Krabi Adventure 3: Second Day with Scooter

For my second day with the scooter I decided to explore inland, planning to head first to the Golden Temple I had heard about and could see from downtown Krabi gleaming at the top of a distant mountain and then further north still to a spot on my Maps.Me app labeled "Good View from Top of Waterfall".  Due to the impossibility of looking at the map app while riding the scooter I ended up turning off the main road too early again (though this time it was a different main road) and missed the Golden Temple completely.  But when I realized that I decided it was okay and I'd go to the other place first and either go to the Golden Temple on the way back or get there some other day.  I still had about 16 days after all.  What a luxury!

As I scootered north I occasionally stopped to check my map app which was easier to do now that I was on a less busy road.  At some point I realized I was heading for a national park and I also saw signs for a cave.  Eventually, just before the entrance to the national park I saw a turn for the cave and I took it, which put me on a small dirt road.  But there were no more signs.  I stopped at one point to check my map again and take a picture (below) and just as I was about to depart and keep looking for the cave a person came walking toward me shouting and waving her hands.  This turned out to be a deaf mute woman who worked as a cave guide.  Through hand gestures she let me know she'd give me a tour of the cave for 200 baht (about $6) and though I usually prefer to explore on my own I agreed because I couldn't really figure out how to turn her down.  So I followed her on her scooter off the road I was on on a track through the woods until we stopped at a little shelter area.  Then she led me on a footpath across a field to the base of a mountain and up a mountain path to the cave entrance.  It turned out to be a good thing she'd found me and become my guide because I never would have found the cave without her, much less have been able to explore within it since she carried headlamps for herself and me and later guided me to a second cave full of bats where she gave me some insect repellent to use since the second cave was full of mosquitoes.  That was the only time I used insect repellent the whole time I was in Thailand.

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The picture I was taking when my guide found me.

My cave guide leading me toward the cave from where we'd parked our scooters.

Following my guide up the mountain.

View of the sheer face of the mountain.

We have arrived at the cave entrance.

Apparently my guide painted this.  She let me know several times that this whole area belonged to her.  I guess this was her way of staking her claim.

I'm ready to go into the cave.

My guide showing me some "pools" which, from other excursions, I know form when the mineral-rich water seeps through the earth and comes out in a puddle which eventually overflows and accretes material around the lip.  You can still see the cave entrance on the left of this picture but we soon left that behind and it became completely dark except for our headlamps.  As I said, it was a good thing my guide found me because without her I'd never have found the cave to begin with and certainly wouldn't have been able to explore within if somehow I had.

One of the large rooms inside the cave.  My guide showed me the remains of a campfire on the floor at one point and let me know she sleeps there.  I don't know if that's every night or just once in a while.

Here are a couple of frogs.  There were lots of frogs in the parts of the cave which had a damp floor.

Coming back out again.

Heading back down the mountain.

On the way up my guide had explained, at a fork in the trail, why we were going one way and not the other.  I thought she'd been saying that if we went the other way we'd fall to our deaths.  But it turned out that the other path led to a second cave, and she must have been saying that we'd visit that one on the way down.  I realized that when we took that fork on the way back.  Here we are at the entrance to the second cave and we're applying insect repellent because this cave was full of mosquitoes, which seemed weird because there hadn't been any mosquitoes up until now.  But this cave was also full of bats.  The first cave had only had about 2 bats in it, which my guide had hooted at trying to get them to fly around.  I wished she hadn't because I didn't want to bother them, not because I was frightened of them but I know that some bats are endangered and I didn't want to stress them out.  Well this second cave was absolutely full of bats and they flew all around us.  My guide kept reassuring me they wouldn't bite (by using one hand like a mouth to pretend-bite her arm and shaking her head as if to say no).

Here are some bats.

A view out of the cave

Another bat.  This cave (at the least the part we went in) was a bit smaller than the first cave but at one point my guide let me know that for another 600 baht she could take me deeper into it into a section where we'd be up to our waists in water and have to swim and would eventually come out a different exit than we'd gone in but I declined that extra tour.

Heading back down the mountain to the parking area.

When we got back to the scooters my guide asked me if I had an cigarettes but I didn't.  I asked her if she had any beers but she didn't.  So we were about to part ways when another scooter with a young couple on it came driving past from further down the road.  My guide started yelling at them and they (of course) couldn't understand her so I yelled at them and explained she was a cave guide and was deaf and mute (are you mute if you can yell but don't know how to form words?  Or are you only mute if you can't make sounds at all?  I guess I'll have to look that up.)  They had gone past the parking area as they were looking for the cave and had given up and were going to head back so it was lucky that we had arrived back at the road at that point.  Though they were only wearing flip-flops and the woman was somewhat hesitant after I described the tour I'd been on they eventually decided to take the tour and I was happy that my guide would be able to earn another 400 baht (200 each).  Best of all the guy had some cigarettes so we all had a smoke before we parted ways quite happily.

Next I headed into the national park to climb to the viewpoint I'd seen and/or read about on the internet (I don't remember exactly how I learned about it).

The ranger station in the national park.  I had to pay a 120 baht entrance fee (about $4).  After I parked my scooter I talked to a ranger about the hike to the viewpoint.  He didn't seem too enthusiastic about the view and seemed to suggest a hike to the waterfall instead.  But after looking at a map (you'll see a picture later, and it's too bad I hadn't taken that picture before I went on the hike) I thought that maybe it would be possible to do a loop where I'd get to the viewpoint first and then come down by way of the waterfall so I checked with the ranger and he seemed to say that yes, this was possible.  I also talked to another tourist who was there and she said there were actually two different waterfalls but she didn't seem to know anything about the viewpoint.

This was a beautiful green grassy area behind the ranger station.

I set off on the hike to the viewpoint and stopped at the "big tree".  I remember now, I'd somehow gotten a brochure of this park which is how I knew there was a viewpoint and also a "big tree".  I probably had picked up the brochure in the lobby of my hostel, which had brochures for lots of different activities in the area.

There was a fork in the trail which led to the closer and smaller of the two waterfalls so I went there first.

Quite a long time later, after struggling up the mountain on a trail much like the one I'd gone on earlier with the cave guide, I finally made it to the viewpoint.  It was a super steep trail and full of roots to climb over and I was really hot and sweating and had almost finished the 2 liter bottle of water I'd bought at the ranger station by the time I got to the top.  Also, a bunch of flies had been bothering me on the way up, flying in my ears and eyes.  Very annoying.  I eventually left them behind at some altitude, though.  So this is the view.  It's looking pretty much due west.  Unfortunately it's a very hazy day.  If it hadn't been I might have been able to see the ocean.

End of the trail.  Of course I had to go past the sign to check for myself.  Notice how red my face is and how sweat-soaked my shirt is!

Retracing my steps to the previous fork in the path I took the other turn and proceeded down to the top of the larger set of waterfalls.  The path down was equally steep as the other path had been coming up and I was glad that I didn't have to go back up that path again after viewing the falls but would be able to continue on down in a loop fashion back to the ranger station!

I had a nice little swim in this pool to cool off.

Getting ready to head on down now as it's getting late in the afternoon.

The tourist I'd talked to had said that this waterfall was actually a series of waterfalls, which I could see for myself as I began to pick my way down.

But then I came to this point and couldn't find a way to go down further without killing myself!  And you can see that if I'd have made it to the top of the next falls that would have been an even higher drop.

Reluctantly I turned around and retraced my steps back up the steep trail I'd thought I wouldn't have to climb and all the way back up to the junction with my original trail then all the way down that.  By the time I got back to the ranger station I was really pooped and completely out of water so I bought another large bottle of water and drank that and took a picture of the map I'd remembered seeing at the parking area.

Here's the map.  The black line is the way I went up.  The first (small) waterfall was #22, and the viewpoint was #21.  I think I took my swim around #23.  Apparently (and I confirmed this with the ranger) you really can go around the whole thing as a loop but you have to cross over the larger river at #23 and go up and over a hill to eventually connect with the yellow trail which would bring you back down.  I had not been able to find that route (though I hadn't really looked for anything going uphill on the far side of the large river after my swim) and had decided to play it safe and go back the way I knew would work even if it meant extra climbing.  By the time I got back to the bottom I was so thoroughly exhausted I didn't even have the energy to do the lower part of the yellow trail and see the large falls from the bottom (even though it was only supposed to be 500 m) so I never did get to see that view.

On my way back to town I stopped at a small roadside restaurant directly across the street from a school which was just letting out.  All the parents were there to pick up their kids and there was a traffic cop directing traffic.  I wish I'd taken a picture of that bur for some reason I took this one instead which was looking at the vegetation in the opposite direction.

And here I'm about to be served some yummy dinner.

That was it for pictures that day.  I don't remember for sure but I expect I headed back to my room and retired early that evening.