Yesterday’s six hour roller coaster endurance test meant I did not fully appreciate how gorgeous this place was until this morning, when I drew back the curtains on my riverfront bamboo hut and saw the stunning cliffs opposite.
Real coffee for breakfast! Even better. What a fantastic start to the day. Plus fresh pineapple or papaya juice, fruit, baguette with home made tamarind jam and a choice of omelette. There was one minor downside; it was only 7.30pm. Bamboo walls have no sound or light protection; dawn chorus alarm call.
Watching the sun climb above the peaks shifting the black shadows to shades of grey was worth the early start; staying on the waterfront in a rickety stilt hut means mosquitoes/noise/not many mod cons but the view is superb.
Keen to explore outside the three streets which make up the town itself, I hired a bike. Logic should have told me that if there are only three streets everything else would be a rutted track. Ouch. More ouch! I can barely sit down tonight.
Having as usual failed to read the guide book by sheer luck I made it first to one of the biggest caves in the network lining the cliff faces, Tam Chang. It’s been lived in during the centuries by villagers, especially during the war; with its 300 step high entrance (more steps!) There are openings in the rock which provide a panoramic view of the river, town, rice paddies, across the valley to the distant mountain ranges.
Honeycombed with stalactites and stalagmites the limestone formations are mesmerising; the interior refreshingly cool. Many caverns house Buddha sculptures, not just a legacy of the past but also present, as the caves are all said to be inhabited by spirits.
Back for a refreshing dip in the pool followed by a siesta under a shady tree watching the silver fish glint in the water, local children on canoes pulling up alongside offering fruit to buy.
This afternoon I gingerly negotiated the wooden bridge over the river to discover more. Following a dirt track across the paddy fields I saw a sign to another cave where I found out the hard way, literally, that not reading the guide book is not always the best idea…this cave was rock climbing only without the ropes. The guide (of which more later) gave me a head torch and pushed me in before I could back out!
I slithered, twisted, slipped, clung onto rock edges, caught sight of bats hanging above my head, bizarre patterns in the stone walls, water poured down onto my head as I crawled along. My torch illuminated the most enormous cave spider which precipated my very fast descent into the pool at the bottom! At this point I rebelled. The water is icy cold/dark/disappeared after a few yards under the rock face/down a slippery slope. I refused to swim on the grounds that I’d already risked life and limb and really did not want to drown.
Back finally on dry land, my ‘guide’ demanded a very large tip. As I’d already paid for the entrance and had not asked for a guide anyway, I would not pay the amount asked for, though I was going to tip, had he not insisted. The ruder he got, the angrier I got. His friends appeared on motorbikes to find out what was happening and started to laugh at him for being harangued by a manic English woman. Eventually he backed down and I cycled off at a fast pace, not daring to look back.
Tonight I saw the evening sunset from the balcony where breakfast is served. As you can see from the photo, I’m sunburnt, exhausted and exhilarated. And absolutely shattered!
Real coffee for breakfast! Even better. What a fantastic start to the day. Plus fresh pineapple or papaya juice, fruit, baguette with home made tamarind jam and a choice of omelette. There was one minor downside; it was only 7.30pm. Bamboo walls have no sound or light protection; dawn chorus alarm call.
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| Breakfast by the River |
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| View from Hotel just after Sunrise |
Having as usual failed to read the guide book by sheer luck I made it first to one of the biggest caves in the network lining the cliff faces, Tam Chang. It’s been lived in during the centuries by villagers, especially during the war; with its 300 step high entrance (more steps!) There are openings in the rock which provide a panoramic view of the river, town, rice paddies, across the valley to the distant mountain ranges.
Honeycombed with stalactites and stalagmites the limestone formations are mesmerising; the interior refreshingly cool. Many caverns house Buddha sculptures, not just a legacy of the past but also present, as the caves are all said to be inhabited by spirits.
Back for a refreshing dip in the pool followed by a siesta under a shady tree watching the silver fish glint in the water, local children on canoes pulling up alongside offering fruit to buy.
This afternoon I gingerly negotiated the wooden bridge over the river to discover more. Following a dirt track across the paddy fields I saw a sign to another cave where I found out the hard way, literally, that not reading the guide book is not always the best idea…this cave was rock climbing only without the ropes. The guide (of which more later) gave me a head torch and pushed me in before I could back out!
I slithered, twisted, slipped, clung onto rock edges, caught sight of bats hanging above my head, bizarre patterns in the stone walls, water poured down onto my head as I crawled along. My torch illuminated the most enormous cave spider which precipated my very fast descent into the pool at the bottom! At this point I rebelled. The water is icy cold/dark/disappeared after a few yards under the rock face/down a slippery slope. I refused to swim on the grounds that I’d already risked life and limb and really did not want to drown.
Back finally on dry land, my ‘guide’ demanded a very large tip. As I’d already paid for the entrance and had not asked for a guide anyway, I would not pay the amount asked for, though I was going to tip, had he not insisted. The ruder he got, the angrier I got. His friends appeared on motorbikes to find out what was happening and started to laugh at him for being harangued by a manic English woman. Eventually he backed down and I cycled off at a fast pace, not daring to look back.
Tonight I saw the evening sunset from the balcony where breakfast is served. As you can see from the photo, I’m sunburnt, exhausted and exhilarated. And absolutely shattered!
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| Watching.... |
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| the Sunset |
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