Our last day in the North

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So today is our final day in the north of Thailand. This evening we take the night bus to Bangkok for the next part of our trip. But more on that in the next blogs.

What to do on our last day here? We rented a car and went to market. Warorot Market (also known as Kad Luang) to be precise. This is a huge local indoor market covering three floors, and all the streets around it are lined with stalls as well. There are lots of clothing stores, and loads and loads of groceries. You can get every variety of vegetable used in Thai cooking, as well as meat, fish & seafood, and we even saw live eel, fish, pigeons, turtles, and roasted crickets and other bugs. Lots and lots of dried fruit (we got dried Longan to try, quite nice actually). There is a small food court as well, so we got something to eat before heading on. We decided that a bit of nature was what we need, and an hour's drive found us at Namtok Bua Tong, the Sticky Waterfalls.

What an amazing place! It's a national park, so we expected to pay an entrance fee but no! Free entry! And it just got better from here. The park is beautifully landscaped with easy walking paths, bathroom & changing rooms (with showers!). The only drawback was it's Sunday, so there were quite a few people here. But it wasn't crowded (in fact far from it), and everyone we came across was quiet, respectful and friendly. We started with a short walk to the Namphu Chet Si cold spring that bubbles up into a perfectly clear pool. Quite pretty but you're not allowed in the water here.

Back at the main park area we donned our bathing suits and went exploring. Down a long wooden staircase in the jungle to the bottom of said falls. The wall was not difficult, the weather was great and we didn't suffer from bitey-bugs. Green forest all around, great views and loads of butterflies. And the falls themselves are spectacular! The water apparently has a very high calcium content, and the calcium is left behind as the water runs by, leaving great off-white bubble-looking things running like foam down the side of the mountain, surrounded by the lush, green forest. And the amazing thing is that almost no algae grows on it, so it isn't slippery in the least!

We stayed for a while at the lowest accessible pool (there's one lower but a sign said it was off limits) just enjoying the cool water, the atmosphere and climbing up and down the falls. A few people came and went, a family stopped for a picnic, and played in the falls as well.

Then we heard a loud squawk, sounded like a bird, but I couldn't identify it! It sounded like it was sitting in the tree above the picnicing family. The family was playing in the water, and just the teenaged girl was sitting under the tree with her cell phone. And there was the squawk again! And again! Drove me nuts! I just had to know what bird that was! I walked slowly to the tree, trying to see the bird. The girl was oblivious of me standing right behind her, staring up into the tree. Then her dad (I assume) called to her and pointed me out. I gestured into the tree as the bird squawked again! "There!" I pointed.

She cracked up laughing, and pointed down! There was a plastic basket next to her - they had taken their cockatoo with them to the picnic, and it was worried about the baby sister in the water! The girl took the bird out of his basket to say hello to me and we had a good laugh.

Gilat and I started up the falls soon after that episode. It's super easy to climb up the falls, the water running over your feet, because the rocks are not slippery in the least! They are not named the 'Sticky Waterfalls' for nothing! We had no problem climbing up in the falls, with our camera in hand, taking pictures of ourselves, of butterflies and spiders until we reached the top.

After a couple of hours at the falls we showered and changed, and got ready to head back to the city, and to our bus.

On the way back to town we stopped at a market for some food before our bus ride. We got some schnitzel on a stick, a pastry filled with a sweet potato and some iced green tea with milk.

We got to the bus station and returned the rental car. We got our tickets verified and the bus left 10 minutes ahead of time!

The bus looked great in the website pictures, but they were taken when the bus was new. It ain't new any more! My advice - if you're going to travel overnight, take a train! The seats did lean all the way back and they had a foot rest, blankets were provided like on an airplane, but comfortable is not how I'd describe it. There was a stewardess, but she was impatient and rude, another passenger was watching videos of some practical joke TV program, without earphones, and neither of us got much sleep. Still, we figured we'd get to Bangkok at 6:30 and figure things out.

Except we were (rudely) woken up at 4:30, and arrived an hour and a half early, at 5:00AM! And as soon as we got off the bus we were mobbed by taxi drivers. But more on them tomorrow. I need to get some sleep...

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