Going where I’ve never been

As you’ve probably guessed by my lack of writing, Gabe has arrived and I’ve been preoccupied with finally having a partner in crime! I managed to find my way to the airport late Tuesday night and was there in plenty of time to catch him as he came off of the plane. It was a wonderful reunion, and we quickly caught a taxi back to my (our) little “box” in Bangsue.

I had every intention of calling in sick on Wednesday, but due to circumstances out of my control, I couldn’t do it in any sort of good conscience. So at 7:30 then next morning I had to leave Gabe to fend for himself, spending his first hours in Thailand prowling around the not-so-farang-friendly neighborhood of Bangsue. Luckily he is more than capable of getting around in foreign places and by the time I’d gotten home, he’d turned dollars into baht, eaten the first of many street treats, established a sense of direction AND found the way back to our place for a nap. We took a riverboat and ate a delicious Thai dinner, followed by several hours of aimless wandering which resulted in some Thai kids letting Gabe try out their bicycles under the Rama IV bridge. He makes friends fast no matter where he is!

The next few days were spent with me working and Gabe exploring Bangkok during the day, then exploring food stalls and parks together at night. He was already itching to get out of Bangkok by Friday (and I’ve been desperate for it for a few weeks), so we decided to take a train to Khao Yai National Park until Monday (when I would finally get my sick day!)

After work on Friday I had to go get a ‘medical check’ for my work permit, which involved walking into a clinic, letting a doctor take my blood pressure, paying 50 baht and walking out with the ‘official’ paper that declared me healthy. I’m sure that this 10 minute process would have cost me several hundred dollars at home…

Our plan was to catch a 7:15 train out of Bangkok, arriving in Pak Chong around 10:00. By the time we had dealt with the medical checking,bag-packing and dinner-purchasing, we were cutting it close on time. We managed to make it to the train station at 7:07and immediately starting searching for a ticket window. We walked several minutes past rows of food vendors and benches, finally finding what we needed. When I asked the man for tickets to Pak Chong, he informed me that we needed to go 100m to the ‘next station.’ Apparently Bangsue has two parts to its station; it was 7:12 at this point and we were definitely more than 3 minutes away from where we needed to be!

Naturally, the train was pulling away as we got to the correct ticket window, so we found a bench, ate the bag of sausages that we’d been carrying around and weighed our options. The train schedule was all in Thai so there was no way of finding out if there was another train that night, and even if there was I wasn’t too sure that the guesthouse would be willing to pick us up so late. We decided that we’d take the first train out on Saturday morning, at 6 a.m. With our decision made, we hauled our bags right back to where we’d started…

After a stop at 7-eleven, we got home and drank a beer (well, I drank a beer…Gabe made it through a sip or two) before falling asleep. The alarm went off a few short hours later, so we grabbed our bags again and cleverly took a taxi to the station. As Gabe said, it was perhaps the best-spent dollar ever! Ticket-buying went smoothly and we were soon on a ‘special express’ train to Pak Chong, enjoying snacks, beverages and beautiful scenery for the next three hours.

Arriving in Pak Chong was like arriving into another world! We stepped out of the tiny station onto a tiny road with tiny restaurants, a tiny number of vehicles and a sense of summer laziness in the air. Gabe immediately said that he finally felt as though he was in Thailand, and I agreed! I hadn’t left Bangkok in four weeks and had almost forgotten how absolutely in love I was with it before getting into the city!

I called the Garden Lodge Guesthouse from a payphone and a songtaew showed up within 15 minutes to take us there. We were both grinning ear to ear and only smiled more once we arrived. They greeted us with a little glass of juice and showed us to our room, a very basic but perfectly comfortable room right next to the beautiful garden. They showed us the pool, which was a gorgeous waterfall-adorned oasis, surrounded by ferns and flowers and trees other decorative Asian touches. We looked at each other, hardly believing that this was going to cost $10 per night!

We weren’t sure whether to sign up for the full-day tour with the lodge, as we are definitely not tour people, but Khao Yai is a mammoth of a national park, covering four provinces and serving as the habitat of many wild elephants and tigers. There was also the issue of getting to the park, as the lodge was located a good 30km away from the entrance. We decided to do the half-day tour that afternoon to get a feel for how things are run, so we signed up, decided against the lodge restaurant full of 150baht western entrees and headed down the road in search of Thai food.

There was no shortage of places to eat and our choice proved a great one! It was just a small teak-floored deck of a place with a thatch roof overhead, serving only 4 or 5 menu items, as any good Thai place does. The woman running the place was super friendly and thrilled to have us. We ordered noodle soup, pepsi and, at her recommendation, some dumpling-type things, all for about $3! We sat there for a long time, soaking in the sunlight, cool breeze, green surroundings, blue sky and lack of motorized sound. Afterwards we relaxed at the pool, enjoying those same things, for a few hours before the tour.

The tour was pretty lacking. We were taken along with about 10 other people to a Buddhist monk cave and then to watch millions of bats stream out of a mountain at dusk. It was all cool, but definitely not worth 500 baht apiece. The last thing that either of us like to do is be bussed around! Plus, we’re jaded when it comes to bat-watching! We were able to use the opportunity to make friends with Tommy, our guide. He was a shaky, eccentric guy who has been living in Thailand for many years (previously in Missouri) and has been smoking faaarrrr too much pot during that period. However, he was extremely friendly, knows the area inside and out, and was happy to give us tons of advice on how to spend the next day.

We decided to rent a motorbike and strike out alone the next day. As soon as the tour was over, we headed down the road to a restaurant/massage parlor/guesthouse/motorbike rental place and got ahold of a nice little blue bike. I signed a paper, they copied my info, we talked with a Dutch expat who advised me to get a Thai license so that I could start getting Thai prices, and then off we went! The motorbike was not an automatic push-button like mine, so it wasn’t immediately smooth sailing. Gabe was the designated driver, and I could tell that he wasn’t totally comfortable with it yet. We decided to put gas in it and have him go drive it around a bit to get a feel for the gears and for driving on the left side!

The gas station was a process as neither of us had been to one before. They have gas attendants and I thought that he asked me how much gas to put in it. I did some rough math in my head and said ‘sahm,’ three litres. Apparently he’d been asking me how much baht to put in, so he assumed that I meant to say 30 baht and did so. I realized my mistake (we all know how far $1 of gas goes!) and we had some more put in, but our math was still off as the gas gauge was barely over the ‘e.’ We thought that maybe it was broken and, as we weren’t getting far with communication, decided to go.

The lady who rented to bike to us had warned that the only station with the proper gas was right there, next to our lodge; there was nothing in or around the park. After another wonderful meal at the steep sum of 100 baht, Gabe took the bike out for a bit as he was definitely not feeling confident about driving it around a mountainous national park with me on the back. He also faced the laughter of the gas attendants by returning and ensuring that the tank was completely filled, then showed back up at our place with a big smile, feeling much better about the bike. We spent the evening over a few beers and lots of politic/environmental talk with Marcus and Jemma, a really cool Australian couple who were staying in the room next door. They had booked the tour for the next day but were unsure about it and kicking themselves when they heard that we were going it alone. We decided to meet up the next evening and decide who had made the better choice!

We set out at 6 a.m. Sunday morning, armed with several maps, a note written in Thai from Tommy, who told us to show it around at the visitor center so that we could hook up with a friend of his, who had the park memorized and would take us trekking all day for a small fee. The ride to the park took about 30 minutes and was wonderful – gorgeous morning, green mountains, flowers, slow-moving life all around…in other words, we were faaarrr from Bangkok. We paid the ridiculous 400baht foreigner fees to get in (only 40 for Thais) and started up the windy mountain roads, which were a bit wet from overnight rain.

I think we were both a bit nervous about the wet roads, but we took it slow and all was well. We stopped at the first overlook to marvel at the unending stretch of misty mountains, and were well rewarded by a Great Hornbill in the tree above us! This bird was MASSIVE and so neat to see – thrilled at already finding exotic animals, we continued on. There was a stop for a viewing tower, so we parked then hiked a long trail towards it. On the way a deer bounded past us, barking like a dog! Apparently this is a ‘barking deer’ and it was the strangest thing ever…it didn’t process correctly in my head! We got to the tower where Gabe spotted an otter down below and we checked out all sorts of crazy birds flying by. There was an elephant salt lick but alas, no elephants at that point.

We had been the only people there, but two women with super nice cameras, decked out in safari gear showed up and set out on the same trail that we were going to explore. One of them asked if we were going to hike the whole trail and we said no, we just wanted to see what was in the trees. She offered to show us the trail if we wanted, that it wasn’t too difficult. We said sure, and followed her. They were sisters, from some European place, who have been living near Khao Yai for 18 years, running a school. They got us through the confusing part of the trail and then parted ways with us as they needed to go do some butterfly photography in the grasslands. We thanked them, thought about how crappy a tour would  have been, and set off down the trail. We saw plenty of monkeys in the trees and some incredible plant life – the trees were unbelievably big and many unlike anything that I’ve seen before. We emerged from the trail about an hour later, realizing that we’d have to walk up the road (ie up the mountain) a good 3km back to our bike. About 10 minutes into our walk, the women drove by but turned when they saw us and gave us a lift. It was a great start to the day!

After that we headed to the visitors center to get another map, check out our options and buy some leech socks (I think I picked at least 20 off of my legs during that hour hike!). We asked a park ranger about a hike that we wanted to do, as many of the trails are impossible without a guide. He said that it was closed, not to go there. So we altered our plans then grabbed some lunch (even the national park has food stalls with 30baht meals) before jumping back onto the bike.

We soon arrived at Haew Suwat, which is the famous waterfall from “The Beach.” It was gorgeous and so neat to see in person, although everyone else in the park was enjoying it as well, especially since it’s the only one you can swim at. We saw that there were two more waterfalls nearby and decided to try to find them. We set off on a trail that we knew was one of the ‘don’t do without a guide’ trails, bypassing the ‘activity prohibited’ sign at the trailhead. It was definitely a challenge! This trail was basically an elephant trail, created by all of the bamboo and trees that had been flattened by these huge animals. Their footprints were all over, which blew us away considering that we were on the side of slope that we could hardly walk on! Part of me wanted to see an elephant show up, but the sensible part of me remembered the warnings about tempermental elephants and their dislike for intruders near their babies. If one were to show up, we wouldn’t exactly have anywhere to go!Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was thinking about the 8 or 9 wild tigers that live in the park as well…

After lots of hiking, pushing through thick tropical plants, and leaving markers so that we could make it out before dark, we heard the telltale signs of a waterfall and headed that way. Eventually we came to some falls that were just a beautiful as the first ones, but which were completely uninhabited and had been for some time! It was a great discovery, and absolutely worth the sweaty, muddy, probably-hazardous hike that we’d done to get to them!

We weren’t able to find the third falls, eventually giving up as we didn’t want to push our luck too far. There was another huge waterfall in the south of the park that we wanted to go see (there are many, many waterfalls there), but we looked at the map and realized that we’d never make it the 50km roundtrip and still be able to get home on the amount of gasoline that we had left. We settled for a viewpoint that was only 10km away instead, and took off. On the way we stopped and saw tons of monkeys running around in the road, jumping from tree to tree and giving us ‘what are you staring at?’ looks. They are so fascinating to watch!

Our little motorbike made it’s way up the steep climb to the viewpoint, weaving it’s way around potholes that seemed to multiply the further up we got. It was about 4:30 at this point and the day was turning chilly as huge clouds of mist rolled in. By the time we got to the viewpoint, the mist had overtaken everything. We hiked to the big rock that was overhanging what I believe to be an incredible, wide-ranging view and saw…white. It was pretty surreal, really, but I would love to have seen whatever there is to see!

We headed back down the mountain, both feeling a bit uneasy about the way the needle on our gas gauge was sagging. We ate once more at the food stalls and decided we should probably head out. It started to rain a bit as soon as we got going, and our nervousness about the gas situation turned into nervousness about the slick, windy mountain roads. Good fortune struck us once again, and as soon as we got to the steepest of the hills, the road became instantly dry, allowing us to outpace the raincloud and make it out of the park in one piece!

The needle was on E and we’d both been silently wondering who should be the one to get off and walk, but somehow we made it back to the guesthouse! Thoroughly exhausted and completely content with how our day had gone, we returned the bike, took much-needed (hot!) showers and then enjoyed post-adventure beers before crawling into bed.

The next morning began with a run (where I got to breathe air, not exhaust fumes and look at mountains, not city streets) then a MASSAGE. We went to the place that we’d rented the bike from and each got an hour long body massage…for $8! I’m not sure why I hadn’t yet had a massage in Thailand, but now that I’ve done it, I am hooked! Naturally, it’s done in this little open-air bamboo room with a stone floor, comfy cushions, curtains blowing in the flower-scented breeze…oh it was wonderful! Afterwards they served us some lemongrass tea then Gabe and I floated down the street for another noodle-soup and pepsi breakfast!

We spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing at the pool, then got a ride to the train station around 3. We ate (yes, another) wonderful meal for (again) 30 baht and then boarded our train. It was third class, which means open windows, wooden seats and incessant sales pitches from food/drink vendors who walk up and down the aisles. The wooden seats lost their novelty by the end of four hours, but overall I prefer third class! I’d much rather have a fresh breeze and unobstructed view of the countryside, plus there is always a bag of fresh fruit or a beer whenever you need it! Besides, the trip cost around $2!

I think we both cringed a bit at being back in the city, but luckily it’s only for a short time. We have a national holiday this Thursday/Friday, which means no school! Tonight we are catching a midnight bus with a couple of my friends to Koh Chang, a fairly undeveloped island where we will be staying in a beach hut until Sunday, enjoying plenty of beach time and more jungle exploration.

I cannot wait for all of the adventures that Gabe and I will have, and I think that we are off to an impressive start! As Gabe put it, not only are we good travelers, but we also seem to be pretty darn good at life!

Tags: bangkok, hiking, Holiday, jungle, Khao Yai, motorbike, National Park, Pak Chong, Photos, relax, thailand, tour, train, transportation, Travel, work permit

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 at 3:44 am and is filed under Holiday, Photos, thailand, transportation, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.