After breakfast we drove up to the cave, Tham Khao Phraya Phai Rua which was situated at a temple. We parked up and were met by a cave guide who, we established, was going to show us the cave. We showed him our caving gear to try to explain that we wanted to survey and photograph the cave but didn’t get very far.
At the temple site there were a lot of small tents and what looked like army cadet training going on. An army officer came over and had a few words of English. He ended up coming into the cave with us (complete with gun). The guide took us through various chambers and small tunnels and the army guy insisted on carrying our bag of camera equipment most of the way. In one small tunnel a snake was encountered that the guide and soldier were uneasy to see. We quickly passed through the tunnel only to see a bit of the snake in a small hole in the cave wall.
As we couldn’t explain what we were there to do, we decided to just start surveying in the chamber past the snake. The two Thais soon worked out what we were doing and stayed with us as we surveyed the cave. When near the entrance Emma suggested that they could carry on out and we would continue to survey. This they understood and we finally had the cave to ourselves. We continued the survey and when almost finished we were met by our guide and two young lads – one in monk clothing. All three stayed with us as we surveyed and photographed our way out.
Once out we were met by our army caving friend and other officers and given drinks and a present of a water melon. After group photos, we headed back to our hotel for a shower. We decided to go back to our market stall for food as it was tasty and cheap and we knew we could order (and be understood!) fried noodles and chicken in Thai!
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