A Cavernous Experience

Hua Hin, Thailand

Greatest Moment: The largeness of Phraya Nakhon Caves within Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park. It is humbling to be in a cave of this scale, and it is hard to believe still the quiet, calm, beauty that fills it. It is a natural wonder. Its stalagmites and stalactites formed over 1,000 years ago, and through the effects of erosion and the craggy nature of limestone mountains, great openings formed in the roof of the cave, allowing sunshine to spill in its cavernous body. With the sunshine, soon followed trees and plants into these caves, that as we sat and meditated on its unique display, the wind shook the leaves and gave a rustling existence to an otherwise dark, wet, and chilled cave.

In one of these caves sits a temple, small and not in-cumbersome to the surrounding natural formations. It was built for King Rama V and was build 127 years old. It is positioned so that the sun hits it exactly at 10am, and some believe that it will reflect light onto a secret passage.

Worst Moment: Lets just reiterate how large this cave was. With any miscommunication, one could easily lose sight of another person. Sadly, Jamie spent 45 minutes shouting Kathy's name and pacing across the span of the three caves, while Kathy sat peacefully and tranquilly at the opening of the cave, meditating on existence and fell into a sweet slumber. When Jamie finally found her, after countless thoughts of her falling into the cracks of the caves and laying dead, she could have strangled her, to say the least.

Lesson Learned: ALWAYS tell someone where you are at :) And when locals recommend buying 2 headlamps going into a bat-filled cave, buy two headlamps instead of saving $2.50. Especially if one of you have fallen off cliffs before, favoring now, sure and certain footing, and are slightly claustrophobic.

Cultural Insight: Seeing the street animals continue to be very tough. It is hard to imagine that so many animals on the roads are taken care of, especially when many of them obviously aren't by the abscesses, limp legs, skin diseases, and bony stature that are seen on a regular basis. However, the more one inquires about such matters, you become aware at how the animals here are treated as wild animals rather than household pets. They are fed, but they live on the beaches, fields, and surrounding shelters between buildings. Every business has seemed to have adopted 1+ dogs, and there are many local fundraisers to gain money to help feed the local dogs and cats. While we have been brought to tears seeing some animals that need TLC, there becomes a sense of community when it comes to the street animals.

Along those lines, we went to Monkey Mountain here in Khao Takiab, Hua Hin. There is a community of monks that live on this mountain, and they are the caretakers to a very large amount of dogs and monkeys. We were there around feeding time, where the sound of the truck produced a huge reaction. Monkeys by the hundreds came out of the buildings, trees, rocks, and pools to wait by the truck as it unloaded tons of bananas and bags of dog food. It was insanity! The amount of screeching and monkeys running from the truck with their treasured food was true chaos. Jamie and I grabbed a handful of bananas quickly and ran down the road to this little puppy who was much too thin, and watched him munch on the bananas. Jamie was so scared of grabbing the bananas, for fear of a custody battle with a monkey. These monkeys were macaque monkeys, and some were large and scary looking. But some were so cute and small, infants stuck to their mother's nipple or timidly jumping onto her back.