Young Journey with plenty of energy and time

“When you’re young you have time and energy but no money.
When you get older you have money and energy but no time.
And later when you finally have time and money,
you no longer have energy.”
~Annette Gulick

Two hundred Thai Bahts ($6) was exactly what I had to put down for a journey with a group of my mates in College. We were young with plenty of energy and time but no money. That summer the five of us took off on once of a lifetime travel experience.

We gathered up at Hua Lampong train station in Bangkok. It was a great place to kick off your journey because of all the sights and sounds, where there are always people coming from or going to somewhere. We took the city train just to get us out of Bangkok when we planned to hitchhike the rest of our trip.

Tee Lor Su was our destination. The Tee Lor Su name in the Karen language means Black Waterfall. The waterfall is nestled in Umphang Wildlife Sanctuary in Tak Province in the Northwestern part of Thailand.

We got off at the Saraburi train station and walked our way to the nearest highway that was heading north. It was dark but we were fearless.

We stuck our thumb out and hitchhiked our ways to Umphang where we began our trek to Tee Lor Su waterfall. We walked along the forest road for the whole day from sun-up to sundown. We were so ill prepared. We arrived at the campsite at the foot of the waterfall super tired and hungry.

The next morning, we got up slowly and not so early but we managed to make our way through a lush forest. About fifteen minutes later we witnessed the most jaw-dropping magnificent waterfall that nature has ever created. We just stood there admiring this massive waterfall. We spent another night in the forest. The next day, we followed one of the campers with his guide back to Umphang via a short cut. A short cut that took us over a high mountain pass where local called it “Khao On” pass literally mean weaken knee because we hiked up the mountain pass until your knees get weak. Once we made it through the mountain pass, we got onto a bamboo raft and rafted our way down the Mae Klong River back toward Umphang. It was thrilling navigating the bamboo raft. We got wet and got stuck a few time but we made it to the village where we spent the night.

The five of us took few more trips together and still keep in touch after college. We keep saying that we should take another trip together but we never did. After all, we are older now. We have money and energy but no time.