Don't Go Chasin' Waterfalls

TLC said it best when they warned everyone about chasing waterfalls, but I just can’t seem to resist adventure. So part two of my Thailand jungle safari included hiking a waterfall.

In preparation for this hike (which I didn’t know I would be going on whenever I was packing, but thankfully I had my Chacos), we had to eat. Really carb up, you know? Being with a large group, we had very limited options for food. We ended up stopping at four restaurants before we finally found one that would serve us. I’m using the term restaurant very loosely too because this place was no more than a hut in a tiny village.

Being the lover of Thai food that I am not, I stuck with the basics. Pad thai. And I even thought I was getting a little crazy with it by adding shrimp to the mix. (I made sure to point at the picture on the menu because heaven forbid that I receive any meat other than shrimp.) But my sweet waitress, who didn’t happen to speak any English, brought out squid pad thai. SQUID. Tentacles and all.

As she placed my dish in front of me I remember thinking, “Well this isn’t shrimp. I’m not sure what this is. Wait, those are tentacles! Dear Lord, please let this be someone else’s dish. Oh no, she just brought out four more of them. She thinks we all wanted squid! Okay, I’m going to die in this hut in this random village.” (When it comes to my food I can be a tad dramatic and I have no problem admitting that.)

Once I moved past the trauma of eating squid instead of shrimp, I hopped back in the van with my group and went through border patrol. Yes, border patrol. The waterfall that we hiked was in national park that bordered Myanmar so it was necessary.

When I was told that we were hiking a waterfall, I expected something grand like Niagara Falls. So I was practically running through the trail. Which was a little dangerous given how tropical the area is, every rock is slick, the dirt is mud, and there are vines hanging everywhere. Really thick vines that could potentially knock someone out if the ran in to them. And that’s exactly what happened to one of my friends that was trying to keep up. She nailed her forehead on one of the vines and had to sit out for the rest of the hike.

Because of our excitement to see the Thai version of Niagara Falls, my friends and I ended up wandering further than what the trail went. As we were climbing, we couldn’t figure out why everything was getting so difficult for us. We were slipping constantly. One of my friends even slipped off of a boulder into the water. After that we decided the waterfall was too dangerous so we turned around.

As we were hiking back we saw a sign that said, “Danger! Don’t go any further!” Conveniently it was written in Thai so we didn’t pay any attention to it on our way up.

Turns out, the waterfall we were looking for was just a small drop in the river. But wow was it a fun experience.