Lamai Beach, Thailand, Asia

I got up today and decided that these waterfalls were not going to elude me any longer. I hopped on a scooter and left Lynne to soak up some of the sun’s rays. I headed west to find “Waterfall 2” and I found where Lynne and I had gone wrong before. We took a turn about 0.5k too soon, so when I kept driving on, I found the entrance to the waterfall. I parked at the wildlife park and started my walk. It was a good mile walk to get to the waterfall and it was kind of disappointing. The signs say that the waterfall is an 80m (250ft) drop, but it’s not a single 80m drop. It is a series of cascading falls that total 80m, so it’s not an overly impressive tall waterfall.

It was a very hot morning and it wasn’t the easiest hike to get up the waterfall, so I was exhausted by the time I got to the top. I ran into only four other tourists on the hike, and they all seemed to be having a bit more trouble with the climb than I was, so I was happy to see that. I saw a few kinds of lizards that I hadn’t seen before, and then I ran into some elephants giving rides to tourists on my way back. After seeing the videos at the elephant park about how they control the elephants, it was pretty sad seeing them used for these tourists enjoyment. I guess it’s part of the culture here though and some things aren’t going to change that quickly.

I was recommended by the owner of our resort to go to a dive shop called Easy Divers to book a trip out to Koh Tao for a day of diving. I figured I can’t come to the southeast coast of Thailand and not dive at the world’s most famous dive site, so I took a ride by. There is a trip going tomorrow to a site called Sail Rock, and another trip going on Saturday to two dive sites right next to Koh Tao. The dive instructor recommended that if I can only do one dive, I should definitely go to Sail Rock because the visibility is always better and there’s a really good chance we’ll see some whale sharks. I’m taking his advice and leaving first thing tomorrow morning for a full day out to Sail Rock. I’m pretty psyched! The diving out here is supposed to be awesome!

I came back to the hostel and just relaxed by the pool for the rest of the afternoon. Lynne and I had dinner at the resort again, and I am still very impressed at how good the food is here. Every meal I’ve had here has been excellent, and it’s usually only $5-6 for a meal. I’m calling it an early tonight since I have a 6am wake up tomorrow morning. It’ll be well worth it though!