weds day 19

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Plan was to do a bit of walking today, see some waterfalls, maybe a beach or 2 and fingers crossed for a sighting of a monkey! Shared my first taxi with 2 American girls who are on holiday from china learning Chinese! After about a 20 min taxi ride and a walk of 2km to a national park, quite a pleasant walk past mangroves, an elephant sanctuary and a local village. Had to pay 200 baht entry ( locals its free or 20 baht) and then a further wooded walk to a beautiful waterfall with a plunge pool where people were swimming and cooling off. Headed back to the main road and walked out to the local beach where i sat for a bit and soaked up the sun. Taxi number 2 was shared with 2 guys from Ireland - swopped names with one and are staying in contact via Facebook, the taxi only went so far - so onto taxi number 3! This one was hailed down by a very friendly parking attendant at a posh hotel - wasn't really needed but it was a very sweet gesture - and he waved me goodbye! After a really long walk ( it said 4km - it felt more like 8!!) and hitching a ride on a motorbike sidecar ( im sure the driver had been drinking - could smell it on his breath, he kept chattering to me in Thai and laughing!) the walk was so long i didn't feel like being too picky! I made it to a tiny waterfall - very dried up ( it is there dry season) pretty surroundings but not much water! There was no chance of getting a taxi out here - it felt like the back of beyond, so started the walk back in 30 degree heat and no shade! It wasn't completely arduous tho - saw a very cute group of puppies, a little girl came to say hello and blew me a kiss and a pick up truck came past and offered me a lift!! - it was a group who were returning from a trek up in the hills - with 2 guys from the uk! So had a nice chat with them. I got dropped off at white sands beach - very long stretch of beach with lots of shops and restaurants. While walking along i saw monkeys - which really made my day! There was 5 of them on the pavement fishing scraps out the bins - i gave them a wide berth and managed to get some pictures, they didn't seem to mind as long as you didn't get too close. Found a nice restaurant and had a lovely dinner, last taxi was to take me home.

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