Now that's a waterfall

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May 25

A group of us hire a tuk tuk for the 45-minute drive to the Kouang Si waterfall. After the trickle hailed as a waterfall near Pai, I'm not expecting much, but this waterfall, or rather falls, is magnificent. Water cascades over ledges of rock into milky blue pools. We follow a path crossing and recrossing the stream to more pools and tumbling water until we reach a steep, slippery climb to the very top, where we ford the river sliding over the rocky crown. We descend carefully, on the other side, though it's much easier here with the occasional set of steps.

The surrounding jungle is opulently green, trees have leaves the size of dinner plates.

We stop to swim and chat. Ellie meets a girl we shared a tuk tuk with at the border crossing and talks for a long time about travel plans and saving money. Later Ellie goes off to see this girl, and when I wake up the next morning, there's a note telling me she's leaving. She gives me some money for her part of the hotel bill, talks for 40 minutes about travel plans and saving money, then leaves. Getting up early the next day to go cycling, a voice hails me in the street and it's her. She'd missed her bus.

Cycling with Nigel and Amy is much more rewarding, especially along the riverfront. We stop for lunch at the cafe with cheap beer where Martin offered sexual congress. I think the place is cursed. The noodles I consume sit in my stomach for hours and reappear that evening, during a night of wretched vomiting and spasms of a gastrointestinal nature.

The next day I totter off to a cafe for another trip to the waterfall to celebrate a birthday. The tuk tuk ride is a challenge, but sitting by the swirling water is soothing. I think I am up to leaving the following morning.

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