Well last night was so dark and foggy we couldn’t see the view from our room. (Seeing a trend here?) So when we woke up this morning we were very pleased to see all this!
They brought us breakfast to our room, and we enjoyed it on our balcony while FaceTiming back home. Technology has made this trip so nice!
Since the weather was nice and we’ve been sitting on our buns for the better part of 5 days we were happy to go for a hike. We walked down the road a bit to a trail.
We were headed for a cave and Ellas Rock. Not too far up the road there’s someone walking their cow. It’s just so different from back home, it’s fun to see and we were excited. Then we noticed monkeys jumping in the trees overhead and we were freaking out! Monkeys in the wild are the best and they were so close.
The roads around here are so narrow and just carved onto the sides of these mountains. It’s pretty amazing.
The hike up to the caves was neat. Ty found a friend along the way.
The hike was of course all up hill with stairs. But I was impressed with the condition of things. Really well made.
The cave wasn’t anything too impressive. We explored back as far as we could. Ty further than myself of course. Till he startled a bat, it flew past us, squeaking like crazy. Not my thing!! So we headed back out.
There was a Buddhist temple at the base of the cave trail. We checked it out, and it’s just neat to see other religious artifacts.
Also used the facilities while I found them.
Then we headed back up the road to hike Ellas Rock.
Not too far after we got on the trail this older woman sees us and asks, Ellas Rock? We nod and she starts walking in front of us. Took me about five minutes to figure out, she’d just decided to be our guide so we will have to pay her. 🤷🏻♀️ Oh well, she was taking us through some route in the tea fields. It was beautiful! Also she was in her 60s probably, bare foot, and climbing this trail like it was no big deal. Meanwhile I was huffing and puffing like crazy!
We get to about halfway when I imagine most people call it quits. Our unasked for guide was done so she gave us her request for money. 🙄 Darn good thing she was a super impressive old lady!
The hike which was uphill before now starts going extremely steep and through a creek. But we saw some neat lizards along the path.
It was a slow, hot, climb but we made it to the top of Ellas Rock! Beautiful views for sure.
We came back down the same way and ended up on the main trail instead of the old lady’s secret way. This allowed us to see the train tracks and a beautiful waterfall. So it worked out.
Upon getting to the road we immediately hired the first tuk tuk driver we saw.
We had him take us up to 9 Arches Bridge. He drove us up and down this beat up broken road. I can’t even figure out how he did it and didn’t blow a tire.
We saw a bunch of total idiot tourists walking along the edge of the bridge. Taking jumping photos and just being reckless. We had a driver tell us quite a few tourists have died falling off this bridge. I believe it after what we saw.
The train was scheduled to come about twenty minutes after we had walked there. So we hung about to get ‘the shot’.
After the train we walked back to our tuk tuk and had him take us back into town for lunch. Within a few minutes of sitting down at the restaurant the sky opened up and dumped rain down. The timing couldn’t have been better!
After a yummy lunch we walked around, shopping a bit and then we found somewhere to schedule massages for later.
We walked back to our hotel, showered and then came back into town for our massages. We were so excited, a full body massage for an hour. The best part being they were only $11!
Well the massage room was a bit sketchy. A few gauzy, curtains separating it from apparently my massage ladies kids. Then they just stood in the room while we stripped. 😬 The kid kept whispering to the mom, and at one point tried to give her the phone which was ringing. The massage was super good though even with the oddities. It was definitely worth $17 with tip!
We ended up shopping a bit more and then having dinner in town. We chatted with the kids before I crashed at 9pm.
According to my Fitbit we walked 12.45 miles and climbed 2,660 steps.
