Morning Exercise

As I had mentioned in a previous blog, Nancy, Steve and I were going to climb to the highest point on Koh Phangan yesterday. After reviewing the map and pondering what kind of creatures we might come upon in such a desolate area, we decided to climb a shorter mountain with the national park station at the foot. Once again, Nancy did not join us for this adventure. She was concerned about her trip down and possible hurting herself. One of the thing I've learned about Nancy is she's not very graceful when participating in physical activities, which typically leads to her hurting herself. Although I really wanted her there, I realized half way through our hike that this would have been a bad idea.

When Steve and I arrived at the park station, we were greeted by a medium sized black and white dog. He was extremely friendly and happy to see us. As we head for the path, he continued to follow us. When I stopped to take a quick picture, he stopped. As we started to head up the base of the mountain, he took the lead. Was he going to be our tour guide for the whole trip, we wondered? As we worked our way up the step hills, our little friend showed us the way, stopping while we took photos. Sometimes he would get a little distracted and start veering off path to sniff things out. Every time he came running back to us to take the lead. Once at a fork in the path, he decided to voice his opinion on which way we should go. Steve and I decided to take the opposite direction. Even though he may have disapproved, he took the lead once again.

As we made our trip down, I started to realized that the dog was probably right on taking the other path first. The path suddenly disappeared when we got to the waterfall. What looked like the continuation of the path, started dropping with large rocks that didn't provide a easy walking terrain. The dog decided to walk down the other side of the waterfall, where there also wasn't a path. Where was he in our time of need? We started contemplating walking down the rocks next to the water, but hesitated. In the end, we took our first option of the questionable path continuation. The trip was difficult and many times we wondered if we were going the right way. As we got closer to the bottom, our furry friend joined us again. He stayed with us to the bottom, where he then found a Thai family eating beside the water. He stayed with them as we headed back to our car. This relieved us from tipping him.

I loved our hiking trip. It combined many of my favorite things: nature, exercise, animals and, of course, Steve.