THAILAND - Ko Lanta - Part 2

We both woke up early and I swung in the hammock outside our room with a stray cat as I was on the phone confessing to my parents about my card being stolen. Afterwards we made breakfast from our groceries last night which was hot chocolate flavored cereal ( very sugary) with coconut milk and yogurt. Next we hopped on our bike for a quick ride down the road to the Mai Kiaw cave where we waited for a tour guide to show up since we arrived before the placed opened. When our guide arrived he seemed really nice and pulled out a tin can full of tabbacco that he rolled into a cut up bamboo leaf to smoke. He reached in the fridge to grab a juice box for his breakfast and then we set off. It was already so hot when we started walking and our guide was shy at first but then he started talking about the plants arround us and the animals. He knew so much and all about how the locals still use them today in their daily life routines. We used ropes to climb up steep parts of the trail parrallel to dry waterfalls. The birds were sounding off to each other and butterflies fly aimlessly around us. No other people were on the trail which was nice. There were lots of vines hanging from the trees that had spikes on them which were tempting to grab but you couldn't. At one point it look as if it were snowing because the seeds from the trees would flutter down. We finally arrived at small whole hidden behind big leaves on the side of a mountain. I would have never guessed this would be the entrance to the cave since there were no signs. We rested and got our headlamps on and then repelled down a sketchy ladder. Inside within the first few minutes we came across a huge spider and some geckos. Our guide pointed out some rocks that were in the shapes of buddah or animals which was cool to see through his eyes. The cave was massive and I had no idea how far it went or which way was which. We entered a huge area that had a cieling ribbed with patterns of waves. If you looked closely enough there was fossils of shells in the wall, too. As we walked further down the cave was getting smaller, it almost seemed that we were in the belly of some dragin and then started walking down inside his tail. Along the way we made echo sounds and whistled. Once we reached the end of the cave, or at least the part we had to stop since it goes on forever, we sat down to rest and Monica set out a ceremony with her crystals. The guide looked at me strange and I just signaled with my hands a prayer and told him she was religous and he nodded. At the end I joined Monica in saying om's which was actually ery cool since it echoed throughout the cave and vibrated my whole body. After we were ready to head back the same way we came but exit a different place. We walked through a tunnel covered in bats, you couldn't even see the walls it was so thick of just bats. I hurried through as fast as I could. And right at the end where the exit was we found a pile of shells. Ancient sea shells untouched! Our guide let us taked a few home for suveniers. Out of the cave we came crawling on our bellies and bush whacking. We ate some leaves that our guide offered us and walked back. We heard monkeys in the distant jungle fighting with each other which was the craziest sound ever. The last part of the walk we picked some berries and ate those as well which were very good. Once we were back we bonded so well with our tour guide that we invited ourselves over to his house which was right next door to the cave. He lived in a simple concrete building with just a few mats on the floor with one pillow and a low table where a cat was laying asleep on. We talked about his family that he had which wasn't there because his wife was in the hospital in a town far off the island getting treament for her illness. He had 2 kids as well that were with her. His wife had been unable to move about 3 years ago but the treatment she has been having has helped her and now she is alomost recovering. It was great to listen to his hardships as he kept rolling his bamboo cigarettes. He offered us a little smoke which we tried but the taste was gross so one puff was good enough for me. The rooster that lived in the back of his house crowed very loud but this didn't bother him at all. We had to go but we told him we would try to come back before we left the island to come see his kids and wife once they return, but we never ended up going sadly. Back at the bungalows we had some peanut butter banana toast, the staple diet of our trip, and then headed out of the bike to the most southern part of the island where the national park was. The drive was okay at first and then it started getting very very steep and sharp. It was a true balance between slowing down for sharp turns and speeding up before a steep hill in order to have the bike make it up! Monica was enjoying herself but my hands were gripped to the handle bars almost to a point to where I was one with the bike. The brake was no good either. The weight of both Monica and I was too much for it so my nerves were through the roof. Occationally I was able to look up at the view which reminded me of my home town Big Sur. The cliffs were massive and it was a steep drop-off to the ocean. Absolutly stunning. Some of the best views of the trip. We passed an elephant farm which was sad to see beacause they were chained up in small spaces. We finally got to the natoinal park and the last hill dozn was the steepest of all. My brakes were not even helping so I just had to let it go. And at the veyr end was a sharp turn into the parking lot which I just barely missed and almost crashed. Once we parked I had no idea if he bike was even going to make it up the hill. In the parking lot there were so many monkeys sitting on the bikes stealing people's personals. I made sure to take everything since I read about how viscious the monkeys were here. It was very hot and we were low on energy so we saw the famous lighthouse and then laid on the beach right before the begining of the trail head to the nature walk. I fell asleep in the shade on the sand holding my bag tight to not have any monkey incidents. I sat in the water and enjoyed the vacant beach which was a big contrast from the Phi Phi Islands. Well rested and ready, Monica set out to the nature trail for an hour hike. The stairs were very tall but the view was amazing.The trees were labled with their scientific names and a little discription of their purpose. We started to sing about the trees around us just to distract our minds of the strenuous hike and heat. Monica had a trash bag out collecting, but suprisingly there was not much which was good. Once we got to a level part of the trail we stopped singing to enjoy the natural sounds. I was in front of Monica and I heard in the bushes some noise, next thing I hear is Monica yelling "NO!" and I turn back. I see a huge mean looking monkey had ran out of the jungle and grabbed the trash bag out of Monica's hands and ripped it apart. She poured water on the monkey in self defense but all he was interested in was the trash and the possiblilty of food. Then 4 other monkeys came from the jungle to see what they could scavenge. A baby monkey watched in the distance. Soon the savages realized there was just trash and no food in the bag so they left and we cleaned up the crime scene. This was a crime of the "monkey mafia". We laughed and carried on coming up with plans to defend ourselves in case the mafia came at us again. Once out of the woods we thought we were safe but then we got attacked again by the mafia!! This time the monkey ripped open the bag very agressivly but found nothing to snack on. He walked away with his butt high in the air. We came out of the jungle near the park entrance so we had to walk down that steep hill and went straight to the beach to jump in and cool off. In the water we sat floating in the CLEAN water. I saw many gigantic sea slugs under me. The sand was so hot we had to run back to the shade where we had a swing to sit on. There was a french family next to us all enjoying icecream but was shortly distrubed by a monkey mafia stealing their food right out of their hands!! At this point Monica figured we should leave before the monkeys kill us. We quickly got our bike from parking and dodged the monkeys waiting for us there. Then came the huge hill... About 30 seconds after starting up the hill the bike broke down and truned off. We hopped off and and I tried to kick start it but there was no way it was going to start on this hill. The only option... was to push. Monica grabed one side and I was on the other. This was a 16% grade hill and it was probably 36 degrees out. About half way up we were saved by a foreign guy pushing the back of the bike! But he was a little overweight and not in the best shape so he didn't do much unfortunatly. He gave up right before the top of the hill and so did Monica so I charged the rest of the way in a slight jog to get it over with. At the flat part in the top I kicked started it while pressing on the gas and after a few tries it was alive again!! I think the first thing we needed to do was get some gas though. After gas we drove a ways to a sunset viewpoint where some huts were hanging off cliffs serving food and drink. I got a strawberry shake to cool my nerves and we shared some stirfry rice. Monica tried so hard to tell the server to not give us plastic straws and to not have meat or egg in the rice because she was vegan, but after 30 minutes of trying to explain we drew it on a napkin and she understood. Art is definitly a universal language. But it was only Monica that had no straw and since I wasn't saying anything they gave me one. Also the rice had meat and egg. Oh well. When we waited for our change there was a little boy taking a bath in a tub outside the resturant splashing us which was so cute. The view from our hut was amazing looking at all the sail boats. Down the road a but we stopped at a quiet beach with not a soul on it. Monica picked up some more trash and I collected sea shells. I sat behind a rock in the shade and listened to a crab talking or eating in the cracks behind me. Since I am a cancer I felt a weird connection with this crab. It was almost like he was telling me the secrets of the island and ocean. For about 30 minutes I listened to him nibbling away and watching Moni picking up trash and a local mom and daughter walk by with knives to try and get some clams or muscles. Moni came to me with an idea of song lyrics and a plan to make one for our trip across Thailand. She gave me her idea of lyrics and I came up with a beat and an idea for a music video we could make. We made a little film in the water as the sun set and sang the night away. We got on the bike and stopped at a street resturant for dinner. I got a spicy papaya salad which was so spicy that I couldn't even see afterwards. We also asked the locals how to say vegan and all the food words which was helpful. We got some more groceries at the 7 eleven. 7 eleven was the main store in Thailand actually, its where we always had to get our food at or the local market. In the 7 eleven we saw individual bananas packaged which was ridiculous. After we drove home early and parked our car where we were yelled at by a young girl in the bungalow next to us. She told us she was alone and was wondering if she could hang out with us. Moni, without hesitation, told her to come over and hang out the rest of the night. Turns out she was from Quebec and spoke French and had a lot of common interests. We did some yoga and listened to music while sharing stories. We bonded very well and decided to make plans to hang out all the next day! Off to bed we went content with the days adventure going throuh our heads.

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