Getting close to Elephants, feeding monkeys and being left behind at a monks cave...

Riding on an elephant is awesome and weird. You are so high up on this giant animal. And imagining that people really used to trek long distances on this majestic animals, is amazing. Toughing their skin, feels so unknown too. It's so rough that I do not think ours feels a thing when I rub her back. So we are lead to a waterfall, where the elephants get some rest and we get to jump from the cliffs into the cold water or just dip into it like that.

Nicole and I on our elephant

Riding along

Group picture at the waterfall

Feeding our elephant after riding it

Leaving the elephants behind, we are back at Smiley's for a while, till we go to see some rubber trees. It's really interesting how they cut the trees for the rubber and stuff. Weird to be kind of a rubber farmer. :)

Posing with corn in front of
the amazing view of Khao Sok National Park

Ya showing us how to cut the rubber trees

Next stop: Monkey feeding next to a temple. These monkeys are so cute. How they peel fruits ... so weird. I am having some mean thoughts though...wish I had some onions with me... we used to freak the monkeys at the zoo back home out with them. As they start to peel them and then their eyes start crying and they start wiping them with their onion fingers.... I know...not nice...but so much fun...

Laura feeding a monkey

Sanna battling for the banana with a monkey

Anyways, at some time, there is this monk coming up to me. Waving to me, that I should follow. So I do...well, I know u should not go with unknown men, but it's a monk!! I can't say no, can I?

He shows me his cave and talks to me ... in Thai... so I do not understand a word. He is giving a stone to me...??...don't know why...then he starts talking again and hands me some paper and a pen. He wants me to write down my name and address.

I start it...and suddenly I feel crawling stuff on my feet...I am standing in the middle of a millions of ants!!!! Aaaaahh...I try to get them off, but I do not wanna kill them too obvious, as the monk might get mad then. So I try it kind of slow and these little fuckers are biting my feet...aaaahhh. I finally jump out of them and the monk offers me a chair. (I wonder how he can sleep in here with all those ants around)

I write down my stuff and he hands me a picture of him with something written in the back...in Thai... so I say bye and get out of the cave to get back to the others...well...they are gone...that's hilarious...I got left behind in a monks cave...so I start walking up the street in the direction of our place. I hitchhike the rest of the way on a scooter with a guy, who tells me he works at a place near Smiley's.

I get off the scooter at Smiley's, our group leader sees me, and his face is just so worth this whole thing, when he is like "Where are you coming from?" Wow, they seriously still didn't realize.

(PS: The Smiley's family tells me, that the monk wrote his address on the picture and the stones, he gave to me, were presents)

The picture the monk gave to me of himself

# MUSIC If you're into it

Dedicated to Ben. I loved when he sang that song at the Floating Bungalows. It makes people happy right away I guess. And it's so weird, which makes it fit so well to Ben ...hehehe ;) ...and will always remember me of the way he played songs for us. Thanks :)

Awesome sunrise for a cliff jump day...

Sunrise at Cheow Lan Lake

Got up for the sunrise. Basically you do not see the sun rise, but the sun coming over the mountains, but even that is worth it, to get up early, as this whole calm and silent place in the lake seems even more quiet and is dunking the whole area in morning colors.

On our way back to Smiley's, we stop for some cliff jumping. I am too scared to just do it. But when Corn comes up and says he doesn't know if he should go again, I hear myself saying: "I'd jump, if u go again!" So he's like "Ok, let's go...!" I think it's kind of sick, when I'm starting to climb the cliff, but when I finally get over my fear and jump, it's still a scary, but so amazing feeling. I am so proud of myself and glad that I did it.

Crawling up the tree at the cliff, to get in position to jump ...

Me jumping off

#MUSIC Nichts bringt mich runter by ICH+ICH

Dedicated to Tiffany, who loved this song, when we listened to it on the boat ride on Cheow Lan Lake. It says "Nichts bringt mich runter" which means "Nothing can get me down" 
Chorus translation for Tiff: "Nothing can get me down. I fly further on, even without an aim/destination. And nothing can get me down. I have everything I need, more would be too much. And nothing can get me down. I fly always further, even if I do not know where to. And nothing can get me down. It is the biggest thing that I am still alive and in the middle of it all."

The stunning sound of silence (Back to the roots on the laketrip with jungle & cave hike)

When we arrive at the lake...it is just amazing.

If I think of a lake, I'd usually imagine that I could kind of see it's shape. But not this one. It's huuuuge. There is no end in sight and it feels more like a weird stock-still part of the sea...you hear nothing but the engine of the boat (hmm...ok, that is pretty loud...but even if it slows down)...you hear the water on the boat and ...silence....and the surrounding is just...there are no words for this awesome landscape.

The high rocks or mountains, whatever you wanna call it, combined with this giant lake... beautiful. And the water is so smooth, that after getting out of my stunning amazement, all I wanna do is jump on some water ski and ski until I can't hold myself to a rope anymore. But – actually it is great – there is nothing like that to disturb this beautiful nature. 

Boat ride through stunning scenery

So we keep on racing along the lake with the other boat of our group and suddenly drive into a little inlet and up to some floating bungalows. Lunch stop. Wait ... first: bathing stop :) We jump into this clear water. I expected it to be freezing cold ... it's not. It's perfect! So before we enjoy the most yummy fried rice ever, we have some Chang in the lake. Life can be tough...

We drive on. Up to some bushes in the lake and get off the boat at some muddy place. I get stuck and slip a couple of times with my flip flops, so I leave them (till we get back).

The hike through the jungle is back to nature and barefoot for me. Except for some thorns sticking in my feet it is the right decision and a back to the roots feeling. :)

So we make our way through the mud, have a little swim in some muddy weird warm water (people were kind of waiting for crocodiles to jump out of some corner, but luckily we had Ben with his slingshot with us, so he kept them all away...hehe...), make our way further on through bushes, over rocks, through little rivers and limbo dance under some trees...

Boat ride to the cave

Making our way through the jungle

Ben aka Crocodile Dundee lighting us the way (and "saving" us with his slingshot)

And I so loved the story of Bertus, when he walked through the jungle once and this little kid saw him and believed he was George of the Jungle... I can so imagine that, as he looks 99% like the Tarzan of the same named Musical in Germany (see picture to the right). Hey...maybe he should apply for that. He can sing, he fits in the looks and he will love the whole swinging over the audience and jumping around on ropes thing, I guess.... ;)

Arriving at the cave

Whatever...we arrive at the cave and turn our headlamps and flashlights on... as soon as it gets a little darker there are millions of bats hanging from the top of the cave. The spiders in there are pretty gross, but I do not see too many...just enough to say...wow...kinda big..., iiiuuhhh... :)

And then there is this horror movie scene, Bertus shows Tiff and me some bugs and we start looking around and suddenly we see that they are everywhere around us....creepy.

Bats hanging from the top of the cave

Creepy spiders in the cave

Making our way through the pitch-black cave

At some point we have to swim in some pretty cold water in the cave. Some of the girls get kind of scared. So I hold the hand of my roommate, so she won't feel left alone...even though it is pretty hard to walk through the tight parts of the cave like that and to hold balance. But I'd rather fall down than making her feel worse by letting her hand go. We finally make it out of the cave and I am glad to see light again.

The way back feels so much faster. And it is just nice to relax my feet in the boat when we jump back in it. We enjoy the rest of the drive to our bungalows even though we get quite soaked... When we drive upon them, it is just an awesome view seeing those tiny little huts floating on this amazing lake in front of the mountains.

Our floating bungalows on Lake Cheow Lan

The little huts, that we slept in

At this place, there is some bamboo stick in the water from the bungalows to a canoe, that we try to balance on. There is just one person from our group making it all the way over to the canoe without falling down and Ya (one of the guys from Smiley's), who is making it to the canoe and back without getting wet...wow...

Bertus trying to make it to the end of the bamboo stick...

Dinner is delicious!! I even try the fish, because it just looks sooo yummy.

Later some start playing sociables and some are chilling at the huts listening to Ben. This is the night Ben's guitar gets signed by some of us, so he will never travel on again, without thinking of this very moment :)

Nicole's glory night, when she played socialables

PS: I wish I brought my hammock here. That would have been awesome. Ben is the only one who thought of it. But even he is not having the pleasure of using it, as Nicole jumps in there at night.

# MUSIC Total eclipse of the heart by Bonnie Tyler

Always reminds me of our tubing trip, because we used to sing it, every time someone turned a tube around ...

Tubing & truck riding – This is real!

We are going tubing with all the three groups. So it's about 60 people getting on this tube based trip. It's so relaxing and chilling to just grab some cans of beer and a tube and jump into a river and let yourself float ... just for yourself or joining in with some of the others from time to time.. and then have some fun rapids now and then.

And this is REAL! I mean the river just floats like that. I've been doing something like this before, but it was all made by Disney World in Florida. It was a fake river, filled with tourist enjoying this fun tube next to tube in a place called Typhoon Lagoon ... made of millions of liters of concrete. Made to make people believe it was real and to make their dreams come true. But this... it is soooo much better ... and it is sooo real.

When floating ends (yeah, sadly it had to end at some point), we get out and roll our tubes like giant cheeses to the pick up truck.

We hop on the truck and — weird thing – even these rides in the back of the truck are one of the parts I love about traveling. Maybe because it's just not allowed in Germany. And it's probably never warm enough to just ride in the back in a bathing suite anyways. Kind of reminds me of kids birthdays, when I was little. It was one of the best things of every birthday party when the parents of the birthday kid brought everyone back home and you were allowed (by the parents, not by the police...) to sit in the back of the car. I just loved it. And finally, on every trip to Asia, I am able to do that again. :)

Smiley's is the place to be

Smiley's Bungalows is an awesome place. And not just because it has hot showers :)

The family who runs this place is letting you take part at their life. And shows you more of the Thai culture like food made in bamboo sticks or the pretty bracelets made of rattan (thanks for that again. I love it). There are some awesome kids belonging to this family running around as well.
You just can't but love this place, at least as soon as you get your toast in the morning and there is a smiley on it, grinning at you.
Smiley's is a chilling place with some great hammocks around (whose rotten parts are great for making bracelets...) and really comfy bungalows. There are a few little mini-marts around and some really great massage places and the internet is for free as well, which was perfect for me, because this was the place I decided to extent my trip and I had a lot of stuff to organize and check via internet. 

Our bungalows

The inside of the bungalows...sooo comfy

Awesome hammock area at the restaurant

The awesome family who runs this place

Gong preparing the bamboo sticks for the cooking

Ya cooking the food

The owner pouring the sticky rice on the plates

Nadine enjoying her green curry out of the bamboo stick