Day 41 - Sat Dec 14 - Khao Phanom Bencha National Park

We scheduled our longest drive for day 40 so that Day 41, our final day in Krabi, would be an easy one.  Khao Phanom Bencha (pronounced "COW pa-NOM BEN-chuh," I believe) is only 20 km drive from our hotel, so our late start doesn't seem like a big deal until vague directions from the guidebook ("just follow the sign-posted turn off from Hwy 4") takes us 15 km in the wrong direction up the wrong highway. By the time we do find the correct turn off, we're pretty cranky.  The turn off from the highway leads to a beautiful, quiet road that winds past fields, forests, karsts and mountains, and by the time we reach the gate, we're starting to feel better. The hike up the waterfall seals the deal - were we cranky? Lost?  Feels like days ago.  It's hard to stay upset when faced with this:

It's Saturday so the waterfalls are a bit busier, mostly with Thai schoolchildren cooling off from the heat of the day.  A group of girls practice their hellos and goodbyes on us and their giggling mixes with the sound of the waterfall.  After the calm and quiet of yesterday's work-day waterfalls, today's noisiness makes me think that a waterfall without children is like a garden without birds.

The hike up the mountain is a lot more challenging than we expect (a pleasant surprise) and the path leads straight up the steep mountain, along the waterfall and its pools, and offers some great views, both on the way up the right-hand side :

...and down the left.

On our way down, we keep an eye out for millipede houses on the trail, like this one so that we don't step on them:

We notice one that's really oddly made and joke that the the milliped must've been doped up on something that day.  The joke reminds me of a story (urban legend?) I heard once about scientists giving LSD to spiders in the 60s and all the crazy webs that came out of it, and I mention it to Pierre.   He's quiet for a moment, then offers up our Deep Thought for the day: "I wonder what spiders see when they're tripping?" He stops walking and channels a tripping spider, clawing at his arms.  "Oh my god, there are people everywhere! Get them away from me, get them off..."  

Our walk continues around and through some vines and trees:

...and when we reach the bottom of the trail, we take a right and take a short walk to another waterfall.  This waterfall is petite, more like a series of low shelves, and it seems even smaller next to the trees that tower up around it. (I'm dwarfed by it in this picture):

The tree is so tall that Pierre can't fit the whole tree into one shot.  It towers so high and the roots are so wide that once we've hung around the base for awhile we start to find the tree a bit creepy, like it could lift up one leg and squash us flat with its foot.  

Photo credits: all P except for the second one