12-7-10: Second day hiking in Soppong?

We titled yesterday's post very hopefully, as if there would be many
more days of hiking in Soppong. Unfortunately, I got sick last night.
Today was spent sleeping in a hammock, sleeping on the floor, sleeping
in Robert's lap, etc. Mid-morning we overheard that Jackie was sick
too. I think she had it worse off than I, but neither of us was
interested in food or moving for most of the day.

Lots of Birds

By evening time, I was determined to make at least one excursion, so
Robert and I made a trek to see the swifts fly into the cave. This
time we went to the correct place, the exit. We hurried there because
I was slow eating my toast and we were worried that we would miss
them. Now I realize this would be quite difficult to accomplish - they
were not exaggerating when they quoted the number of swifts at 30,000.
They started swirling and shooting into the cave and they didn't quit.
The cave exit (the swifts' entrance) was full of birds for over an
hour! It made my head spin looking up that long. We wanted to see the
bats, which were supposed to fly out, but we only ever saw a couple
bats. The coolest part was when there were very many swifts swirling
at the mouth of the cave and they made wind! The guano smells from the
cave rushed out and made the stray feathers at our feet swirl as well.
The last people there, we eventually donned headlamps and walked home.

Dark Walk Home

On the way home there was one startling bit. The trail was wide and
easy to follow even in the dark. There were thousands of insects, as
evidenced by their eyes reflecting green in our lights. ("we're going
on a spider hunt!" from girl scouts) None of that was startling. The
footfalls crashing up the path from behind us were startling. We
stopped dead and waited for "it" to approach. It was a local person
carrying a flashlight all by himself and running up the trail. He
looked relieved to see other people on the path; I think he might have
been scared himself. He showed us several scratches and scrapes on his
legs and mimed that he had fallen. I tried to ask him if he was okay,
"sabai dee mai?" but he only responded by showing us his legs again.
It seemed that he was incapable of proper speech, perhaps he had a
mental handicap, judging from the sounds he was making. He walked on
ahead of us until turning off on a side path.

Back at Cave Lodge, Robert ordered us some dinner. I had some tom yum
soup broth and that was adequate for me. It seems he is a much better
patient than I; he kept encouraging me to eat more, but I couldn't
handle it. Robert ate the rest. I was feeling a bit better by bedtime
- good enough to read, if not eat.