A bit of a misnomer! More like a "Trekking Couple of Days - For a Couple of Hours a Day When we Could Persuade Our Guides That We Really Liked Walking & We'd Rather Not Sit About, We're Not Too Old, Thank You Very Much".
We think there were a mixture of motives for the battle of wills that we had with our guides & Rangers (we had 2 of each, just for the 2 of us!) to actually take us for more than a stroll. There's the Thai desire to look after "ferang" (foreigners) often in an over-protective way. They want to save you from trouble even when, if they'd thought to ask you, they'd find that you are actively seeking a bit of bother - like walking! We don't think they quite got the idea of exercise anyway. Our protectors would much rather have spent their days sleeping in a hammock than leading us up a hillside & "elderly people" are not expected to be active, so all in all things didn't go according to plan, as far as we were concerned!
Expected Programme for Tuesday :
9:00 Leave for Taperngkee Waterfall
11:00 Arrive at Waterfall, relax, swim, walk around
12:00 Lunch
13:00 Start trekking from Waterfall
15:00 Arrive at 2nd camp
We were told that we would be walking 6.7kms to the waterfall, leaving from our 1st campsite in Phutoei National Park.
Actual programme for Tuesday:
9:35 Left camp in van
10:20 Dropped in forest
10:35 Reached Waterfall! Asked if we wanted lunch & a swim. Hardly ready for lunch after breakfast only a couple of hours before & a 15 minute walk. Hardly ready for swim either & would have been difficult in 2 feet of water in small pool! Said "No!" to both.
10:50 Left Waterfall
11:40 Stopped at stream. Asked if wanted lunch. Said "No!". They had lunch.
12:15 Started trekking again
13:00 Reached village. Stopped for coffee.
13:50 Left village.
14:00 Reached camp. Ate lunch. Put up tent. Discussed trekking! Agreed we would do the 2 - 3 hour walk to another waterfall this afternoon,which had been scheduled for following morning.
15:30 Left for waterfall
15:50 Reached waterfall !!!!!!!!!!!!! Rendered speechless!!!!!!! Asked if we wanted to swim, said "Not likely"when discovered that buffalo used it as their toilet flush.........
We gave up the ghost for the day after that........
We did feel that we had a decent amount of walking on our 2nd day, having insisted that we would head up the nearest hill, whether they came too or not & were rewarded with a hell of a climb but also panoramic views as far as the Burmese border. The afternoon walk to 3 caves, which they told us were 500 metres away, turned out to be substantially more & was also satisfying. They frustrated us again on the 3rd day by driving us down the road to our starting point & then telling us that everyone else walked down, took one & a half hours & found it hard work - weren't we lucky to have a van? Answer "No (for the 1000th time), we like walking !" Puzzled, slightly crestfallen faces looked back at us!
We gave up finally & gave ourselves over to lazing about for the next 2 or 3 days, as was planned for us. We were in an idyllic spot camping by the Lumtaphern Dam, with mountainous views & utter peace.
And yes, you did read correctly - we did put up our own tents & we did sleep in them on the hard ground for 4 nights!!
(We even liked it!)
We think there were a mixture of motives for the battle of wills that we had with our guides & Rangers (we had 2 of each, just for the 2 of us!) to actually take us for more than a stroll. There's the Thai desire to look after "ferang" (foreigners) often in an over-protective way. They want to save you from trouble even when, if they'd thought to ask you, they'd find that you are actively seeking a bit of bother - like walking! We don't think they quite got the idea of exercise anyway. Our protectors would much rather have spent their days sleeping in a hammock than leading us up a hillside & "elderly people" are not expected to be active, so all in all things didn't go according to plan, as far as we were concerned!
Expected Programme for Tuesday :
9:00 Leave for Taperngkee Waterfall
11:00 Arrive at Waterfall, relax, swim, walk around
12:00 Lunch
13:00 Start trekking from Waterfall
15:00 Arrive at 2nd camp
We were told that we would be walking 6.7kms to the waterfall, leaving from our 1st campsite in Phutoei National Park.
Actual programme for Tuesday:
9:35 Left camp in van
10:20 Dropped in forest
10:35 Reached Waterfall! Asked if we wanted lunch & a swim. Hardly ready for lunch after breakfast only a couple of hours before & a 15 minute walk. Hardly ready for swim either & would have been difficult in 2 feet of water in small pool! Said "No!" to both.
10:50 Left Waterfall
11:40 Stopped at stream. Asked if wanted lunch. Said "No!". They had lunch.
12:15 Started trekking again
13:00 Reached village. Stopped for coffee.
13:50 Left village.
14:00 Reached camp. Ate lunch. Put up tent. Discussed trekking! Agreed we would do the 2 - 3 hour walk to another waterfall this afternoon,which had been scheduled for following morning.
15:30 Left for waterfall
15:50 Reached waterfall !!!!!!!!!!!!! Rendered speechless!!!!!!! Asked if we wanted to swim, said "Not likely"when discovered that buffalo used it as their toilet flush.........
We gave up the ghost for the day after that........
We did feel that we had a decent amount of walking on our 2nd day, having insisted that we would head up the nearest hill, whether they came too or not & were rewarded with a hell of a climb but also panoramic views as far as the Burmese border. The afternoon walk to 3 caves, which they told us were 500 metres away, turned out to be substantially more & was also satisfying. They frustrated us again on the 3rd day by driving us down the road to our starting point & then telling us that everyone else walked down, took one & a half hours & found it hard work - weren't we lucky to have a van? Answer "No (for the 1000th time), we like walking !" Puzzled, slightly crestfallen faces looked back at us!
We gave up finally & gave ourselves over to lazing about for the next 2 or 3 days, as was planned for us. We were in an idyllic spot camping by the Lumtaphern Dam, with mountainous views & utter peace.
And yes, you did read correctly - we did put up our own tents & we did sleep in them on the hard ground for 4 nights!!
(We even liked it!)
No comments:
Post a Comment