THAILAND - Ranong - Part 1

The day started early for a nice morning soak in the tubs. 3 sessions of being in and out of the water was just what the doctor ordered. After that we walked back for some fruit filled breakfast outside our room. We checked out and waited for a taxi car to pick us up to take us to our yoga retreat in the jungle. We got picked up with no problems and then drove 40 minutes into the countryside to Eco-logic. When we arrive the driveway was super steep but the view from the restaurant at the top was amazing. Reminded me of a place I stayed in Semuc Champey in Guatemala. We were greeted warmly with a neon blue drink that was made naturally from a plant they grow on the property. It was hard to believe that it was natural but I never found out what it was actually made of. It tasted something like Gatorade but without the sugar. We signed a lot of papers and read a lot about the whole organization and what this place does for its community. After we watched a video about the place as well. Super interesting! We were able to have 2 free yoga classes each day we stayed and breakfast, lunch, and dinner are all free as well. The only thing we were required to do was help teach the local village kids on Saturday, which I was so excited about! I also had some of their homemade ginger tea which was my favorite. We read all their books about the property and there was just so much to do and help out with! The lady then showed us our rooms which were located down these steep steps outside. Once in the room were knew this was going to be a great place to stay. The room was so open and airy and was full of natural products and beautiful artwork. We got all our stuff organized and headed up to the restaurant for some free lunch. The food here was all made and grown from their organic garden below. We had fresh noodle soup with vegetables. I accidentally put a whole spoonful of chilly powder in mine and made it inedible. So I had to give it back and try again, super embarrassing... But we were so happy with the great meal all we did was smile at each other and make sounds while slurping out noodles. When we finished we wanted to explore the jungle around us and they told us there was a 2 hour hike to a swimming hole and a beautiful waterfall. It would be a 4 hour hike but they offered that they could pick us up at the waterfall with a taxi so we could make it back in time for night yoga at 5. They told us to be waiting at 4 for the pick up. Off we went with the map of the trek. Walking on the road it was very hot, we found some guava trees on the way and it was delicious to snack on. There were so many farms to the side of us with many fruits and vegetables. As we walked Moni and I shared a lot of stories about high school and our families which was nice to learn more about each other. After 40 minutes of walking on the road we thought was too long since we needed to turn onto a dirt path after walking only 20 minutes on the road. Already lost, we had to ask some locals for directions. We walked up to some ladies sitting on the ground of their house wearing some sort of face mask that was pure white. We found out later that this was a natural paste that the locals used as a sort of sunscreen. It just looked like they were going to the spa or something. When we asked the pointed us in the right direction and we thanked them and went on our way. About a minute into walking the same lady with the mask on came to pick us up on the back of her motorbike. This was such a nice gesture. We hoped on and she took us about 5 minutes on a dirt path to a swimming hole. We got off and thanked her so much. I will remember this gesture for a while now. She sped off and we bush whacked to the river. The river was wide and glistening in the heat of the sun. We were dripping with sweat so we quickly ripped off our clothes and tip toed on the scolding hot black rocks into the water. The water was pretty chilly but we swam like lizards around the deep parts and rode down the little rapids and waterfalls. We didn't spend long here since we wanted more time to spend at the waterfall which was further. We got dressed and started on the hike through the jungle. We saw a few villagers sitting on the decks of their huts and cracking open nuts and fruits. We followed the map we were given and didn't get lost thankfully. We hit a cement paved road and this marked the end of the hike and we quickly approached the waterfall. It was magnificent! So grand and big. And no one was here!I could feel the misty wind blowing from it while standing at the bottom. Monica took off her shoes and scrambled up to the top of it while I swam down below in the watering hole. Once I was refreshed I went up the rock to the base of the beast. I stuck my hand under the water and almost had it ripped off. I jump a big gap between too rocks and then did some yoga and sun salutations on top of it. We relaxed some more until it was time to leave while a "mom" and her 2 kids showed up. This "mom" was something of a she-man. We were not sure whether it was the dad or the mom... But before we left, Moni wanted to do a prayer session. This included us taking 3 pieces of wood, 2 of them were negative things in our lives we wanted to get rid of, and the last one was one positive we wanted to receive. We blew on the pieces and through them into the river where the disappeared into the rapids. This was a magical waterfall that was a true highlight. In the parking lot of the waterfall we waited for the taxi from the retreat to pick us up. We were there at 4, sitting on the ground and waiting. 50 minutes passed and we assumed they had forgotten us since it would take 15 minutes to drive back in time for night time yoga. So we started walking on the road back to town the long way hoping that a car would pick us up. On the map the retreat gave us, it said to never hitch hike, but we were desperate.... and not to mention starving. We both weren't talking for a while because we weren't sure if the other was starving as well. But I started to feel really dizzy and dilution. Then I started looking into the trees on the side of the road for fruits. Nothing. I then told Moni I hope there was a car to come soon because I might die of starvation. And she told me she was too also looking for some kind of fruit in the trees. We started laughing at our current and unfortunate situation. Our stomachs were growling and our feet were dragging behind us. So hungry we weren't walking straight. We came up to a possible fruit tree. This is were all hell broke loose and we started loosing our minds. We made long rods out of sticks and started hitting the branches trying to make the fruit fall. This didn't work so Moni climbed up the trunk and shook the branch while I tried jumping with all the energy I had left to reach the fruit. Finally one big juicy one fell and we ran to it and tried cracking it open only to find it was dried out and inedible, just like the rest of the... all hope was lost. We gave up and started walking again. Near a bridge I spotted something red in the trees. FRUIT!! I ran to it and picked some and they were custard apples. Which taste similar to a crisp unripe pear. Very tasty though. We grabbed only the few we could reach which was enough to ease our blood sugar. A little bit more relaxed we had to head on our way. I saw another little jelly bean shaped fruit on the ground and gave it a little nibble which gave me an overpowering sour taste. It tasted exactly like a sour patch kid. Once again, inedible. We had a 7 km walked ahead of us. But we were saved! By the she-man!!! She came up the road in an old car with her kid in the front and a very obese kid in the back. She rolled down the window and with broken english asked us if we wanted a ride. We said yes without even asking each other or thinking about it. I sat in the middle squished against the obese kid. The kid in the front was making fun of him and the obese kid hit him back. Moni and I lust laughed and smiled at how happy we were that we got a ride back. We made slow conversation with the she-man and learned about what she did in the village. Her kids went to the local school and she ran a soup stand at the night market. The drive was beautiful through the mountains. Weird Thai music was playing in the background on the radio. The lady finally dropped us off at her house in the village which was a 15 minute walk until the yoga retreat. We thanked her and then bought a bundle of bananas from her to snack on for the walk since we were still very hungry. During the last part of our journey we were trying to piece together what went wrong in trying to get picked up from the place but could not understand why we were forgotten. We ate the whole bundle of bananas to ourselves which was a lot, but we had good reason! We got to the retreat finally and missed night yoga so we had to wait until 7 for free dinner. We wanted to tell the manager about this mistake but she was not there and we were terribly mad about the incident, but we thought maybe we could get a free massage out of it. We ended up telling her the next day when she was there. The dinner was great though! So fresh and organic. Brown rice, which we rarely saw in Thailand, and great soup with friend vegetables and salad. We were so happy had finally having real food. We went back to the room to shower and rest after our big adventures day. The next morning we had to get up at 6 for morning yoga!