Phoetoi National Park
Trip Start
Oct 15, 2008
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Trip End
Nov 17, 2008
Phoetoi National Park,
Thailand
Monday, November 17, 2008
Week 3 of our Thailand Adventure meant that we would be trekking in the Phoetoi National Park. Sunday saw us putting up the tents to check that they were okay, and R and Paris explained what the trekking would involve. So Monday morning saw 5 of us (Nicola, Karen, Phil, Neil & I) plus R travel in the small pickup together with our gear for a week's trekking. Ofcourse we had to stop at Tesco Lotus in Suphanburi to stock up with food etc. Neil is sure that Greenway (the organisation that is behind the Thailand Adventure) is sponsored by Tesco as we seem to go to one of there stores at least once if not twice a week. We arrived in the National Park at 3 pm and put up the tents. R, Nicola and Karen put up theirs under cover, but Phil, Neil and I put ours up in a large field. We have a lovely meal cooked by one of the women staff members. Neil & I left our flip flops outside the tent just for a short while and returned to find them half buried by ants!! We didn't make that mistake again.
Tuesday morning we are taken by the rangers in a 4WD to our stop off point in the park. We all get out as we're to walk the rest of the way, our gear continues in the 4WD. We walk with our guide and stop off at a waterfall for lunch, the going is fairly easy. After an lunch of rice and chicken in a bag we continue up the mountain following the course of the river, scrambling over rocks and along forest paths. Not as difficult as I feared it might be or as it was made out by Realgap. Only the final ascent is very steep but I'm not the only one out of breath when we reach the top. This is our camp on the top of a mountain and the views are outstanding. It rains tonight and we all get wet inside our tents, US army design and they are ****!!
Wednesday - Have to dry some of our stuff today but Neil & I didn't do too bad as we had our clothes in a dry bag Neil used to take kayaking. We walk to local caves this morning, it's only a fairly short walk and the roads are very heavy with mud due to the rain last night. Plenty of bats in the caves. After lunch back at camp we walk to a nearby waterfall, the water is warm and relaxing. It rains again but we don't do too bad with the wet.
Thursday sees us back in the 4WD and the young 19 year old driver does exceptionally well driving down the mountain. We had more rain last night and the road is treacherous with mud, deep gullies which he has to drive through and we slip in several places!! How we didn't go over the edge was down to his expert driving. We thought we would be walking to the dam but no we are driven there. Where we are to stay is a lovely spot but is spoilt by a karaoke on the lake's edge. All of our group is disappointed that we did so little walking, Realgap made out that we would be walking for 4 days, it would be hard going etc etc. We feel a bit cheated but make the most of it.
Friday we travel to a hotel in Suphanburi to 'relax' after a hard trek. Neil & I managed to get a lovely lunch in a nearby cafe near to the hotel, nobody spoke English but we managed to order a curry which was really nice. Nice hotel but noisy at night, and the restaurant we go to in town for dinner is lovely by the river but the band was very boring.
Saturday meant we returned to Lemon House and had another day relaxing. Enjoyed the week as we really like the rural areas of Thailand. Bangkok is okay for a couple of days but the rural areas are really beautiful as well and so are the people. We also saw a couple of snakes coming across the river towards Lemon House but they were too quick for Neil to get a photo of them. Today is our last day at Lemon House as tomorrow we go to Koh Samet for a 'beach' week.
Photos for Phoetoi are in the next entry, had touble uploading more in this entry at the internet cafe, such is life.
