maybe too soon for another update but today was so cool i have to share right away. as i’ve said, i keep meeting up with the same people in different towns and we gather more and more backpackers along the way. so last night we all met up and made plans today to go to the largest cave in thailand. i can’t remember the name at the moment, but it is up the road from here right on the myanmar border. so we all rented motor bikes today for the drive up. ok, first of all, i’ve never driven a motor bike, 2nd, i’m not used to driving on the left hand side, and 3rd, we are on the border of the himalayan ridge, so it’s not the easiest or safest drive. however, it was schenic and a real thrill. i think i did quite well. anyhow, the 20 of us headed up and man o man was it the most amazing thing to see. anyone who’s been to a cave in the states…this blows it away. the cave is about 12,000 yrs. old and actually it’s 3 caves in one. it was just massive and the real thrill is that it’s not like in the states where eerything is guard railed off and you just touch the bottom layer. we were going all over the place and went all the way up to the top on these rickety stairs and then at the end we got on these little bamboo rafts to sail through the last part. which was infested with red bats. just amazing. i also learned about guano, which is a valuable commodity. that’s a fancy term for bird crap, but it’s the best fertilizer in the world and a major export for thailand. well, tomorrow i head back to chiang mai, so this will most likely be the last night our group is together seeing as most of them are heading for laos…so we’re hitting the hot springs.
Jun24
Type A Gypsy 