Part 1 - Bangkok & Myanmar
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I got up a bit later than planned at 6.30, and didn't feel 100% and I had some flem. I packed things and left luggage with hotel, walked to bus and arrived 7.58 but 8pm bus had gone, I found out that it was because they drive you to the bus station so my pickup left 8.25 to get the 8.30 bus. Sat on wrong side with the sun, also a guy sat next to me as women are probably not allowed to sit with foreigners. Managed to get off the bus at the junction so I could walk the 3km to the bat cave assuming the bridge was cross able on foot. Got near the bridge and a snake jumped out in front of me into the road chasing after a frog which managed to get away and the snake went back into the bushes just in front of me. It wasn't a massive snake but it was about 1.5 metres long. Walked across bridge with nice weather, soldiers on the first side said it was ok to cross and it did look like it was used for walking. Got the other side and the soldier told me no walking but then he did let me go. I walked on and checked the map and there were stairs on the other side close to the bridge so I crossed and decided not to go to close to the soldier so I would cut across on the dirt but the soldier shouted at me "hey my friend " and pointed to the steps so I took them. Walked along a covered area to where the cave is and there were Buddhas in the wall and then a pagoda so I took my shoes off but then I had to climb a metal staircase which was too hot so the footwear went back on. I climbed up and there was a pagoda and a nicely view of the river but no cave and no obvious paths so I went back down and looked around and some man in his house told me to take my shoes off, so I did which wasn't great for climbing over rocks but I found a locked door where I could hear bats behind. The man was making noises at me so I talked to him and he said it opens at 6pm which didn't make much sense until I googled it which I should have done yesterday as all you do at this cave is wait for sunset and see the bats leave. I left and went back to the bridge but this time the soldier would not let me walk so he hailed a pickup who drove me to the main road but no further. I looked at the map and there wasn't too much around but the monastery was a few km so I decided to get there early maybe have lunch there. I started walking in the right direction although it wasn't listed as a road on maps.me, I had already done trail walking and there were a lot of places you can walk that are not actual paths. I got to a small pagoda and then came to water. I looked around and could see a better path so I doubled back a bit and went that way but again came to the water. So I doubled back again for another more promising path but again that ended at water. I did think about swimming or walking but I decided not to take the risk as there was definitely a path so I went back stopping at a building where they let me have some water. It looks like the area was being developed as a resort or something. Heading back and round I was on a further out path but there was still some water next to me so I was worried that even though I would make it to where I was considering swimming to it might not be enough so I went one path out and carried on and walked past people fishing but still the path turned at water. Thankfully it was just a couple of minutes walk and there was a path out of the area and I followed the path in the general direction of the mountain. Made it to the main road and kept going but the mountain wasn't climbable from this side so I had to go further and stopped at a shop and then went through a garden monastery where I could get more water. The climb was pretty hard in the heat so I did 5 minutes climbing and 2 minutes resting in the shade. Going was ok and I ignored the shop selling water for 1,000 and saw 2 monkeys fighting which I thought was cool. Soon I made it to the top around 4pm so had plenty of time to freshen up relax and see all of the monkeys that were here and there were loads. I wandered around and a monkey tried to steal my backpack. the picture above of the monkey also has in the background the water area with the pagoda and hotel where I got lost/stuck. Around 4.45 2 girls Renata from Holland and Carly from Essex turned up and I missed some of the sunset as the monk had told me it was at 6pm so I had phoned my Mum. But I still got to see a lot of it and take pictures which along with the monkeys makes a lot for the day and the girls told me they had problems with their bike getting there as the gas had not turned off. They'd had someone fix it but couldn't be sure it was going to stay ok. Another couple turned up as we were going for dinner but they were from Myanmar and had a separate room and ate food separately as well. We had almost finished out food when Leo from Argentina turned up and then afterwards a french couple also made dinner before we were rushed out. Dinner was 2000 and the bed was 5000 donation for the night. We went back to the room for card games and a Swiss girl Jaqueline turned up and we played a few rounds of killer before going to sleep quite late after 10.30.
There was as usual a lot of faffing before the lights went out but then after Leo kept talking with the girls and his voice was really load and since he has the one who said to go to sleep after about 15-20 minutes and the French saying goodnight subtly 3 times I went over to ask him to be quiet or talk outside. Probably got to sleep around 11pm.
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