At that time it was showing midnight, my eyes are still glazed staring at the cellphone screen, immediately surprised by the pleasure of getting a short message sent by my friend via whatsapp "Thinking of going down the river by boat tomorrow, would you like to join?" , just without thinking I answered yes because I think when else I can explore in other countries with new friends. Yups, my friend this time I know her from a friend that I know from a traveling application called "couchsurfing", a friend I know is named Anna from Mexico, then she introduced me to Malina from Australia, the same person who invited me to explore in Chiang Rai
Previously I was introduced to Anna and Malina to Joseph from England in Bar 69 in Chiang Rai, at that time we had to play there to hang out and chat.
The next day at around 1 pm, I met Anna at Royhan Restaurant, a place to eat not far from where I lived while in Chiang Rai, I just walked to get there, and the food there that every day I eat is just fried rice, because to be honest, I can't stand the smell of vegetables used by the people there, but fortunately the fried rice served there is pretty good and can accompany it for breakfast - lunch - and dinner. I just walk about 15-20 minutes from my dormitory to get to Royhan Restaurant. After eating lunch with Anna, we immediately ordered a grab to go to Buddha Caves.
The road to Buddha Caves is not easy, it is difficult to find because it is located near the forest, the grab that took us was initially quite confused to reach the destination, fortunately the grab was very good and could be together to find this place together and finally drove us to the destination. Arriving there, the road is quite muddy, I wear trousers are somewhat distressed to wear it, and forced to sacrifice my shoes too. Had crossed my mind, how is this how to go home if there is no grab who can pick us up later. While waiting for the others to come, I took my cellphone and started documenting all the angles, I was quite impressed with this place, in a cave there is a temple and is located near the river which is quite swift flow.
When the other friends arrived, we greeted the others while hugging and asking how each of them were doing, some of us also only knew each other that day. One interesting thing that I got, even though I just knew each other, or just met, asked for news and embraced became an foreigner habit that made me feel like I had known them for quite a long time before, rarely did this kind of thing apply in my environment.
Then we walked along this place, not far from the entrance, there were some stairs to get to the temple, then we continued to walk up to the bridge. On the bridge it turns out there is a ladder leading to a place above it, which turns out there is a large Buddha statue and a gong, the atmosphere there is very calm, there is no one there besides us all, we can see and look at the river from above.
Then suddenly Joseph rang the gong, treenggg, how loud it was. He said to us all "try to sit here, near this gong, the voice will calm you" Jono and Joseph both of them immediately took turns making sounds of this gong, while Tom from France was busy with his camera, Anna, Malina and I were busy enjoying the nature there around.
The atmosphere there is quite soothing, cool, and quite green. Then because the sun started to rise and it was very hot, me and Cookie then said that we Asian don't like being under the sun, we immediately suggested going down and looking for a shady place.
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Pierre walking
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We started exploring the forest together, enough jungle we went through, lots of leaves and weeds, we all had to be careful. I was initially quite slow to walk and left behind, there was my friend Pierre who was waiting and helped me to get past the weeds. There were some people we saw there, they were wearing buoys like a rescue team, our friend asked "what happened?" they answered that someone had drowned in the river a few days ago. Jleegg immediately scared me. After walking for about 1 km, we heard a roar like someone fell into a river, it turns out Joseph threw himself and he jumped from the top of the states where there was a statue of Buddha, then he swam until he headed to where we stood. He then climbed a cliff like Tarzan and continued his journey with us.
Until finally we found a pretty cool place on the edge of the forest near the river. We decided to sit and rest while enjoying snacks brought by our friends and the drinks that were there. For me it is enough coca-cola, fortunately they bring a lot of coke. I just sat there enjoying the nature, while Joseph, Jono, and Malina jumped and swam along the river which was quite swift. Honestly, we are quite worried about them. They tried to fight the Mekong river flow, but the river current was too heavy.
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Enjoying the nature
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After that, we all walked again through the forest. Until we found the cave door, everyone climbed up to the cave, only I was a small child left below alone, I was quite scared at that time and my shoes were pretty slippery to use to climb. We kept walking until we found the Goa door, then we made aaaaaa echo, and inside it was quite dark, but I wasn't afraid because we together entered and saw what was inside the cave. Joseph saw the roots of the tree that crept in the cave, then took the initiative to climb it, I was astonished to see him like Tarzan and could reach up easily, then he invited Pierre and Joe, saying that it was safe enough to climb. We also saw stalagmite together. After leaving the cave, we decided to take a picture together, and returned home down the previous road.
We began to feel hungry, unexpectedly it turned out that across from us was Chiang Rai Beach, or Chiang Rai beach, from a distance I saw many lodges near the beach and it seemed like they were selling food. Cookies that have gone there first to check the place and make sure. Malina and Joseph then made a crazy idea to cross through the river by swimming, looking from above I was already quite scared because the river water was flowing profusely, but they felt it was an adrenaline challenge. Malina then handed over the keys to her motorcycle, for me to bring and meet her across the street, Pierre and Tom drove together, Anna and I together, at first we all didn't know which way to go to get there, but fortunately because Pierre knew enough about this area too , he guided us by stalking his motorcycle. It takes about 20 minutes to get to Chiang Rai Beach, I am very happy to be able to drive while enjoying the nature that I went through along the way, the beautiful atmosphere, calm, and cool along the road.
When we arrived at Chiang Rai Beach, we shouted for Cookie, "Cookie, where are you" then she came and waved, from a distance I saw Joseph and Malina already there and wet, I was very happy they could cross the river safely. They are indeed brave enough to do such a thing, I salute them! They even arrived before me and the others. Then we sat relaxing in a hut near the beach, which was actually not a beach but there more to the river and there was sand. While enjoying food and resting, we also talked about ourselves and current activities in Thailand, then we went back to our places.
What a pleasant experience!
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