bonglonglong

Thailand, Part 1

Well, I'm sitting on the ground floor of the KB Mansion Hotel in Krabi, Thailand.  Don't let "mansion" fool you.  My room here cost just under $10, there's no air conditioning, and the toilet is inside the shower.
 
At least I HAVE a toilet!  Most small guesthouses in Thailand have "squat toilets" and I'll leave that up to your imagination.
 
After the 18 hour flight, which didn't seem that terrible despite the length, I arrived in Bangkok early Monday morning.  (Thailand is exactly 12 hours ahead of Dallas time.)   

I transfered to a flight to Krabi, which is located on the far southern isthmus of Thailand, much closer to Malaysia than to Bangkok. 
 
Today, I did something that would make Christian proud and my mother pass out...  I rented a motorcycle and explored the countryside around Krabi.  (Hey, a car rental would have been $40.  The motorcycle only cost me 8 bucks...so gimme a break.)
 
It was a little scary in the city, but once I got out into the countryside, it was magnificent!  The landscape here is called "tower karst" which is a fancy name for these bizarre towers of gray limestone that jut straight up out of the rainforest.  They're riddled with caves, so I'm in paradise here.
 
The first place I went was a local temple, translated as Tiger Cave Temple.  It was bizarre...built into a cave and full of skeletons and preserved body parts, to remind the faithful that life does come to and end.  The temple was controlled by a troop of monkeys who were so brazen that I had a tug-of-war with one over my camera bag.
 
After soiling my pants...(don't ask, I should have taken Nutribiotic after lunch of curried fish balls at a roadside stand)...I headed up into the rainforest to a national park with a famous waterfall.  There were NO tourists in site, only Thai teenagers on swimming dates to the waterfalls.
 
This part of Thailand is predominantly Muslim, so the kids are very discreet when they swim...even guys wear shirts and full length pants.  But the kids were laughing at me and my camera, and posed for lots of  pictures under the waterfall.  The younger ones got a HUGE kick out of saying "HELLO!" to me, and hearing me reply "HELLO!" back.  They would fall over laughing, and then say it again.
 
I had only sporadic sleep on the flight, and almost none the night before I left, so I'm looking forward to an early bed tonight!  Tomorrow I'll go sea kayaking into some flooded caves nearby...should be fun!