In retrospect, this was probably the quietest New Year’s Eve we ever had. Close contender might be last year, where it was just Nina and I, but back then we had to ride there that day and had fireworks at midnight. This time around it was super calm. Well, except the almost 100 km on a scooter, but that does not count, does it?
So in spirit of this whole week-and-a-half break from our trip, we were planning on a really chilled day. One item on the list, though: Shopping for the night. Sweets, nibbles and drinks to keep us up till midnight, at least. For some reason, my dad got seriously restless when we were about to go and decided to go and look at some caves they had missed before. Thinking of a bunch we saw before not far beyond the big supermarket we thought we would join them.
Found the Hubis and made it all to the first cave
We had to do the shopping first, since the shop closed early on NYE. We send the hubies ahead this time. They are usually slower than us, so we thought we would catch up with them anyway. So after shopping, I headed to the first cave signposted and … found no one. Hm … maybe they meant the second one then. So back on the road we went, another 5 km further … still nothing. Where could they be? Ok, there is one more cave … almost all the way to the national park / waterfalls. Another 10 km. But sure as, there they were 🙂 Was that not supposed a short trip? Now, again, we were 45 km from our hotel. But alas, let’s check the cave.
Such a pity that we were swarmed with mosquitoes
The infrastructure looked pretty abandoned and the path was almost entirely overgrown. We walked a bit through the bush until we came to a larger cave, but nothing too exciting. Instead, we were eaten alive by an army of mosquitoes. We were a bit defeated by this, but there were two more caves to check out, and from our visits earlier we knew that one was pretty much right on the road back.
This one then was way more exciting. The signs told us that they were the site of an archaeological dig excavating signs of human habitation 37,000 to 45,000 years old. The caves themselves were also pretty cool, although I got kicked in the face once when a henceforth unnamed participant tried to imitate me in climbing around on the more than dodgy constructs to get to the higher caves.
Trying to get a picture while riding on a scooter is hard
Back home we filled the time with eating our treats and playing a cool round of Trivial Pursuit. Everyone did pretty well, actually! Thus the hours flew by. We briefly checked out the hotel restaurant, for there was previous mention of a “party”, but no one was there. It was a bit odd, but I don’t think we have missed much here.
So as we have sent and received wishes from our New Zealand friends a couple of hours earlier, after a brief round of hugs at midnight and the merest echo of distant fireworks in Ao Nang we grabbed our devices and called friends and family in Germany.
What a year … it started on the road and it ended on the road. Will we settle for real in 2016 now?
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Found the Hubis and made it all to the first cave
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Such a pity that we were swarmed with mosquitoes
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Pretty flower on the way out
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Since we didn’t take a picture of a palm plantation on Sumatra, I thought we give you an impression from the one in Thailand
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Trying to get a picture while riding on a scooter is hard
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Roadside lunch with delicious food
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The second cave was quite large but none of us had a torch…
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Looking up at the impressive limestone shelter
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Bizarre formations
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This plateau was only accessible via a wooden plank that did not look very trustworthy
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This almost looks like a statue…
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