25-Oct-2009 -- The going from Chiangmai should be easy. But somewhere after Lamphun I got on to some minor roads and wasted a lot of good morning time before I arrived at Baan Thung Hua Chang. As the first visitor I took straight west a few hundred meters north of the police station. After about 1,5 km the road was no longer suitable for a Honda Jazz. I headed for the confluence point about 1.8 km away. The way was not straight due to a small river or long lake, so it took me over cornfields, a mango grove, the odd teak trees , some fallow fields and a rough forest. The forest was almost spooky: Very quiet, no birds, almost no insects and only one foot print, probably of a dog. The terrain was very much up and down, in particular in the forest which ended at a cornfield with the confluence point on the other end. About 350 meters from the confluence point and about 60 m inside the forest I slipped, fell down a slack slope and managed to jump over a small brook before I steadied myself. When I was to continue, my glasses were gone. I looked around as well as I could, but after half an hour's search had to give up. I marked the spot on my GPS and continued towards the confluence point reading the GPS with the magnifying glass on my compass. Reaching the cp I had been walking for more than three hours and was quite hungry. I had enough water there and then, but no food. As if hearing my need the cp spirit had dropped a banana palm only about a meter from the cp. A ripe bunch of bananas was waiting for me.

I was tired, had little water left and heard traffic on a road south of the cp and decided to to take that way back to the car. A man watching his cows and buffaloes nearby explained that the road lead to the village. I got on to the road just over 3 km from the village and five kilometers from the police station. I tried to get a lift, but a bearded foreigner wet from perspiration did not tempt anybody. It turned out that the road made a long tour before it reached the village. In the village I could not find the lane, Soi 2, I had taken in the morning. When I finally found it and started walking in the direction of the car people tried to stop me saying there was no car up there. But one motorcyclist agreed to take me in the right direction. There were many small roads in the area and I could not easily read my GPS. At a junction I persuaded some of the other motorcyclist to to check out the various roads and they soon came back with the good new that the car was found. By the time I was down in the village again it was dusk. I drove north with my compass as my main guidance being unable to read the roadsigns in the dark. After a while I notice a motorcycle behind me. When I came to a junction with a big road sign I flagged him down and asked for the way to Chiangmai. "Follow me. I'm going to Chiangmai", he said. For the next two hours he lead me through short cuts and highways to Chiangmai. Was I a grateful man?

This cp visit should have taught me a lesson or two. Don't do this type of visits alone and get a string on your glasses so they don't disappear, but hang around your neck if they fall off your nose.