November Annual Trip

November:

I had my first Rotary trip this month to PhuKradung National Park. The mountain is 5km tall, plus another 3km to the campsite. I walked a total of at least 50 miles in 4 days. It sucked, but at the same time I felt really accomplished. Not everyone can do all of that walking, and on top of it, since PhuKradung is really tall, the top of the mountain is very cold. And luckily my first host family gave me a fleece jacket to wear otherwise I would've froze!!

There are many waterfalls and cliffs on top of the mountain. I was exhausted after having to walk to all of them but it was worth it. I liked the cliffs better than the waterfalls because it was easier to walk to without climbing through the forest and over rocks and what-not. And let me tell you, the scenery is beautiful!!! The view from the cliffs is breathtaking. You can see all of the little houses and fields and it all felt a little surreal.


So here's a rough schedule of that week: Monday morning we drove to the mountain (only about 8 hours), slept the night in the "resort" and the base of the mountain, the next morning we climbed the mountain (took me 6 hours, but the first two guys to get to the top were there in about 2 hours because they're insane), following morning we could go see the sunrise (but we'd have to wake up at 4am, which I did), go to the other cliffs (the last one we were supposed to see the sunset but there were clouds, same for the sunrise), next day (Thursday) go to the waterfalls or stay behind and relax ( I went but I should've stayed behind. I was wayyy too sore), Friday we climbed down the mountain. That luckily only took 2 hours. It's a lot easier and faster climbing down especially once you get past the rocks you have to climb down and around.


All in all, I would recommend anyone coming to Thailand on vacation to go here. It's worth it to spend a few days on the mountain. I want to go back myself, too!

I'm back~

So it is now February 9, 2014. I have not posted since October because as an exchange student I have become rather lazy. Now it's the New Year so my goal is to keep y'all updated for the rest of the year. The next few posts will be about November-January and I'll make sure it's clearly marked at the beginning of the post so you don't get confused.