Bangkok and Khao Yai National Park
Trip Start
Apr 30, 2004
1
18
88
Trip End
Jan 28, 2005
Bangkok,
Thailand
Thursday, July 8, 2004
At 01.40 I reach the 42" screen, there's one other bloke sat there plus the hostel night watchman. The other bloke is French and wants to watch France, who are playing at the same time. Bugger. The casting vote went to the night watchman who had the remote; he smiled, said "Beckham, Owen" and put the England match on. Marvellous. 4-2. Rooney is class! Ericson is still too negative though, too much sitting back.
After giving Rene an early morning match report and grabbing a few hours sleep, we're up and changing hotels. We move to the Chart Guesthouse which is ten times better for 400 baht (5.50).
Bangkok is stiflingly hot and humid, sweat is a constant companion and once you accept the fact that no amount of walking slowly or wearing ill fitting clothes makes a blind bit of difference, it's OK
A view of Khao Yai N.P
. If you stood in the street totally naked and absolutely still you might not sweat, like those mime artists, seen in big cities, only instead of silver paint you'd be covered in factor 30. All 7-11 shops here have aircon so ducking into one to curtail the flow of dampness is a top tip. They're always full, but nobody's buying, it's like being in a huge slightly whiffy tumble dryer, everyone doing laps round the shop till their clothes dry out.Talking of clothes, Rene decides in her wisdom that this morning (37C) we are going to visit a huge market in search of cheap girly tops etc. Yipee, I'd rather have my teeth pulled, but having stayed up late to watch the football, I'm too tired to offer an alternative. It's in the genes, mention Bangkok to girls and conversation turns to shopping, mention it to blokes and its talk of pole dancing and ladyboy spotting.
The local bus takes 1/2 hour to reach the market and costs 4B, which is virtually free. The traffic is unbelievable. We spend a couple of hours in the sprawling seemingly endless market, Rene has a spring in her step and I quickly lose the will to live. Lunch is in a place that looks like the inside of a motorway restaurant, it's cavernous, long counters containing every kind of curry dish imagineable, all freshly cooked and delicious
Khao Yai N.P. White handed Gibbon
. The air conditioning is a welcome bonus.Later, at the guesthouse we book train tickets to Pak Chong for tomorrow. The booking office is run by Tom who is in his early forties and should know better. He has shoulder length frizzy dyed hair, pants and T-shirts that are just too tight for his plumpness, Mr T gold bracelets and an emerald ring the size of a brazil nut. Tom also drives a sports car and is very camp, he speaks in a combination of Thai and broken English with a helium induced high pitched whine which is very difficult to understand but comical. He is a prime Little Britain character (if you've never heard of Little Britain, don't worry).
The rest of the day passes in an uneventful heat haze. Oh and Rene had a lovely massage.
Expenses (68B / pound): Bus 12B Lunch 120B Vest 70B Phone60B Massage 140B Internet 45B Dinner 380B Laundry 120B Deodorant 65B Drinks 90B
Day 55 - 23 June
At 4pm we arrive in Pak Chong following an uneventful but scenic 4 hour train journey from Bangkok
Large Long tailed Macaque male, Khao Yai N.P
. Mrs Ni (I'm not sure how you spell it, but that's how you say it), from the Green Leaf Guesthouse, is there to meet us as arranged. We are staying there prior to visiting Khao Yai National PArk; Green Leaf do a nights accomodation plus a full 12 hour day tour of the park for 1150B.The rooms are basic but clean, with a cold shower, squat toilet and fan. We have a couple of beers and a very hot Thai red curry (we thought the red curry was milder than the green, but no, no, no) before retiring to bed at the ridiculously early hour of 8pm, sitting on a train is exhausting work. The sleep delivery man was riding a Honda 750cc.
Expenses: Taxi 60B
Food 65B Corn in a cup 20B
Day 56 - Thursday 24 June
At 8am we're fully fuelled on omellettes and tea, sat in the back of a new Toyota 4 x 4 pick up on our way to Khao Yai. It's so cool compared to Bangkok, the average daily temperature is 23C.
Established in 1961, it's Thailiands oldest and considered by many experts to be one of the worlds best National Parks
Mr. Ni at a viewing point , Khao Yai N.P
. It covers 2172 sq. metres and includes one of the largest intact monsoon forests in mainland Asia. As well as 2-300 wild elephants, there's samber deer, barking deer, guar, wild pig, Malayan sun bear, Asiatic black bear, tiger, leopard, serow, various gibbon and macaques residing within the boundaries of the park. Khao Yai is also home to Thailands largest population of Hornbills, including the Great Hornbill, king of the bird kingdom.Mr Ni (yes, Mrs Ni's husband)is our driver and guide for the day. Green Leaf have 4 fully qualified National Park guides and usually cater for 2 groups of 6 each day, but we've struck lucky as it's low season and mid week, it's just Rene, myself and Mr Ni.
It's England vs Portugal tonight / tomorrow and I'm nervously clutching at straws when I ask Mr Ni (who's about my age) if he follows football in anyway. Back of the net, not only has he watched all the Euro 2004 games so far, but he also knows all the England, Portugal latest team news and invites me to watch it with him tonight.
Despite the talk of football Rene is as giddy as a kipper (smoked herring) at the prospect, however slight, of seeing some wildlife in its natural habitat
Orb Spider Khao Yai N.P
. Speaking to Mrs Ni last night, she told us at this time of year the only creature virtually guaranteed to be seen is a snake. AAAAAAGH! On the 1/2 drive from the Park entrance to the headquarters we saw a large monitor lizard sunning itself in a tree, we of course hadn't seen it, but Mr Ni pulled over, jumped out and showed us where to look. He also had a superb Nikon telescope on a tripod which he set up in seconds.
We stop again when Mr Ni hears the distinct call of a Great Hornbill, we jump off the back of the truck and follow him back down the road. He's got binoculars trained on some distant tree, we can hear it calling but can't see it. Then seemingly just for us it takes off and fly's overhead like small black and yellow aeroplane. It had a 2 meter wing span and was magnificant.
Mr Ni, as far as we're concerned anyway, has the perfect job. He has been a guide for 6 years and pretty much everyday he drives and walks around this top quality National PArk, never knowing what wildlife he's going to see. His enthusiasm is infectious, his knowledge of and passion for the rainforest and its wildlife is incredible.
Pyphon , Khao Yai N.P
As we arrive at the Park headquarters, we can all hear the unmistakeable call of a gibbon, it's a very loud spooky jungle noise and for some reason makes me think of David Attenborough, luckily our very own David Attenborough explains the large male white handed gibbon we can now see clearly is marking his territory with his calls. With the Nikon set up we see he has a very light golden fur, he looks for all the world like a man in a monkey suit sat in a tree, that is until he suddenly drops 20 feet and starts swinging effortlessly, with great speed, through the forest. With our leech socks on (light canvas knee length socks, which fit over your socks and trousers and ties tight at the top) we spend half an hour following thisw particular gibbon, at one point he's right above us high up in the tree top and with the Nikon set up we can see every part of him in close up detail, it was superb.
After a tour of the very well presented visitors centre, Mr Ni drops Rene and I at the starting point of our 6km jungle trek, he then drives the truck to the end point and gets a lift back. So there we are on our own, worryingly along with his small backpack, he's left his 12" machete knife. We stand very still and wait. I'm hoping a large, over full tiger is going to nonchalantly walk past while Rene is on full snake watch, one eye looking for snakes, the other eye looking for escape routes
Rene and Mr. Ni Khao Yai N.P
.Mr Ni returns and we set off into the undergrowth, no proper paths, we're following animal trails. Rene's in the middle, is more than a little anxious at the lack of a path and if she gets much closer to Mr Ni and his machete, she'll be on his back. It's a real catch 22 for Rene, she desperately wants the chance to see the likes of gibbons and orangutans (Indonesia) in their natural habitat, but their natural habitat is also home to various species of snake. I'm clinging to the hope that with each snake Rene sees, her fear will diminish slightly, it's a vague not really believing hope, the same hope the British sporting public have that Henamn will win Wimbledon.
Mr Ni sporting backpack, camouflage hat, big military binoculars, his knife, Nikon and tripod moves like a gazelle, through ferns and over rotten logs. We try and keep up like unwell gazelle. He spots another gibbon and we're off the vague path to get a better view. Having spotted the gibbon way up in the overhead canopy of huge, interconnected trees, another one swings into view, then another and another, the last gibbon is black (white handed gibbon can be black or white/golden apparently). They're together for a short while, wrestling and playing, then they're off, dropping, swinging, leaping, hooting and hollering through the canopy to their next tree top stop
Rene sat at top of waterfall Khao Yai N.P
. The speed and grace with which they move takes your breath away, we spend at least an hour following this family of 4 (Mr Ni knows all the family groups) we tended to just catch up, set the tripod up and whoosh, they were off. Proper full on evergreen rainforest chasing gibbons, it was a Partington scoring the winning goal for Liverpool against Man United at Anfield moment (or Rene Moffitt scoring the winning goal for Forest against Derby at the City Ground).The gibbons eventually disappear deep into the forest and Mr Ni leads us back onto a path, we walk a little further and find an area where elephants have moved through. It's not hard to spot as everywhere is trampled flat, they are usually in families of about 20 so that's a lot of trampling. We have a water stop and Mr Ni produces a bag of sticky rice from his backpack, it's a damp firm square of rice covered in a brown slimy skin. It looks gross but tastes delicious. Mr Ni eats half his slowly and puts the rest back in his bag. Having watched him I do the same, the other half is for mid afternoon he says just as Rene, who wasn't watching him swallowss her last mouthful. At work apparently, Rene doesn't have to save half her mid morning fried egg bap for mid afternoon, so there it was, instinct.
For the rest of the morning we are mainly twitchers
Scorpion, Khao Yai N.P
. Mr Ni's true love is ornathology, he's a real expert and knows every birds call, whistle or song and can imitate most of them. His absolute favourite creature in the forest is the Great Hornbill, which with gibbons, bears, elephants and tigers to choose from shows his love of birds. Incidentally in his 6 years of working at the Park, virtually every day, he's never seen a tiger, rare as hen's teeth, there are maybe as few as 10 within the PArk boundaries.Khao Yai is fairly well protected with armed rangers but poaching of both wildlife and trees (certain trees can be sold for large amounts for perfume production) is still a big problem, especially round the fringes.
Overlooking a small lake and elephant salt lick (all round the forset are odd patches of bare earth where elephants come to lick, it's a vital source of salt nutrients) is a look out tower where we have lunch. From Mr Ni's backpack (it's a tardis) emerge 3 plastic containers, each holding a bag of rice and a bag of cooked vegetables with juice, the bags are sealed with an elastic band and look like the bags given out at fairgrounds with goldfish in and despite looking like a bag of swamp, the food is delicious and amazingly still warm. Afte lunch, I discover Mr Ni has another talent, one of which I am very jealous, it's the ability to catnap
Viewing hideout Khao Yai N.P
. He lies down on the bench, puts his hat over his face and within seconds he's snoring soflty. I take a photo and turn to show Rene but no, she's also asleep, she too has the power of bagpuss so for forty minutes I look at the rainforest through the telescope while Mr and Mrs Sleepy are elsewhere.The afternoon is spent in the back of the truck, we visit the beautiful Hew Suwat Falls, which apparently appears repeatedly in the film The Beach, we drive to the highest point in the Park at 1200m, from the viewing platform here, looking down on the rainforest canopy is amazing. Actually we spent the rest of the day in and out of the pick up with Mr Ni stopping to show us a huge Ob spider in its web or a large scorpion we hadn't spotted on the road. We also paddes 2 troops of macaque monkeys on the roadside, who were reluctant to move, I was hit on the head with a nut, thrown by a monkey from above, a cheeky monkey, and we got some good photos.
On our way to another viewing platform we passed a shallow roadside pond. Mr Ni stopped and reversed. I'd seen a snake shaped log, he'd seen a log shaped snake, we crossed the road for a better look while Rene stayed in the truck with her eyes shut. A 10 ft python asleep in the shallows, for Renes sake we quickly took some photos then left, she was fine as she hadn't seen anything but a log, although once the realisation that logs can be snakes as well takes hold, who knows what her mental state might be
Waterfall Khao Yai N.P
.At the end of the afternoon, we pause at a viewing platform and Mr Ni gets an opportunity to us his 12" knife to kill an over aggressive water buffalo. It was actually a water melon but buffalo sounded more exciting.
At dusk we get in the front of the Toyota for a 2 hour night drive, through the PArk. He;s realistically hoping to see elephants, we're totally unrealistically hoping to see bears and tiger and despite Mr Ni seeing a herd of 20 elephants on the road last week and a bear walking upright across the road on its hind legs last month, we don't see any of these. We do see several deer, a small leopard cat and you guessed it, a python. Last night Mrs Ni showed us several photos of huge pythons lying full length across the width of the road, a 2 lane road, these things were over 6 metres long and because the roads ertain a lot of heat at night, the snakes come and lie on them. The snake we saw was about a third ofthe way across the road, it was huge, like a mobile speed hump. Rene shrieked 'Oh my god' and had she had an ejector seat she would have been up, up and away. Mr Ni swerved round it and drove on. I so wanted to suggest we turn round and go have a proper look, maybe a measure of the python, a few photos and possibly a touch, but I didn't, I don't like physical violence
White handed gibbon Khao Yai N.P
.So at 8pm, 12 hours after setting out, we said goodbye to Khao Yai National Park, it had been a stunning day, our best yet by a country mile.
After another of Mrs Ni's lovely meals and a beer, we head exhausted to bed with Mr Ni's promise to wake me for the football ringing in my ears. He looks very tired too so I set my alarm for 01.40 and dream of an Owen hat trick and Ericson playing flowing attacking football as I drift off to sleep.
Expenses: Accomodation 200b Tour 1900B Food 556B
