Hi,
I want to share with all of you a beautiful sight I discovered in my shroom wanderings on Koh Samui Island.
After visiting this island for over 15 years or so I had no inkling that this beautiful retreat existed onthe island. I saw no advertisements for it in any of the tourist travel guides situated around the small island. However, at na Muang Water fall region there is a large hand-painted sign reading , "elephant terkking, waterfalls, and of course a sign that said Magic Gardens." This lovation at Na Muang is about 12 kilometers down the highway to the turn off. So the sign did not excite me to check this place out. That was, until I saw the photo of the statues on the mountain top.
And then, one day in 2002, I saw a photograph of this cool place showing all of these aspara dancers and warriors, frogs, eagles, turtles, buddha images and such. It took me a week to find where it was.
As I drove along highway 4169, the main road circling the island, I made a right turn just past the 4173 turnoff onto Thanon Dupatamiya road. About 1/8th of a mile down the road is a military base with guards.
They quickly passed me through their checkpoint and I road my Honda 100 dream machine up a paved road to the top of Koh samui. Somewhere approximately higher than 400 meters.
When I reached the parking area the road had turned into a dirt road.
A little booth and icebox dominated the parking spaces. Here you bought your ticket to visit the gardens.
So now I am entering the gardens. There is intense jungle here, and a long flight of stairs led me downward to a waterfall with a pool.. Adults and their children come up here and bathe in the water pool, as they do in both of the main waterfalls down in the sea level regions of the island.
As I graceousley walked down these stairs, I begin to notice the statues below me and the waterfalls.
Then I hear the singing.
It was a shrill humming sound, similar to buddhist chants. I was inthralled with curiosity and astounded at the high frequency of this humming noise which had captured my attention and made me aware of more than I thought I understood and knew.
For just a few seconds, I actually though Buddha was talking to me. Then I thought to myself, maybe there is a buddhist temple somewhere here on the mountain top and they are chanting. It was amazing as the sound echoed to and fro and was reverberating off of the mountain top crests, bouncing back and forth in a continous buzzing harmonic note. Yes it was very harmonious and I was all excited at this strange new discovery. Then I noticed the mushroom statues and other cool diggings of the retreat
The 100 images posted are but a few of the maybe 1000 images I took on about ten visits to this place since 2002.
Now comes the cool part.
AS I returned to leave and ascended the stairs, I went to the booth and told the girl working there that Buddha talked to me.
She became perplexed and really did not understand or comprehend what I was telling her. I hummed and buzzed like a bee in flight. eventually she laughed and laughed at me.
And while she was laughing, she explained to me that those were cacada. "Cacada" I exclaimed. "What do you mean? Cacada." I Asked.
It took me about ten minutres to realize that she was actually saying cicada (the 17 year locust).
My bad. I slaps meself with a dead fish.
Then I had deja vu.
I rememebred, growing up as a child in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, the nortorius 17 year cicada. How they awake after 17 years and come back and cry their mating call throughout the forests and woods of the lands. I remember, as a child, hearing their mating ritual calls echo though the forest by my home. God could they buzz.
At the same time, I remember just before leaving for Thailand in 2002 that I had read in the newspapers and heard on the tv, that reporters had noted that the locust were returning to the midwest after being gone for 17 years.
Stupid friggin journalists. AS usual, they had it wrong.
The locust appear every year. Just a different group. Since 2002 I have made ten more trips up that mountain top with participants of my shroom ventures. And each time, the locust were there.
Each time in the summer, the cicadas were there doing their thing. Different bugs born on different days return to chirp their music every 17 years. Not gone for 17 years. New ones are born every day. So much for reading the paper or believing what one hears on the news as reliable.
So I give you a chance to view some of the cool things a saw on that mountain top.
http://www.mushroomjohn.com/tg1.htm (http://www.mushroomjohn.com/tg1.htm)
and have a shroomy day
boomer
Have a shroomy day and may all of your days be shroomy