Day 7 - Trekking and Rafting

The alarm clock rang early. Here you always get picked up between 7:30 and 8:00 in the morning. And by then you have to have breakfast. I'm really looking forward to my vacation with Daniel in Bavaria. That's going to be relaxation. But well, it's our own fault if we fill our calendar like this. In any case, we were already very excited, especially about the rafting.

We were taken to the location of our provider '8 Adventures' together with others in a minibus, which was also a 2-hour drive and in the middle of the jungle. On site, we had to fill out forms for insurance and such, and then, after a brief introduction, we went straight into the jungle with our small group. That alone was an experience. Our guide told us a lot about the plants and showed us edible and inedible ones. We saw different tree fruits (not ripe yet) and were shown that you can dye fabrics red with the leaves of teak. Very interesting. But one of my highlights was a small cave on the side of the road, in which the guide started poking around with a stalk and a fat tarantula crawled out. You can never imagine where these animals actually live. Now you know. We continued over rocks and through narrow tree trunks over a raging stream. I just thought it would be great if my bag with the smartphone and camera DID NOT fall into the water. At first, we tried to get to the other side of the stream without getting wet, but at some point, we all stood in the water with our sneakers and sports shoes and it didn't matter. Better than slipping and landing in the water with our asses. After 2 km, it really wasn't more, we arrived at the waterfall. There were already other groups happily splashing around and taking selfies. We also took photos. But that was enough for us. We would get wet enough while rafting. After a while, we started our way back and learned more exciting things about the rainforest. But... we passed the spider hole, but the entire ground was disturbed and the spider was gone. The guide suspected that someone had dug it up and taken it with them to eat. What a pity. I thought it was THE attraction on the way. But yes, they eat them here. In Bangkok, there were quite a few stalls selling grilled tarantulas on skewers, as well as worms, maggots, crickets, and scorpions.

Back at the camp, we had lunch. Everything is really taken care of here. And then we went by car to the entry point for whitewater rafting. On site, there was an introduction first. The most important commands and what to do. How to save yourself if you fall out. How we had to cling to the accompanying kayak to be rescued. How we had to cling to ropes thrown by guides on the riverbank to save us, and so on. Vera and I felt our hearts sink a little lower. Fear. But now it was too late. Into life jackets and helmets and into the boat. And it was sooo cool. Sure, we got a few scratches and I had water in my ears until the next day, which I always 'heard' when I ate something, but no one fell out and we all arrived at the destination alive and filled with adrenaline. Amazing and exhausting. I would love to do that again. In between, the river just flowed gently and you could really enjoy it, driving through the jungle. The air, the smells, the lush green, the huge butterflies. Madness. We really liked it.

Back at the camp, we were able to take a shower and buy a USB stick with pictures from the trekking and rafting. Of course, we did that.

We all fell asleep on the return trip because it was quite exhausting. And there were so many impressions.

Afterwards, we went into the city quite quickly because we were so hungry and found ourselves at the Saturday night market. Sooo many people, sooo many additional impressions, and tomorrow the next highlight. We were a bit overwhelmed and at some point, we just wanted to go home. Totally overwhelmed, totally exhausted. Just sleep and be fit for the next day.

PS: Today I took most of the photos with the camera. That's why I can't really document the day with meaningful photos.