Today we decided to check out a gym we looked up the night before. It was 60 baht for a day pass making it around £1.20. We spent an hour and a half in the gym doing a push and a leg workout. After, we found a noodle soup place with only Thai people eating. Deciding this meant that it was good, we sat down and ordered food. We were right, the boat noodle soup was amazing perhaps foreshadowing the need for a boat in the evening.

We got back to the hostel, packed a bag, and jumped into a taxi bus to the sticky waterfalls. These waterfalls have formed over time in a process similar to cave formations: fast flowing shallow water erode the surface layers exposing rough limestone. The porous rock rejects algae growth leading to a dimpled, friction producing surface. This means that you can walk and even climb the waterfalls in bare feet maintaining a solid grip on the rocks.

The sticky waterfalls consist of 4 sections each varying in water flow, depth, length, and difficulty. We started at the bottom where there was a pool of water from the cascading cliff we were about to climb. The water was cool but not cold. It felt so strange to be walking in fast flowing water on a steep gradient and feel completely secure. Waterfall 3 introduced rope climbing and a side path which wound up a hill. Waterfall 2 was getting steeper and the final was the steepest with the most water and fastest flowing. It was on this climb that Robin lost her footing. Thankfully she did not become part of a statistic and regained her balance and continued up the rocks. Soon we both made it to the top and celebrated with a Diet Coke and biscuits.

The taxi had waited for us so we hopped back in and travelled back to the hostel. On arriving back, the rain was so heavy the roads had begun to flood. We knew flooding was a huge issue in Chiang Mai at the moment. What we didn’t know was that it’s the worst it has been in 30 years!

The severity of the flooding is not caused by the direct rainfall here despite it being so heavy. Deforestation in other provinces is leading to water being able to make its way into the local rivers without disruption. These feed into the River Ping and this flows through old town Chiang Mai (where we are). Without trees the roads in the area are also experiencing more landslides casting doubt on our next transfer to Pai. Furthermore a recent Mekong damn project is adding to the increased flooding.

At 7pm we decided to go out for dinner. We were met with water knee high around 50m from our hostel. Trying our luck we walked for 5 minutes passing a 7-11 and arrived at the food market. Unsurprisingly it was flooded and so we sought refuge in an elevated Maccies. After eating we head back in water which now reached our mid thigh. A cockroach assumed I was a lifeboat and began to climb my leg. I flicked it onto dry land so from its perspective I was it’s savior.

We made it back, showered off our legs and got tucked into bed.

-M