Far far away from mass tourism in the north of Thailand you have a little village called Soppong. I stayed here for 3 nights and have only seen 10 other tourists and my home for a few days was called Little Eden Guesthouse. Well it didn't steal its name. Its a beautiful place with huts, more modern rooms and a nice looking swimmingpool with sauna. I wanted to experience local life so I picked a hut. When I arrived they showed me my hut and a little later I noticed big ants all over the floor, which I could live with but then I noticed them on the bed and pillow. I couldn't see myself sleeping like that so I talked with the staff and they solved the problem within minutes. Just before my hut I meet the biggest spider I have ever seen eating an even bigger insect and a little later a girl who worked there and was cutting flowers started screaming. She just found a snake before her feet and called another girl who catched snakes and cooks them. This snake seemed to have escaped before I could even watch it. Well I wanted to experience local life, I'm getting it. Life in nature. Don't be mistaken, this place is very professional, clean and beautiful.
I decided just to stay there for the rest of the day and relax, do my paperwork and search how I will do the things I wanted to do and fill myself with food, european food for a change, since Thai food is great but after a few weeks something else is welcome. I went to bed early and enjoyed the sounds of nature. I woke up with 2 small lizards in my hut, those lizards are everywhere I stayed but I really love them, watching them, listening to their sounds and they eat insects, a big bonus! I guess local people don't think they are that special. After a good sleep I woke up early and went for a great breakfast.
My first mission was the Coffin Cave. This was around 3km walking and since my last meeting with local agressive dogs I'm a bit more careful with walking around. I just needed to follow one street so this was kind of easy. Local children shouted something Thai to me so I replied with waving, they smiled and waved back. The smallest ones keep staring at me, I must be weird for them and I guess I know how other races must feel in our country. After a 20 minute walk I arrive at the entrance of the Coffin Cave. To my surprise this looked like it was left behind for years. The path overgrown, the windows broken, the doors broken open,.. trashed in other words. I could read 20 baht entrance fee, well this one was a free one I guess. I followed a slippery path up until I reached some stairs and I saw a lot of strange red insects with little ones. After the stairs came more stairs and more and more stones became missing. The last steps were no stones left but I got my first glimps on the caves and they looked impressive, high above the road and away from everything. It was the first time I started thinking, if something happens to me here, I would be in trouble, nobody would come looking for me here!
These Coffin Caves are used by a 2-3000 year old civilization to bury their dead people. they burried them in wooden coffins and lifted them with wooden stakes, pretty interesting. On the right side I could climb little bamboo stairs and have my first look on a coffin, one "hanging" supported by sticks and one just leaning against the rock. A very nice sight, got me excited! I returned and had a look at a cave who looked like a house, a door and on every side a window, looked cute. I had to enter the cave thru a small opening and climb some other small bamboo stairs and follow an amazing way thru the cave into a very small passage. I arrived in an open space with a small Buddha statue and an amazing sight in nature. Unbelievable to be here. On the left side was a very doubtful bamboo bridge which I wasn't sure I wanted to cross this but I could go right first so went there first. I had to go thru another beautiful cave entrance to a big cave to observe some other coffins. Its only when I turned around that I noticed how wonderful this cave was, its hard to put in words but its stunning. I worked my way back and decided to cross that little unstable bamboo bridge. It didn't feel good at all but I made it over, under it was quite a deep fall but sometimes you have to take a risk to make way to something wonderful. Again climbing some bamboo stairs to end up in another cave. This was another beauty with narrow high paths and some rocky climbing parts as well, also the holes in the cave looked like "the scream". Such a special burial place! I ended up at a part that looked like to be the exit a long time ago but now it seems like the rocks from above fell down and there was a hole I could crawl thru but I didn't feel like it. I decided to have a look above it and noticed I would have ended up at the first coffins I saw. I'm still not sure of this really was the exit or some rocks came down and made it look blocked. Anyway decided to make my way back the same as I came there. I enjoyed every second there even if it felt a bit unsafe and weird at some points but it was worth it. When walking down I couldn't help turning around a few times to enjoy the beautiful view.
After a 20 minutes walk back I noticed the whole adventure took about 3 hours and I had enough adventure for today. I spend the rest of the day in the bar with my notebook, writing a blog, updating my Instragram account which is by the way Captainyeller and shows the pictures of my travels, not always up to date. I tried to upload pictures on my Worldnomads album but the size is too big? If anyone knows how to solve this problem (I don't have the time to find out) I would add pictures to this blog and its album. When I was doing my paperwork I had a small conversation with a local girl who works there, the one who found the snake. Time flies when you're concentrated and before I knew it it was time to get some food and get ready to go to bed.
I had another perfect sleep surrouned by natures sounds and my little lizard friends. The following morning I went for breakfast and a german couple who arrived there at the same day as me was having breakfast as well, they had the same plan as me to visit the Tham Lod cave. They were friendly enough to ask to go together so we could cut the price in three. At first I was in doubt because by sunset 1000s of birds fly into the cave and 1000 of bats leave the cave. I would have loved to experience that but since its raining season here the owner of the place told me its maybe not worth it since the 'show' wouldn't be that impressive and since she's a local jungletrek guide I trust her judgement and I ended up going together with the german couple.
I had to find a motorbike taxi in front of the 7/11 , the other had hired one already and were touring around. When I found a ride we drove around 10km to the Tham Lod cave. My driver decided to wait there for me until I came back, which is unsual said the guesthouse owner. We paid 450 baht entrance, for the guide, the petrolium lamp and a bamboo raft, one way. We followed around guide and after a bit walking we had the first glimps on this cave entrance. Its like a big opening with a river flowing into it, a lot of bamboo rafts laying down as well. Since rainy season started in the north and the cave is full of bats and birds who accidently drop something from time to time, so we wered dressed in cheap plastic raincoates. The guide took us into the first room of the cave and showed us beautiful stalagtites and stalagmites and the fact that this cave has no electricity at all there is no light except the petrolium lamp makes it much more special, just for pictures its a but less but the experience is more important then the pictures. After seeing some beautiful things in the first room she walked us towards some wooden stairs and we had to climb high into the next room. This was a super experience as well and it was here that I saw a caveman's drawing fo the first time in my life. Sadly enough people touching it made most of it disappear but I could see it and it looked even better on pictures, I do believe they should have protected it better against people/tourists. She also showed us a lot of rocks who had animal forms, someo them pretty perfect images. After a wonderful tour we walked back down and there a bamboo raft was waiting for us. We stepped on the bamboo raft and the guide and the "driver" float us thru the cave in almost complete darkness but showing bats, big fishes and other beautiful sights with a flashlight. This is just another wonderful experience and then I didn't mention yet where we arrived. When the first light was visable we could see 1000s of birds flying around the massive cave opening. Its something you would normally only see on National Geographic, this is why I love traveling! This gigantic cave mouth opening had a beautiful sight on the green nature behind it , with the river flowing further. This is where we got off the bamboo raft, we climbed some other wooden stairs to see the sight from a different perspective. You're mouth just falls open from seeing unreal sights like this. Above the stairs we walked into some other coffin caves to see some more coffins but not as beautiful as the ones I visited the day before.
We only paid for a one way bamboo raft ride but since it was raining she offered us a free ride back, normally we would have walked out the cave and around it thru nature back to the entrance. Such friendly people and another wunderful cruise back thru the cave. When we get out it was only raining a little bit and we decided to get some food, at that point it started raining quite hard. My taxi driver was still waiting there for me, must have been 2 hours by now. I decided to walk towards him and offer him to join us and pay his meal. Since there was a language barrier, we walked to the entrance to find a translator but they didn't understand me either, so we continued towards the restaurant but even there it wasn't possible to explain. Sadly enough it didn't work out, he greeted me and waited for me while we were eating and waited for the rain to pass. We drove back to th guesthouse after nice 10km ride. It was time to say goodbye to the german couple since they were going to continue their tour, we exchanged contacts and we might meet again the future in Brugge.
I went to the bus station to buy my ticket for tomorrow. Some simple things as finding a bus station are sometimes harder then you would imagine. After asking 2 times I found it and went back to the guesthouse. I decided to relax for the rest of the day. I wrote a blog, updated Instagram a bit more and had another little conversation with Ning, the girl working there. I had another wonderful evening meal and had a conversation with the german husband from the owner. He explained me about the politics in Thailand and also about Buddhism. I never knew Buddha was a person who has actually lived. This Buddhism seems like such a wonderful, spiritual thing and I would like to understand more from it. We talked for about an hour and it was time to go to bed. I put on the light outside since at Elephantsworld they told me if you put the light outside on the mosquitos will stay there. I was the only guest left in the guesthouse. While I was doing some planning I noticed an insect who looked like a bee, but black. I felt safe under my mosquito net but after a little while around 40 were inside my hut! I freaked out and ran outside, only to notice that there were many, many more on my door and hut. I noticed they were attracked to light. I ran back inside, switch off all the lights and hide under my mosquito net, The problem is, they aren't mosquitos! They crawl over the mosquito net and can find their way inside. I spend around 3 hours in fear, putting the light of my callphone on every half hour, opening my anti mosquito citronella thing but they didn't seem to leave. After 3 hours only 10 were left and I am sorry to say I decided to start killing the ones who were left. This makes you wonder who is the dangerous, horrible creature there. Because of my stupidity ten of them got killing and I didn't get a single sting. One good thing about this horror night is I learned another valuable lesson and discovered the existance of night bees.
I don't need to explain to you that I didn't have the best sleep and this was my first horror night experience. I still don't know if they were dangerous. The next morning I went for breakfast and had some time left before I had to jump on my busride. Me and Ning had another oonversation, it was the first time I meet such an interesting person in Thailand. She's a very cute girl, I enjoyed watching her picking flowers, serve the food in her humble cute way, the way her curiousity was. In most occasions I think by myself that moments like that should be captured, remembered, enjoyed and let go but this last conversation was nice and interesting and we decided to keep contact. In two and a half weeks I made my first Thai friend. After saying goodbye I walked towards my bus and I even when I had the worst night until now I left Soppong with a smile and lovely memories. I got rewarded with wonderful 5 hour busride thru the mountians. If you like roadtrips this should be done in your lifetime.
I arrived back in Chiang Mai, where I booked a room for one night, had some food, lovely conversations with some german people and closed this chapter down..!
