The one where the fish freak me out

We’re two  months in and starting to feel settled.
This weekend we joined a group of outdoor lovers from InterNations, an international social club, and headed south along the Myanmar boarder to Kaeng Krachan National Park to hike the Pala-U waterfalls.

My hopes were high for elephant spotting and getting out of the city for some serious green space. Our group was a fun mix of ages and nationalities and we met early, 6:15, for the three hour drive down the coast.

I kept my eyes peeled for elephants as we entered the park but sadly the only evidence were the signs saying not to feed them and their poo in the road.

The park itself is lovely, lush and green and we saw sooo many butterflies in amazing varieties. And fortunately there had been less rain recently so the way up the waterfalls was open. We planned to try to make it up to level 5 out of 15, which turns out was a reasonable choice. The air was thick and sticky, it’s still 90-100* here every day, and once we passed level 2 the pathway ranged between tricky to a bit treacherous, though mostly it’s a matter of trying not to fall into the river.

There are lovely cool pools at the base of each of the falls, just beckoning you to com in and cool off. So of course that is what most of us did! The water was fresh. However it also contained lots and lots of fish.

The river is full of Soro Brook Carp and I’m pretty sure that they are the same fish they use for the fish pedicure tanks only the ones in the tanks are a lot smaller. They swarmed around us, nudging and  bumping and occasionally giving a little fish kiss.

Then one woman yelped. Some of these fish are as big as my fore arm and their kisses weren’t so gentle.

Then a leaf fell into the water and they swarmed furiously around to find the food.

All I can say was this was the moment I freaked out. I screamed like a little girl and made my best effort to shoo the with my hands.

Then my loving husband tossed a bit of pineapple into the mix.

I almost walked on water.

I know. I’m sure I was safe. I’m sure I was in no real danger.

I’m also sure I wasn’t getting back into that water.