Thursday, September 17, 2009

Tiger Cave-Monkey Madness

On a lazy saturday afternoon Maris and I decided to take a long motorbike ride. We headed in a direction we hadn't gone in yet. We headed towards the mountain.

As we arrived we noticed the monkeys. They were everywhere. This was our first encounter with them. We noticed a couple, then a couple more- we then noticed they were everywhere. It was an all out monkeyfest. They were jumping through the trees, running up on people, stealing snacks and drinks they had, such as this furry little thief here..



So after a little while of monkey gawking we decided to start our track up the Mountain to the wat at the top. It was called Tiger Cave. There were no tiger's nor any caves, why it wasn't called Thieving Monkey Mountain is beyond me.

We walked up to the first set of steps. This is what we saw.


Now when we thought 1,237 steps we thought about our trip up to Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai. It was 600 steps, it wasn't that bad, just one long set up relatively easy stairs. We soon found out that this was far more difficult. We would soon find out it would be the most ridiculously steep, never-ending, unmerciful set up steps we had ever seen.


Maris Looks pretty happy at the beginning of this trip..

This photo was taken about 30 minutes later, not even halfway up at 563 or so steps..



The elevation got high, we had been sweating for over an hour. Some steps were so steep you had to crawl up them. We took our shoes off at 925 because our feet were so sweaty they were slipping out of our sandals.


This is the top. It was worth it. The blog entry below this one, the one of the panoramic photos were shot from the top of this mountain at this wat.


Here are some random photos from the trip up and at the top of the mountain. Definitely one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.











Posted by BrockTalkinThai at 1:36 PM

5 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 18, 2009 at 12:56 AM

    Looks amazing, Brock!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maris's DadSeptember 18, 2009 at 11:14 PM

    Great pictures. Sounds like you're getting lots of exercise there; mountain climbing, tennis, and all. Pretty funny about the monkeys. I take it they didn't steal anything from you. Be careful, it could be a "planet of the apes" type environment up there.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 23, 2009 at 4:05 AM

    hi brock! and maris too i guess.
    ...ok maris too. hi maris!
    your pictures make my eyes tickle.
    -logan

    ReplyDelete
  4. AlanSeptember 24, 2009 at 9:56 PM

    WOW! Those pictures are amazing...How long did it take to get to the top? I am super jealous that I am not in Thailand with you guys squatting on your couch, eating all your food, and over staying my welcome to the point that you are reconsidering the value of our friendship...just kidding...I am trying to set the record for the most uses of the ellipsis (...) in a comment...How am I doing so far?

    Brock, I emailed you earlier today to let you know that I setup an AIM account, but we need to setup up some sort of standing time that we can both log on and chat. I really miss you guys, but I am sure you are having the experience of a life time in Thailand.

    There is one thing that I have noticed that you guys haven't put in the blog. I need to see a university of Tennessee "Power T" displayed at the top of one of these mountains or in the jungle or perhaps on a monkey...I don't know, but you gotta represet for me. You have to have a t shirt or something.

    Finally, I am sure there is something that you are missing from the good ol' US of A that you can't seem to find in Thailand. Let me know what it is and your address and I will mail it to you. I am not sure what you would like, but I am sure you can think of something.

    Be sure to let me know how we can AIM each other. Also what is the time difference where you are? I looked at a time zone map and it appears you are 12 hours ahead of me in Brentwood (central time). Is that correct?

    Peace out!

    Big Al

    ReplyDelete
  5. Phil BuckOctober 1, 2009 at 9:53 PM

    Amazing! The pictures are really good.

    ReplyDelete

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The Beginning

The Beginning

I am a 25 year old, southern Gent. I've been bothered by the fact that I've not traveled the world or even left the country, sans a trip to Cancun when I was in High School, but that was so muddled with tequila and strip clubs (sorry mom), that It doesn't REALLY count- that I have decided to take a adventure across the globe with the love of my life.

All I needed was a motivator, I needed someone to push me to travel and tell me, "Now's the time to do this, and we should totally do it". She came, she said those magic words and now we've got our bags packed, watching the calendar.
 
I had intentions on moving to New York City with my girlfriend. We are both really big into music and both have a spot in our hearts for the city. The opportunity escaped us after having our hopes deflated by the freaky rent prices there. We kind of ditched the New York idea immediately following a trip there and the mention of Thailand. 

We had always tossed around the idea of traveling together. I knew I wanted to travel with her. The first place she mentioned was Thailand, and after 20 minutes on Craigslist, checking out places and prices, we were sold (prob not the best way to chose where you want to spend your life, but that's just how it happened, and this is my story). Thailand it was.

So here we are 6 months later, a ticket for Bangkok dated August 4th in our hands. When people ask us how long we will be in Thailand, we say "Indefinitely". We are ready for a life change, something that might coax us into never coming back.

I have been dreaming of the sand and the crystal beaches since we mentioned the move, I have also had nightmares of being locked up and having to deal with a girlfriend who has been kidnapped by some crazy python handler, but those are just dreams.

The truth is, I have never been so excited and nervous at the same time for anything in my life. Right, now as I sit on my couch in South Knoxville looking out the window at the homemade bird feeders we made, on a hot Sunday afternoon, it blows my mind to think that in a little under two months, I might be laying in the sand with the tide riding up my mini bathing suit, with some concoction of a random Thai's design to sip in one hand, watching long-tailed boats float over the horizon, holding the love of my life in the other.

I expect to be shocked, excited, impressed, disappointed, lost, scared, found, happy, comfortable, uncomfortable, drunk, frightened, enlightened, ready to come home, ready to stay forever- all at different times on this journey.  

But one thing that will never change will be when I am an old man, maybe back in South Knoxville, sitting on my porch in a rocking chair with my old wife, widdling some crazy little thing old men on porches widdle, I will be able to look over to my wife and ask, "Remember that time we went into that local bar in Thailand and we saw that Thai Prostitute perform that "Ping-Pong show?" I am glad we shared that moment together."  

And she will say, "Brock that's disgusting" and then smile a little bit.


_Brock