Life Lens

I had forgotten how comfortable it was to wrap up in a quilt.  In Chonburi I’m always so hot.  I sleep with my air conditioner on and I use a tiny little fleece blanket.  4:30 a.m. came quickly and I really didn’t feel like getting out of bed.  After a few minutes of protest, I got up, put on a few more layers, grabbed my headlamp and camera and I was out the door.  We met Jill and James on the main road and we all got into the back of a song tow.  The song tow took us another 2 kilometers up the mountain and then dropped us off at the Phu Chi Fa trail.  We began hiking in the dark.  It was cold and we were all pretty tired so we weren’t talking too much.  After five minutes of uphill we all began to sweat.  I was so hot I took off my leopard hat.  We hiked another ten or fifteen minutes in the dark until we reached the summit.  There was already a couple dozen Thai people there so we shuffled in among the crowd and found our spot.  We all sat down on a big rock and that’s when things really got cold.  The wind was howling and we were on top of a mountain.  There was no place to hide from the frigidness of it all.  I was so mad at myself for not packing properly.  I was so uncomfortable and we still had an hour and a half until sunrise.  I kept huddling down in the tall grass, wrapping my skirt as tightly as possibly around my legs, pulling down my leopard hat, anything to try and stay warm.  On the inside I was pretty miserable, I was so cold it hurt.  I just wanted to enjoy this beautiful scene, but I was so uncomfortable.  I can’t even explain how cold I was.  It was weird, I’m in Thailand a country that I’ve never been cold in and now here I was in pain because of it all.  For a fraction of a day I felt what everyone in the states is feeling all the time.  I don’t miss winter at all.  Escaping winter was one of the main reasons I chose to come to Thailand to teach.  After sitting, waiting and freezing the sun finally made an appearance.  It peeked through the clouds enough that we were able to see the clouds swirling among the mountains below.  It was truly an amazing site.  I have never seen anything like it.  I wished my pop were there to enjoy it with me.  If there’s one thing I remember from all our hiking trips it’s his awe for vistas and views.  He would have loved this.  We took many photos, mostly of the same view, it was just too pretty to stop.  Unfortunately after about an hour of sun we had to hike back down the mountain to catch the bus.  I would really like to go back to Phu Chi Fa again.  This time I’ll wear lots of clothes and stay for a few days so I can experience the view all day long.  I imagined myself with a huge picnic basket, big fluffy quilt and a good book so I’d like to make that happen before I come home.  Who knows when I’ll be back.