I woke up at 7am (GMT+7hours) to get ready for the local tour I booked the day before. Nervous as hell, as this will be the first time I'm going on a local tour booking with a bunch of strangers that are prolly going in pairs.
Trip of the day: Jungle trekking
Guide Name: Gan --- good spoken English, good understanding of complicated questions asked by our group of 14, bad and lame jokes.
Group Members: 2 from French, 2 from England, 1 Canadian, a Russian family of 4 (Mom, Dad, Son & Daughter), 4 others which I forgot where they're from, and me.
Destination: Hot spring waterfall, Emerald Pool, Blue Pool, Tiger Cave Temple
When we were told that our trip to the hot spring waterfall will take approximately 50 minutes to reach, I, of course, doze off. If there were any additional lame jokes being told along the way, I'm glad I missed it.
Don't get me wrong. Gan is an extremely nice girl, which makes it even harder for us to tell her straight to her face her jokes sucks, and we're all forced to fake a laugh with her. It's just plain sad.
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Destination 1: Hot Spring Waterfall
We're told by Gan that the water atop of the hills is close to boiling point that you can boil an egg in it, but since it's a 2km hike uphill through the jungle and we cannot bathe in it (unless we wanted to cook ourselves), we'll be heading straight to the waterfall, which water is about 30°C - 40°C.
As we went headed to the waterfall, I can feel steam radiating from the water in the stream, which makes me even more curious about how hot can the water on top of the hills be. My mind kept drifting there. I really wanted to go on top of the hills badly to throw an egg in there and test if Gan's theory of boiling an egg is true. Well, that, and also partly because I was hungry.
When we reach the so said "waterfall" it turns out to be a very small slope, where the which water falls from the hill created a couple of natural 'tub' where people can actually lie in it and enjoy a therapeutic dip. While the rest who immediately stripped off and jumped into the hot spring to take their dip, I told Gan that I wanted to follow the jungle trek further down to where the water flow ends.
When I reached the end of the trek, I came to a huge river-like steam and I thought to myself: "I wonder what the water temperature is like here?" So out of curiosity I dip my right foot in...A chill went straight up my spine! Holy fucking shit! The water is cold!! How can the water be so cold when water of a natural hot spring of 40°C flows into it 24 hours a day, non-stop!
When I got back to the meeting point, I asked Gan about it and was informed that apparently the water that flows there came from the Emerald Pool. As the water from the Emerald Pool is cold water, water from the hot spring gets nuetralized into nothingness. I have a feeling I wouldn't like the Emerald Pool so much.
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Destination 2: Emerald Pool + Blue Pool
Journey from the hot spring to the Emerald Pool takes about 15 minutes on the mini van. The pool is up another hill beside the one where the hot spring is situated. To get to the pool, Gan took us on an 800 meters hike down a ready-made pathway.
While on the path to the pool, Gan introduced me the Canadian who also happens to be travelling alone. Jud, 70 years old this year, sold his house November last year and has been travelling around Asia since. His last stop will be in Phenon Phen where will will fly back to Vancouver at the end of February, and is still not certain what will happen when he gets back, since he is now homeless. And for someone who's already 70 years old, he's got the best stamina of us all, we'll get to that later...
When we got to the Emerald Pool, I wasn't exactly amazed. It's just an almost-round pool with clear spring water in it, which flows down from the hills and happens to create a huge pool in the middle of the jungle. But according to Gan, the water in the pool contains minerals and water in the pool should not be drank. And a note of warning from her to all of us: It's slippery everywhere! Almost everyone jumped in the minute they heard mineral and good for the skin. While they are taking a dip, I told Gan I wanted to go see the Blue Pool which is another 500 meters hike into the jungle path uphill.
The hike was really no joke. Even with wooden planks laid out as a path to follow, it was a scary experience to hike up to the Blue Pool. If it weren't for two other guys and a girl whom I met during my hike up, I would've gave up and turn back. And I'm really glad I didn't turn back!The pool, oh my fucking gawd, is really blue! I really don't get it! You can actually see that the water is clear blue in color! As the description of the pool is written in Thai and I don't understand Thai, I really have no idea what and why the pool is blue and a "NO SWIMMING" sign hangs in the vicinity. I just know that there were bubbles coming up from below. (Click to enlarge the picture below...you will see it...)
I really can't wait to head back to Gan and ask her what's with the Blue Pool that when I reached the vicinity of the Emerald Pool, me being me, I of course, slipped and fell and nipped myself on the elbow. >.< According to Gan, what made the pool blue is because of the minerals contained in the water. However, no one is allowed to swim there because the bottom of the pool is actually quick sand! o.O
After spending about an hour at the Emerald pool, we had lunch a simple lunch at the restaurant just outside of the national park before making our way to the Tiger Cave Temple.
The minute we got on the mini van, Gan told us we need to conserve our energy and take a nap if we could because we would need all the strength we can muster for the Tiger Cave Temple visit. At first I didn't quite understand her, then after seeing the question marks floating above our head, she continues: "There are two ways to go about at the Tiger Cave. One is up the hill to the top of the mountains, where you will get a panoramic view of Krabi and see a giant Buddha statue above the hills, while the other way is a up a jungle path where you will see the original tiger cave, where the monks used to meditate and live and where their meeting place."
And just when I was about to ask, someone did it for me: "Can we go both ways?" The answer was, expectly, no. Gan explains, "If you choose the first way, which is to go up the hill, you will need to climb 1237 steps up. But if you choose to go the second way, you will only have to climb 250 steps." At that point, I thought to myself. We have Batu Caves in Malaysia, if I can do Batu Caves, I'm sure I can do Tiger Cave, right? So I slept for the next 50 minutes of the journey.
When we got there, I couldn't wait to clim up the steps and reach the top to see what there. Most of the women gave up the minute they reach there and decided to go for the 250 steps jungle hike, so me, the French couple, the Russian guy and his son, the British guy and Jud (the 70-year-old Canadian uncle) sets out on our journey up the steps.* * * * * * * * * *
Destination 3: Tiger Cave Temple
Only one word came to mind when I reach steps #247...
..."FUCK!"
The steps first started out ok, then from steps, it became a steep ladder climb!
While I was on the verge of fainting and shortness of breath at Step #458, I lost sight of the the 70-year-old Canadian, who sprinted up the stairs as if they were steps from his house!
At Step #925, deep inside my heart, I was cursing whichever fucker who painted the numbers at the pole of every landing. If you don't know which flight you are on, at least you can look up and tell yourself you're about to reach, but when you keep seeing those numbers, your mind will keep counting and tell you how far you are from the top and how close you are from dying from an asthma attack.
The Russian kiddo bypasses me at Step #1105, and at that point, I couldn't care about how long it was going to take me to reach the top. I'm just gonna sit and rest for every 10 flights of steps I climb, and pray hard that I wouldn't faint and fall backwards down the flights I just climbed up from. Oh, did I forget to mention that landings don't count as a "step"? = =
...Finally!
I was the third to made it up to the top, then came the Britsh guy, who told me that we lost the Russian guy at about steps #600 or so, and the French couple are still making their way up the steps when he last saw them. After about 15 minutes or so, the couple made it and the four of us cheered for them for finally making it, before breaking to them the unfortunate news of us only having less than 20 minutes to get our arses back down before Gan and the rest of the team leaves us there. But we decided we couldn't care less anymore. We're up there and they're down there. There's nothing she can do, unless she can sprint up those steps in less than 15 minutes to haul our arses back down.
The kiddo started to make his way down while the rest of us, try to catch our breath (mostly me and the British guy), take pictures (mostly the French couple), and enjoy the view (only that 70-year-old uncle). The phrase "breath-taking view" will never be the same again for all of us after this trip.
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While making our way down from the mountain top, we had ourselves a little bonding time. The French couple told us they are newlyweds which are currently on their honeymoon. The wife also told us that the husband actually had a knee problem which the doctor advise him not stress his legs during the trip, and while we are on the way down, he was clearly limping because of the pain. The wife held him each steps of the way down, while the rest of us waited for them at every landing we came across.
The 70-year-old uncle told us that he lives in the mountain area of Canada which is why he is so accustomed to climbing up high steps. PLUS, he is also a part of a relay team in his city, where he would train himself for at least an hour a day to make a 250km lap with his team every week! Talk about staying in shape!
The British guy shared with us that he and his wife are in Krabi to get away from the cold weather in England, where when they left is covered with snow everywhere they go. And when they asked me where I'm from, everybody seemed to be in shocked. "You don't speak like a Malaysian." "I thought you're from Hong Kong!"
Isaac always tells me that I speak with a weird American-British accent, which I disagree with. My European colleague, Alessandra, once asked if I graduated overseas because of my accent. Well, at least we can now conclude that regardless of how my English sound like, it ain't Malaysian English. = =
