I found the web site called meetup. I know, sounds like a dating site but it’s not. It is a site that allows you to meet others that have the same hobbies as you do. I found the site about a week ago and it was exactly what I needed. There are groups for hiking, biking, and nearly everything that you can think of. I joined about 10 groups and yesterday was the first event that I attended.

We met at 9am not that far from my hostel, and were on a bus by 9:30. There were four of us going, two guys and two girls. The trip to our destination was about an hour and a half. The trip was uneventful and I spent most of the time just chatting with the others in the group.

My assumption of the hike was that we would spend most of the time hiking towards the final destination of a cave that had bats in it. I was kind of disappointed to find out that we were going to a theme park that had some hiking trails. I don’t think that the description was misleading, but it wasn’t what I was looking for.

As I was looking for some money to pay the entrance fee, I realized that I had lost my wallet. The panic set in immediately. The leader of the hike talked to the park officials and they called the bus company to see if the driver could check to see if I left it there. That was the case and after about two hours I got my wallet back. No harm done, but the panic was awful.

Most of the time at this park was spent just walking around, they did however have some actual hiking trails. They weren’t very long, but it was nice to actually get the blood flowing and get away from the tourist feeling of the park. I think we hiked for maybe an hour total.

I did have a good time even though I was slightly disappointed that I didn’t get to hike a long distance. I think what made the time the best was just being around others. The other guy in the group was from the US and worked at Apple so we chatted quite a bit about technology. The other ‘new’ person in the group was from Korea and she just loves to hike. She was probably the most upset about the theme park destination than any of us.

There are other groups on meetup that I think I’ll try either this week or next week. One of the fun activities that I don’t think that I’ve ever heard about before, but sounds fun, is river tracing. The idea behind it is, to follow a river by wading along it. You know, walking down the river/creek in the water. It looks really kind of fun and I think I may do it, about the only thing stopping me is that I would have to buy a helmet, gloves, shoes, and a drybag.