Bear Waterfalls

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We got up early, as we wanted to go for a day out, and headed for breakfast. The monsoon rains were in full flow and we were very grateful for the umbrellas someone had left by our door. As Hat and I helped ourselves to cereal there was the most almighty thunder strike on the other side of the river, it really made us all jump. It really put meaning to the phrase 'thunder crack', an unbelievably loud tearing sound and a sonic pressure wave that gave everything a bit of a shake. Cas said that the flash was so bright that she was momentarily blinded.
We opted for a tuk tuk to take us the 40 minutes to the start of a waterfall walk at Tat Kuang Si. The path was polished earth and very slippy with the rains. It was a gentle slope through jungle to the see the many limestone tiers of the waterfall. We tried to take the path up the largest waterfall, but it was very steep and when the rain started again we thought it has the hallmarks of a nasty slip. However, we were nicely warmed up and tools a long dip in one of the wide terraced pools and had a great shower where the water cascaded down.
Towards the end of our walk we came to a bear sanctuary which housed 37 Sun and Moon bears which had been cruelly kept (they collect the bile for Chinese medicine).

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