On the next day, the team set off on our hiking trip together. Over several days, Orin took us to every single place, just as he had planned. We visited the waterfall and the temples, the scenic spots, and especially the trendy coffee shops and restaurants recommended by bloggers, which Orin possibly couldn’t miss. As I had expected, visiting the popular tourist spots during New Year holidays was like being on a battlefield. It was always a race to find the most beautiful views, the best tables at a restaurant, the restrooms, and especially, the best spots to set up our tents. At this time of the year, all the national parks were usually crowded, and the tents were scattered all over the area, which almost made the site look like refugee camps.

Today was the fourth day of the trip. As Orin had planned, we would stay at Phu Suan Sai National Park, which had been my main reason to join this trip. I was surprised at the intensity of my excitement and my curiosity why I had this strong drive to go there in the first place.

“Guys, shall we skip the Phu Suan Sai National Park today? There’s nothing of much interest over there,” Orin suggested a change in plan without any apparent reason, which was very unusual for him. He was usually very diligent in sticking to the daily schedule and he had never skipped any of the destinations on his planned travel agenda before.

“If we go straight to Si Nan Park, we could stay overnight at a guest house in Nan downtown and get a change of scenery. We could then rent some bikes to ride around the town,” Orin tried convincing us. Kate seemed to like the new plan as she hadn’t slept so well in the tent in the last few nights.

“No, I really want to go. I came on this trip because I wanted to see this place!” This remark just slipped out of my mouth.

“What did you say?” Orin asked.

“Well, I really want to see the Quaternary Stones at Phu Suan Sai National Park,” I replied in a slightly uneasy tone.

“Which stones are you talking about?” asked Orin.

“Eh …” Kate started to say something, but then she stopped herself. It seemed as if she was about to support Orin’s idea, but thought otherwise.

“Well, it’s up to all of you, because I am flexible and can go anywhere,” she finally said.

“If Tim joined us on this trip to see those stones, then I think we should really visit them,” Sun added. He seemed to be the most rational person in our group.

“Well, I guess we will proceed as planned then but it’s really up to you guys,” Orin said grudgingly.

To get to Phu Suan Sai National Park, we had to make a detour of around 65 kilometres from our original route, and it was a zigzag road all around the hills and mountains.

“Wow, what a lonely route!” Orin started to complain, after he had taken over the wheel for a while.

“I think we are at the border between two provinces now,” said Sun, who was always optimistic. But he couldn’t remove the looming tension in the air this time.

We rode in silence for the next twenty minutes. As we weren’t familiar with the route, which zigzagged in elbow curves all along the way, it took us one and a half hours to reach Phu Suan Sai National Park. Normally when we arrived at a park, we had to first rush to the designated camping area to reserve a space and set up our tents. At this park, however, this wasn’t necessary because there was only one lonely tent there. So, we decided to have lunch and then explore the area afterwards. We would set up our tents in the evening after we had toured around the new camp site.