We’re racing the sun, and the heat, this morning. The service at the Ban Sanai is top notch, and the staff has boxed breakfast ready for us when we get to the desk just before 6am, complete with piping hot coffee. Our driver for today shows up in a very luxe van, bows respectfully and starts speaking in Thai, his only language. We both engage Translate on our phones and we’re down the road.
It’s about a 30 minute drive to the Tiger Temple. The grounds are beautiful and one of the few
we saw with active expansion and construction.
No fewer than 4 major temples and gathering buildings are being built
here simultaneously. The existing
buildings are mostly closed and we only see a few other visitors at this early
hour.
What really makes the Tiger Temple famous is the Big Buddah
here at the top of the hill. The only
thing standing between us and His Bigness is the one thousand two hundred and
sixty steep, uneven steps. Yup, 1260
steps in Thai heat on a cloudless morning.
On some flights, the treads are only half as wide as Mandy’s foot. Other flights features risers that are taller
than Mandy’s knees (and she’s in 2” sandals!)
Some flights are deteriorating and tilty. At each landing the step number is roughly
painted on the post, taunting at the beginning, but encouraging once we can
start counting down.
The reward at the top is an entire collection of Buddhas and
great views of the villages and valleys below.
While we do appreciate our location, we’ve been struck with
the same thoughts at several of these most sacred sites now. They can be pretty trashed. Litter abounds. The monuments themselves are poorly
maintained, showing signs of peeling paint and failing plaster. Plus there seems to be no second thoughts
about building visually unappealing advertising or secular structures right in
the way of the holy beings. It takes
away from the zen of it all. Plus it
makes it really hard to get a decent picture.
Down the stairs is no cake walk either, but gravity does
most of the work and it goes much faster.
Along the way we’re catch a troop of mischievous long-tailed macaques.
At the base again, we explore the Tiger Cave Temple
itself. It’s already 90F so it doesn’t
take much to see why the monks started meditating in this naturally cooled
cavern back in 1975.
Back in the blessedly air conditioned van, we point to our next destination. Along the way we make a very short detour to Little Palm Homemade. This cute-as-a-button one room café is more dollhouse than restaurant. Nestled in the oil palm plantation at the Tonplam Farmstay, The Little Palm is known for its amazing croissants and fine coffee, both of which we sample along side a croissant batter waffle. It’s half an hour before opening, but the gracious owner literally runs the half kilometer from his house to nourish us. We get to spend some time admiring the beauty that’s formed by the neat rows and columns of tall oil palm trees that we have been driving through. An important crop here with small growers covering about a million hectares total, the production is mostly for domestic consumption split evenly between food products and biodiesel.
Just a few minutes away is the Emerald Pool complex. This is a privately owned nature
preserve. Opposite of a Disney
attraction, you actually enter through the gift shop, being walked to the
restaurant where you pay a few dollars each to enter, then are offered
everything from coffee to souvenirs before getting to the entrance gate. Once past the gate, we enter a very beautiful
forested area and choose the longer walk, about 1km on a walkway along a
picturesque river (we apricate the walkway – it keeps the impact to the forest
to a bare minimum). The mineral deposits
form beautiful aquascapes under the glassy surface, including this one, the
Glass Pool.
The trail ends at the main attraction – the Emerald
Pool. Ture it its name, the water is
jewel green and crystal clear all the way to the silky bottom. The tiny lake is formed by less then an inch
of water flowing over a wide field of yellow rock then down the edge of the
pool in small rivulets. The water is
warmed during its trip over the warm, hard surface and enters the pool at
bathtub temperatures. There are plenty
of other visitors here, but it’s not crowded or loud. The pool has a calming effect, the bathers
soothed and happy, soaking in sun and minerals.
After a good long soak, we towel off and walk the next leg
to the very aptly named Blue Pool. The
pictures speak for themselves.
Our time at the pools complete, we, through the help of
Translate, roll the dice and ask the driver to pick somewhere for lunch. Somewhere small and local that he would
like. This is in keeping with throwing
ourselves in the way of an experience.
Whatever he picks is going to be the thing we were meant to do
today. And boy, what a pick. We are delivered to Chann Roen. It’s not a tourist place, as the only
language spoken by the staff and patrons is Thai. It’s not a side of the road pheasant village
place either. It’s a suburban middle
class restaurant indicative of the modern local restaurant scene today. We guess that the majority of diners are
groups on business lunches. The food is
brilliant – seabass with herbs, pork omelet, Thai salad – and Thai level spices
cut only by the Chang beers served with straws and ice.
On the way back to the hotel, we ask the driver to stop so
we can pick up our laundry. Laundry is a
crazy scene and just has to be experienced first hand.
Again we hang by our infinity pool before napping. We get a ride to Ao Nang Beach in the hotel’s
regularly scheduled tuk tuk, in time to watch the sunset and catch the nightly
fire show. We’re very surprised to see
that the entire show was performed by a youth fire team, the oldest of the boys
and girls not more than 12. The show was
brilliant, playing the fire off the water.
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