November
was a really busy month. At the
beginning of the month we travelled to the province of Loei to climb Phu
Kradeung and celebrate the Loy Krathong festival. The festival entails floating krathongs,
small boats made from banana leaf with candles and flowers and incense, on some
kind of body of water. Also, lanterns
are lighted and floated into the sky. Picture that Tangled scene, but with fireworks. If anyone's wondering what happens to the lanterns: the flame eventually goes out and the paper thing falls back down, slowly enough that one can dodge though. Some of the lanterns didn't quite make it into the sky and there were people there who would catch them and try to push them back up, so they didn't light anything (or anyone) on fire. One lighted lantern didn't make it up, but it fell down over water, so no one could push it back up. The fountain destroyed that thing (which sadly means a lot of bad luck for the lantern owners). On some of the lanterns they attached fireworks to the bottom and when the lantern was full of hot air, they lit the fireworks and then let go of the lantern. If no one has ever done that before, the lantern doesn't rise as fast as one generally runs away when one lights fireworks. So, needless to say, I did not feel safe when those were sent off.
We
celebrated Loy Krathong at ground level and the next day we headed up the
mountain, Phu Kradeung. It took about 5
hours to get all the way to the top and the last 2km or so was literally
climbing up large amounts of steep, rocky terrain. We stayed at the top for a few days, it cost 50 baht for a warm shower, so I had cold showers. Due to the altitude the temperature was
cooler, more like a Canadian autumn but with more sun. The cool mountain air was refreshing. We watched the sunrise one morning and then walked
30km to the other side of the mountain to see the sunset. My friend and I almost got lost once. We decided to explore (and we did tell one of the adults) and see some more of the waterfalls before heading back for dinner. We saw a sign that said to be out of the forest by 3pm because that's when the wild elephants come out, it was 2:30, so we headed back. This friend of mine kept wondering how the elephants got up the mountain in the first place, its not an easy climb.
One drawback of the mountain was the sheer
amount of leeches. The leeches here are
different then they are in Canada. They
are smaller, faster and live in grassy areas.
The first night we were there my friends and I spent an hour on the
porch picking leeches off of each other and each others’ shoes. I had eight in my shoes and two on my socks
and I picked four off of one person’s foot and applied first aid to
another’s. Classic times. Through the night on occasion you would hear some of the kids coming back from their friend's cabins and then you hear screams as they discovered the leeches all over their feet. I invested in a pair of leech socks, which you put on over your socks and pants and they keep the leeches on the sock and off your skin. They'll make a good souvenir.
Counter-intuitively, going down the mountain
was both harder and more dangerous. Either because we were tired from our week of hiking, or because gravity thought we were spiting it, I don't know. But
everyone made it back safe, with only a few minor injuries and very sore
appendages.
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| Hard to get a good picture because I would jump every time a firework went off :) |
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| Krathong |
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| Lantern |
After we got back to Chanthaburi;
which meant a 5 hour bus ride, a night in a hotel, a three hour van ride and
then a 2 hour truck ride; we had a few days rest before we were headed off to
Pattaya for a conference, some fundraising and some fun at the beach. The Rotary kids walked in a parade to raise
money for the flood victims, with the exchange students holding the donation
boxes and walking down the sidewalks beside the parade. The parade marched to the central mall, where
a show was then held to raise more money.
People preformed dances, sang and two of the Mexicans put on a magic show. At the end the Exchange Students all went up
together and sang Imagine by John Lennon.
