We visited some sites to the south and west of Chumphon today. We started by stopping by an EV recharging site so that we could charge Kate’s car. Then we drove south to the “Grand Canyon.” This was a self-named location by the landowners and while it is interesting to visit, it certainly did not compare to the Grand Canyon in the US. We then tried to find a cave recommended by Google. We drove about 2 km on a very rough and narrow road and came across some locals. Kate and her mother talked to them and they said you can only reach the cave with a local guide and they called one to meet us at the trail. We drove another 1 km to the “trail?” and found nothing but forest/jungle but saw the guide walking towards us. We found out that while the trip to the cave was only 800 meters, it required walking/climbing up 45 – 75 degree slopes (it should be noted the guide also had a machete in his hand to cut through the brush). We politely declined the opportunity to go to the cave, which would take about 4 hours (it was already 1:30 pm).

I did not take any pictures of the place where the first cave was, but needless to say it was straight up. So, we decided to drive to another cave about 15 minutes away. When we arrived we realized that things were not upkept very well during the rainy season (when there are many fewer tourists in this area). But, we found the cave and went inside. Tari and Kate had a great time exploring the cave and followed the trail in the cave so that they came out in a different place in the forest. Nee and I were a little less adventurous and stayed in the bigger part of the cave. We met back on the road and heard noises up the trees above us. As we looked up, we discovered a group (troop?) of wild monkeys! We had been searching for monkeys for the past few days and finally found some. We observed the long-tailed (or crab-eating) macaques for a while until the mosquitoes and bugs drove us away.

We left the cave and drove back towards Chumphon. We decided to make two more stops. The first was to an arch on the beach. Getting there required driving through an old village with a two-way street big enough for one car. We had no issues getting there but did have to work with cars going the opposite way getting out. We then went to a final cave which was supposed to have bats and a temple inside. We partially hoped that since we were getting there at dusk that we might see some bats fly out. We arrived and had a hard time determining where to go. We first climbed a steep and slippery set of stairs that took us to the forest (it just dead-ended). That was frustrating since there were no handrails for the steps and it was a little treacherous coming down (we all survived). Then we determined the cave with the temple was in an area with a dog that was barking at us (we really did not want to go close to the dog…not a huge dog but still don’t know how they will act). We used our dog-whisperer (Tari) to walk by the dog and found a cave with a temple inside. It was almost dark but luckily there was a candle burning inside so we could see. We did not see any bats. We stayed for a few minutes and then left. As we drove out of the area we saw another set of stairs (blocked by vegetation as we came in) that we think would have gone to another cave but since it was almost dark we skipped that stairwell. We then stopped for dinner on the way back and arrived back at our AirBnB at 8:30 pm.