the fact that it was really early in the morning, and I hadn't had a sleep in for a loong time. 

 This is another picture...not sure what else I can say about it....so it is just another picture of the fog. 

 Hehe...yet another picture of the morning fog.  I'll leave it at that.

 More fog pictures, well more of mist pictures than fog pictures...

 A wild orchid.  Orchids here are very common, and they grow everywhere.  This one was just growing alongside the path, so I decided to take a picture of it, because I know how much Grandpa loves orchids. 

Leaving the area where we watched the sunrise, this is a picture of the road, with the mist slowly creeping up on us. 

Our next order of  business was going caving.  This was a rally cool experience because it allowed us to do a variety of things.  We got to explore a cave, do a bit of swimming, and  a lot of climbing around.  If you had back problems or leg problems, it wouldn't have been a good trip, but it was quite fun.

This is one of the formations that we saw in the cave.  We had to bend at funny angles in order to get around it.  We could either go under it, or squeeze between it and the wall on the opposite side. 

So this is at the mouth of the cave, we had to climb down into it.  We got to climb through it.  This was one of the few areas that most people (I was short enough to be able to walk through most of it) could actually stand up in.  The only source of light that we had was three flashlights that were spread out throughout the group. 

Another formation in the cave that I thought was pretty cool.  It was hard to avoid hitting some of them, and one or two people ended up smackking their heads on the formations.  Luckily I was not one of these people.  

The crawling portion.  There were some places that you had to crawl in order to get to the otherside.  I'll tell you one thing, I was really happy that there was water flowing through the cave, because crawling on your knees in sand can get pretty painful.  I swam most of the areas that involved me crawling. :)

A group shot of us standing in the cave.  Its hard to see, but in the background there is a small waterfall, but you wouldn't be able to see it.  It was hard to get good pictures because it was really dark, and you pretty much just randomly shot a picture in the dark, and hoped that you got what you wanted. 

The climbing section.   There were a few areas where you actually had to climb.  Luckily there were ropes and ladders that you could grasp onto, but it was still pretty slippery, and somewhat scary in places.  None of us fell off, but my foot did slip a few times, and I was very happy that I had a good grip on the wall, because falling would have been pretty painful. 

 Bats....well like many caves, this cave had bats.  The girl from Finland discovered that she was terrified of bats, causing her to shriek (much to our displeasure) everytime a bat came near.  These were fruit bats, so we didn't need to worry about them coming after us.  It was really cool to be sitting there in the dark and feel the rush of the wind caused mby the bats, gently stroke your face. 

 Another shot of the bats in the cave, this time actually getting a few bats in action (flying).  They were pretty small, which surprised me, I guess I somewhat expected huge bats that would fly down and suck my blood...I think I have been reading too many vampire stories.  Haha

 The final destination within the cave was this waterfall.  The water was coming down quite quickly, making it hard for me to keep my eyes open for a picture, but now that I look at the picture, you can't really tell if my eyes are open or not..so it doesn't really matter.  :)

 Climbing through another section of the cave on our way out of the cave.  :)

A group picture at the cave where we just were.  It was pretty awesome :)

Our final stop of the day was hiking up a mountain to see some big waterfalls.  Two of the girls weren't feeling up to climbing up a mountain, so they stayed on the bus, while the rest of us headed up the mountain. 

 The hike started out pretty good, not to hard or anything.  We had to cover ourselves in tobacco and water in order to scare the leeches away.  Due to the increase of rain that we had been having (due to it being the rainy season) we had to be extra careful about leeches.  We were doing pretty good, but suddenly everyone started booking it....Emi and I had no clue what was happening, so we just ran with them, with no idea why.  We were told we would only be running for 400 meters at most, but by the time we eventually stopped it felt like much more than 400 meters..  It turns out Anna (one of the girls from the USA)  had been bit by a leech, two actually, and we were running so that the others didn't follow us.  It turns out Pee-Boy, our chaperone, is terrified of leeches, and let out a very girly screech when he found out about the leeches. 

This is a section of the path that we walked.  We had lunch a few hundred meters away from this area, before heading back toward the bus because we figured the leeches would only get worse the closer we got to the waterfalls. 

We ended up not seeing the waterfalls, which was a little dissappointing, but on the bright side I didn't get any leeches...Anna ended up with two, and David had like 5 living on his socks.  Pee-Boy freaked out every time, so it was quite amusing. 

That was the end of our trip, and we all headed off to our respective buses, before heading off to our towns.  It was a long but exciting trip, that I enjoyed thoroughly. 

Phuket Trip Day 5!

Our day started out by leaving our "host mom" in Phuket and heading to the meeting area.  We had the breakfast of champions...icecream and water, before all piling into a bus to head off to Nakorn Si Thammerat.  The trip would take about four hours, so most of us tried to catch up on some shut eye since we were all feeling a bit tired. 

The first thing that we did when we got to our hotel was get into our bathing suits and head out on a river rafting adventure.  It wasn't actually a river rafting adventure because there weren't many rapids...okay there were barely any rapids, but it was still quite fun.  We rode in the back of a pick up truck there, and that was an adventure in itself....every bump felt like we were going to fall out..but no one ever did. 

We ended up having three boats-one big one and two small ones....but the big one never flipped because it was too big, the little ones flipped quite often, which was quite amusing. We learned that David (the only boy exchange student at the time) was not a nature boy, and everytime water got into the boat, he would frantically attempt to bail the boat out....which was really funny to watch.


We ended up having three boats-one big one and two small ones....but the big one never flipped because it was too big, the little ones flipped quite often, which was quite amusing. We learned that David (the only boy exchange student at the time) was not a nature boy, and everytime water got into the boat, he would frantically attempt to bail the boat out....which was really funny to watch.

 This is a picture of some of us in the back of the truck.  The people in the back of the truck are Kimberly, Courtney, Anna, Emi, Pee-Boy, Emily, Emily, and Emmi.  Haha it was quite an adventure :)

 The people in the big boat!  As you can tell, the water isn't exactly the cleanest, so we were told not to drink it.  I'm not sure if they thought we were going to lean over and take a drink, but it was nice that they warned us against it....

 The two smaller boats that headed down the river...these boats were flipped quite often, and I did get the opportunity to ride in one of these, but we didn't flip until the end when the guide flipped it for us. 

 Three of us desperately trying to get away from that rapid after the boat flipped.  You can't see it in this picture, but the other boat is directly behind them, and they got run over by it...which caused the other boat to flip.  Quite amusing for all of us. 

 A group shot of us chilling on a rock in the middle of the river.  It took a lot of effort to get to this rock, because the current was much stronger than we originally thought.  There were a few people who fell over, and then floated down a few feet before one of the other people grabbed them and helped them back to their feet. 

 This is Pee-Boy, our chaperone, showing us the rubber trees.  These are famous in the province of Nakorn Si Thammerat, and they were everywhere.  They collect rubber much like they collect maple syrup in Canada.  They use a tap, and then a collection bowl.  The people would collect the rubber in the early hours of the morning, (these ones had yet to be collected, despite the fact it was quite late in the day). 

 Here is a close up shot of the collection of rubber.  I thought it was a very creative picture :)

 After our dropping off the boats and the guides, we headed to this hotspring type thing.  There was a natural hotspring, but had been channeled into this tub, so that we could warm up after our chilly adventure on the water.  It was really quite nice:) nice and warm. 

We were given these drinks that were made out of natural ingredients, that all had a different "healing" power.  Some were there to help with eyesight, stress, blood pressure....lots of different things.  They weren't always the best tasting though, some were downright nasty.  I drank one that was made out of ginger, that was pretty good.  So after that we headed back to the hotel, showered in cold water (defeated the purpose of that warm hotspring) and then ate and chatted for a bit.  We headed to bed fairly early because we were going to be getting up early in order to see the sunrise!

Phuket Trip Day Four Continued Again!

There was more that we were going to do today, it was really a jam packed day that took a lot out of me.  Our next stop was to the Tharn Thara (pronounced Tan Tara) Spa.  They figured that after all the stress of the procession, we should have a trip to the spa to recouperate.  Our time at the spa consisted of us having 15 minutes in a sauna, the air was infused with some sort of herb that made us sweat a lot, and then 15 minutes in a jacuzzi (with the same herb).  We then had a hour long traditional Thai massage.  It was all very relaxing, and I almost fell asleep during the massage. 

Our next stop was at Big Buddha, and thats what it was.  It was a gigantic statue of a Buddha.  When we first got there it was rainy and so misty that we could barely see the statue.  Luckily for us, the mist cleared and we were able to see it a bit better. 

 This is the view when we first got here...the most we could really make out was his hand, and then just the misty outline of where the rest of his body would be.  Luckily it cleared up so we could see more:)

 After the mist had cleared a bit, this is what we could see.  It fogged over after a bit, and started to get really rainy and windy, so we didn't have much time here. 

 This is the future of the Big Buddha.  This is what they want to buildup, and you are allowed to donate money in order to fund this expansion.  As of right now they just have the Big Buddha, and the golden one, but they are working on the expansion.  The way that they set up the donation area was really smart.  You could pay 100 Baht for a small marble tile, or 300 for a large tile, and then write a message on the tile.  They would then carve your message into a piece of marble that would eventually go onto the Big Buddha...or so they say.  Either way, it was a good idea, and I bought a small tile and wrote my name on it :)

 The view from the Big Buddha.  This is looking out over the hills to the city below, and the ocean off to the side.  It would probably be a lot prettier if there wasn't the fog/clouds, but I thought it was a unique picture, and the grays give it some character. 

 My friend Courtney and I standing by the big drum.  You hit this three times for good luck.  Due to the wind that we were experiencing, I think the drum hit me three times for good luck.

The Bell Tree.  I'm not sure the significance of this but I have seen them at a lot of the temples I have visited.  It is a tree that has a great quantity of bells hanging off of it.  I know that you can ring the bells for good luck, but other than that I don't know the significance.  When the wind blew through the tree, it made a beautiful twinkling sound. 

I bought a piece of marble that would eventually go onto the Big Buddha, to help in advancing the reconstruction.  You could put a message on the marble that would be carved into it, before being placed onto the statue.  Even if my message never gets put up there, I still got to help to make it bigger :). 
Our next stop was shopping, and I bought a few English books because my town doesn't really sell English books, and I wanted something to read.  There was quite a few cool things in this mall, but nothing that really jumped out and said "Buy Me! Buy Me!" Haha.  It was weird seeing all of the "western" food chains.  I saw Subway, McDonalds (big surpise there!), Starbucks...lots of different shops.

Our last stop of the evening was at the Phuket FantaSea..pretty much a big zoo, but not really a zoo.  I don't know how to explain it....it did have a few wild animals (white tigers, deer, birds) but it also had a lot of other things like games and stores.  We watched a show here, that told a bit of the history of Thailand, using elephants, animals, traditional Thai dance, and then some more unique acrobatic things.  It was all pretty good, but by the time it was over, we were all feeling very tired, and couldn't wait to get to bed.  Tomorrow we would be heading to Nakorn Si Thammerat to continue our adventure.