Lost In Thailand

Last night went out to an okay Thai fondue restaurant (very good value but just not that great - when I go out to eat I like to get them to cook for me, maybe i've just grown lazy thus far); after that checked out the Bebop bar, which, according to Lonely Planet, is the only bar in town worth going to but is one of the best places in Thailand. It took a while to get going and the band was mainly doing Bob Dylan covers (and i'm pretty ambivalent about Bob Dylan) but it livened up and the next band was better, if not terribly inspiring. A little later home meant we had to search a bit harder for banana pancakes but found them and afterwards I went to bed with my contact lenses in (@oke up at about 3 barely able to open my eyes). Got up a bit later than yesterday and after a frugal breakfast of below average coffee and above average bread I set off to find the waterfall. I was carrying my daypack on my back (which i've taken to doing for security reasons sometimes) but I loaded it up with a croissant, steamed bun and water and set off towards the mountain. The maps the tourist authority gives for this town are like the maps from Lord of the Rings. A vague approximation of what is where with lines drawn between sites that have no relation to the shape or direction of the road. I keep on expecting to see 'Here be Dragons' and an arrow pointiong to one of the more inhospitable areas. Satellite images that are not, gerard mercator would be spinning in his grave. Getting up there wasn't too bad although I kind of forgot that water falls downward which would indicate but not guarantee that a waterfall would be quite high up the hill. The road was quite smooth all of the way but there was a very gentle, but very noticable incline for the entire journey of 9 or so km. This did not make things much easier at all and I was struggling towards the end where the incline became pretty sharp. One amusing this was when I was nearing the end a young Thai woman drove up beside me and shouted at me. I stopped to better understand and it only dawned on me when she put two fingers to her lips and sucked, "Ganja? Ganja?" So that's where it's to be got.
I would have been runningthrough some breathtaking landscapes but I really couldn't tell because i'd left my contacts back at the bungalow and I couldn't run in my glasses (steamy) but the waterfall the other end was beautiful (i will get around to posting pictures on this site sometime). I guzzled my water and buns (a very unfortunate aspect of this town is that all the people who sell steamed buns are Muslim, which ordinarilymight not be so bad but it means that you can custard buns, red bean buns, coconut buns, black bean buns, chicken buns, chick and potato buns ... But no STEAMED PORK BUNS!!!! The only thing, as Ropespiere assures me, that recharges your energy to full, as it was, I couldn't have been operating on full capacity on my return). The water was very nice, I waited a bit too long before plunging in and i'd already cooled down a bit but it was still very nice and the water is like being pelted with stones). Eventually, I decided to head back down and this is where the problem started. Going down hill isn't much more pleasant than going up hill, it's very jarring on your knees and it's hard to keep balance, I found myself in a lot of discomfort after the first 30m and then the next 30m, I realised that it only had taken me 45m to get to the top so i'd obviously taken a wrong turn at some point and rather than choosing the path to Pai i'd chosethe path to PAIN!!! I kept on going for a while but eventually realised that I was totally lost, i'd asked people for vague directions a few times and had en pointed in a direction but it wasn;t long before I realised it was time to stop running. I can't remember being in as much pain as I was this on that journey. Eventually a farang on a bike approached and he gave me good directions to get back (well, mostly good) and I recognised him a guy i'd passed yestersterday morning on my run (his neighbour had a cute little dog who'd chased me and nipped at my ankles for about half a kilometer, vvery fastfor such little legs) and he invited me over for a coffee next time I passed (i may well take him up on that it does mean that i'll have to find his place again, not that easy for me). Eventually got back to my guest house about 4 hour after I left but feeling quite reieved. I had a Thai massage afterwards which helped somewhat although i'm still not feeling great.
Now stuck in a bar in town waitingfofr the storm to pass ...
Some aging hippie approached me in the markets and told me there's an open mic nite somewhere in town, great vibe, nice people, cool tunes (bobbing his head up and down as he explained) so I might wander to that later on tonight.