Where Is Calderon?

Yesterday a few of my friends here had the day off.  So they invited me to go along with them to a few local tourist spots.  I went with the cook of the front restaurant, her husband, one of the reception ladies, her husband, and two little daughters.  I was told we were going to the hot springs, but what I found out by the end of the day was that we were actually going to many more places.  We went to the Emerald Pool, the hot springs, the Krabi Passenger Port, and to Tiger Cave.  It was a very fun day, but very exhausting too.  The day started at 9am.  We headed off towards the Emerald Pool which was about 30 to 45 minutes away.



They call it the Emerald Pool because the water is a vibrant shade of emerald.  It was amazing how clear the water was.  After seeing the pool we hiked throught the surrounding jungle a little bit.  We came across numerous waterfalls, lakes, and streams.  Here is a picture I took of my friends at one of the many lakes.



There were some very nice paths to follow through the jungle as you can see above.  It got a bit more interesting when the path disappeared.  It got even more interesting when the path turned into this.



These stepping stumps were surrounded by mud that was at least half a foot deep.  So you really didn't want to step in the mud or even worse fall into the mud.  It got the trek a bit of excitement.  Especially when you only have one good foot (remember I hurt my left foot the other day).  Once we got back to the car we had a snack of frie bananas and headed towards the hot springs which was about 15 minutes away.  Before going to the hot springs we had a nice local lunch.  We had at least 10 dishes.  Most of which contained seafood.  I had my first taste of octopus today.  I can't say I liked it, but it was not nasty like I would have assumed.  In fact I found myself prefering the octopus and squid over one of the dishes that had such a strong salty seafood taste to it that I thought I was eating something soaked in whale urine.  I never thought I would see the day where octopus and squid are the preferred taste.  I am also glad that my friends did not make these dishes for me otherwise I would be forced to eat the nasty whale urine dish and pretend like it was okay.  I don't want to be rude and say something is gross.  I have told them I don't care for some things, like fish oil, but I downplay how gross it actually is.  I think the fish oil sauce they commonly use here might be the worse thing I have had to eat.  Anyways after lunch we went to the hotsprings.



The hot spring was very warm like a jacuzzi.  I could feel the heat just standing next to the stream.  There were many people soaking in the warm waters.  I chose not to go in the water too much because of the open wound on my foot, but I did put my feet in for a little bit (mostly the good one).  While at the hot springs the 2 little girls (ages 6 and 4) went in the water with there mom.  Little did I know all I needed to do to make 2 new friends was splash them with the water.  I kicked a little bit of the water their way and for the rest of the day they were talking to me (in Thai of course) and very curious about my camera.  They liked having their pictures taken and then looking at the picture.  Here is one of their favorites.



The older one on the left also liked taking pictures too.  We would walk around and she would want to take pictures of everything.  It was really cute hearing them speak to me in Thai at a million miles per hour as if I could understand.  Then they would wait for me to respond, but obviously I couldn't.  Yet that didn't stop them they just kept talking away to me.  On the way back to the car they decided to get some ice creams.  Here is the younger one getting her ice cream.



She had no problem going in on her own while the ice cream lady was distracted on the other side of the cart.  After that we drove about 20 minutes to Tiger cave.



Tiger cave is a cave with a bunch of Buddha statues and shrines inside.  Above you can see some monks praying with a group of followers.  This cave is very much an active worship site.  Outside the cave they pointed out a shrine a little bit up the side of the mountain.



About 50 feet later the walkway opened up to this.



You can see the steps behind the statues.  So when they asked if I would like to go up the steps my mind automatically went back to the shrine they had just pointed out a little bit up the mountain.  I thought about it and figured my foot was okay to go up there.  It wasn't that far up the mountain.  One of my friends even pointed this sign out to me.



I had no idea how far this was.  I mean I understand it is 1,237 steps, but how far is that really?  I had no idea.  So I was still going under the assumption tha we were heading to the mountain side shrine pointed out early.  When really I should have been thinking about the location pointed out to me upon our arrival to Tiger Cave.



You see that temple that looks like it is way up on top of a high mountain.  That is where I was headed without realizing it.  It didn't dawn on me until I was a little over half way up there.  The path up the mountain was very steep.  Some of the stairway was so steep that it was more like a ladder without holes between the rungs.



This was one of the steeper sections, but not the steepest.  In one of the landings between staircases I decided to take some pictures of the surrounding and the monkeys.  There were monkeys everywhere and apparantly we came during the time of day where they descend from the top of the mountain down to the bottom.  So as we were going up they were coming down.  All of us using the same stairs and railings.  Anyways, as I was taking pictures I felt a tug on my backpack.  I thought it was caught on a branch or something, but as I turned around I saw this guy tugging at my water bottle trying to steal it away from me.



Apparantly I made him mad by foiling his evil plan because he sat there giving me an evil look and showing me his teeth.  I didn't really want to stick around to see how mad he was so I continued on.  After climbing for what I felt like was an eternity. I saw something horrible.



They labeled the step numbers and I was only at 758 of 1,237.  By this point I was very tired.  My legs were starting to tremble a little, I was completely soaked in sweat, I could barely breath as the amount of oxygen in the air was slowing decreasing as I ascended, and I had just climbed steep staircase after steep staircase to find out I was barely halfway there.  But I was determined to continue on.  Finally I made it to the top.  The last step and not a moment too soon.



Upon reaching the top I now had to add a very sore foot to my list of problems that I mentioned before.  When I looked at the open sore on my toe it looked like my foot was trying to squeeze out of the hole from all the pressure of walking up the steep stairs.  Luckily I had my first aid stuff and was able to clean my toe.  Despite all the problems it was well worth coming up here.  Here I was standing in a temple on the tallest karst mountain in the area.  The temple and the view were absolutely breathtaking and woth the journey.  The temple consisted of three main items.  This giant shrine.



A giant Buddha statue.



And finally something I like to call the temple of heaven.



This little temple was the highest point that one could stand on top of the highest mountain of the area.  So it almost felt like you were in the clouds or heaven.  Hence the name I gave it the temple of heaven.  Standing next to that temple I could feel the clouds surround me as if they were swallowing me up and the view from up here was just amazing.  If you want to see the view you will just have to come here and earn the view for yourself.  Only 1,237 STEEP steps.  The best part was the journey down.  They had an expressway to get down so that you didn't have to descend all 1,237 steps.



They just hook you to this thing pictured and you slide down the cable all the way to the bottom.  Okay maybe not.  I had to walk the whole way down, but I wish they did have a zipline down.  I would have definitely payed to good down the zipline.  Aside from looking like it would be fun, my legs were on fire.  After finally making it to the bottom we headed to our last location for the day.  At the Krabi Passenger Port I was able to see a Thai navy boat, but because it was late in the day the boat was close and we were not able to go aboard it.



So we headed back to the hotel.  Leaving the port I saw something that was very interesting.  As we were driving down the road leaving the port I noticed a long bamboo branch tied so it leaned diagonally over the road.  Hanging off the end was a lightbulb.  By the time I figured out what it was we had passed it and it was too late to get a picture, but that was the streetlight for that section of the street.  Once back at the hotel I played some more with my new best friends at the pool.  The little girls were running around and I was splashing them.  They were having so much fun yelling at me in Thai.  It was a great end to a great day.  I also found out that my some of my friends had never been to the places we went today.  So it was a first for most of us.  I felt very honored that I was included in their family outing on their day off.  That night I ate a light snack and went to ned early.  It was a fun day, but very exhausting.  Laying in bed I could feel how sore my legs were.  The only bad thing that happened today was that the flash on my new camera I bought just for this trip stopped working.  Luckily it should still be under warranty, but now I have no flash.  At least I can still take pictures during the day and thankfully my trip is almost over so it shouldn't really cause any problems, but it still sucks.