That’s right – this bridge has no handrails.
Last month, I wrote a blog post about a 3 day, 2 night Thailand mountain trek adventure I participated in. The link to this post is below:
As I conveyed in the aforementioned post, I was tested physically and mentally throughout the trek. Frankly, it was one of the toughest things I have done in quite a few years. I consider myself to be in excellent shape physically, so perhaps what made this trek so damn difficult was that the heat, humidity, sand flies, bed bugs, and mosquitoes, coupled with the treacherous terrain, all conspired to make me miserable during the 3 day trek. I was sweaty, dirty, and reeked of something akin to rotten eggs the entire frickin’ time, the only relief provided by the 3 waterfalls and lagoon we swam at.
The post I wrote back then had no photographs – due to losing my camera, after I fell into a river. This post is only possible because my trek buddies, Mark and Cheryl of Australia, took photos of our adventure and sent me some of them in an email today. Thank you both very much. Quite a few photos are with me in them, so I apologize for that. Nevertheless, they tell the story . . .
The beginning of the trek should have been a clue, i.e., 8 people piled into the back of a short bed truck with everyone’s gear. Actually, this turned out to be “nirvana,” because at the end of the trip, the tour operator added two more people to our already tight quarters. Ha.
Klaus and I on our elephant.
The first village we stopped in had this rifle. It was so old that I had no idea if it even would shoot or would explode in your hands.
Near a waterfall.
Small child in village we spent the night at.
Dinner by candle light.. Yummy . . .
Village hut.
Multiple alarm clocks and dinner companions.
Me getting familiarized with my mosquito netting and bamboo mattress. Notice my pants hanging down? Everything I wore was drenched with a combination of sweat and water. Ditto for socks and shoes.
Cheryl to my right and Klaus on my left..
Me trying to play a Thai hand made string musical instrument made of teak. Klaus, who is a trained classical orchestra violinist, actually played a very nice tune on this instrument.
One of the very few times I wasn’t miserable on this trip. Ha.
Crossing a “safe” bridge (basically defined as one that had at least one handrail).
Heat stroke? Maybe. I was a bit delusional at the time.
Cheryl and I by the fire.
Cheryl and one of the village woman.
A village woman weaving clothes for her family.
“Onward Christian Soldiers” through a corn field.
I have no idea what I am excited about. Maybe that I haven’t fallen off the bridge.
Cheryl, Mark, Klaus, and I. We all are smiling because we have completed the trek and we know a nice hot shower and soft bed awaits us.
We came, we saw, we conquered. We’ll sort of . . .
A bit of honesty on how I really felt about this *$^@#^%)+# mountain trek. Seriously, I wouldn’t trade the experience of having gone through this for anything in the world. However, I also wouldn’t repeat the experience either. 
Great photos! Thank you, Mark and Cheryl, for sharing them with us!
Did you ever get your camera working, Steve? I read an article the other day about putting a drenched camera or cell phone into a bag of rice so the rice can absorb the moisture. Sounds like it’d be worth a try. Good luck!
Yeah, I probably need to check and see if it works again, It’s been a couple of weeks since I took out the memory card and battery. Who knows? It might have dried out. I doubt it though. I will check and let you know what happens Barb. Thank you for the comments (Mark and Cheryl will appreciate your comment!).
This is the best post yet!
Is this because I nearly died? LOL. All kidding aside, thank you Leah.
Excellent report on the trek. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing!
Hey Zum! Thanks for dropping by . . . Go Giants! See ya at the Flap.
Thanks for the like! Glad to find some cool info for my Thailand trip!
Hey there! Thank you for commenting on my blog. I visited your’s and I like it as well, I am going to follow you too. You humble me when you say that I am a resource for your Thailand trip. Thank you much!
Anthony Bourdain (one of my heroes…. get paid well for traveling around the world!) once said something about traveling, and I paraphrase:
“Traveling is about self-discovery, as much as it’s about discovering the outside world. You go away, you learn, you get scarred, marked, and changed in the process. And hopefully you’re better because of it.”
“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts – it even breaks your heart.”
“But that’s ok. The journey changes you. It SHOULD change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, in your heart, and on your body. You take something with you, and hopefully you leave something good behind….”
When I keep hearing you say how “miserable” you were on that trek, I translate that to “the trek left marks on my memory, in my heart, and on my body”…
Ok, maybe you really WERE miserable…
Paul, it is the former – I just can’t express it as well as Bourdain. When I say, “I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything in the world,” this is me saying, “It left an indelible memory that I will never forget. All experiences – good or bad – are learning ones for me and this was no exception.” I also said that I wouldn’t repeat the experience again. Umm, this is the “learning” part of the experience. Grin.
Basically, my blog isn’t about blowing smoke us people’s asses, telling them what a wonderful time I am having, when occasionally the reality is that I am “miserable” or I miss home or I got sick or ____________ (fill in the blank). Again, I just don’t say it as well as Bourdain or even you my friend. Regardless, overall, this trip has been kick ass with a few hiccups. That’s life – whether you travel or stay near home.
So, tell me how you have been? Are you dating? If you want, you can email me. I hope you are well!
Steve
My favorite pics was you lounging on the rocks. You should send that one to Old Spice as part of an audition
. The last one was good too. Brutal honesty is always good. Nice post. Had me laughing all the way through.
Yeah, that’s what I conveyed to Paul. I’m glad you were laughing because that was my intent – the flip side of tragedy is comedy and they always go together. I (and the others on this trek) easily have a dozen or more stories about this particular trip. For example, the villagers fixed us “snake” as an appetizer the first night for dinner. Cheryl and the two other German girls wouldn’t touch it. In fact, I think Mark and I were the only ones to sample it. What kind of snake? Who knows . . . Oh yeah, I can report that it did taste like chicken. LOL.