Day 25

23/09/12

I didn’t sleep very well, blaming the sounds of the jungle, rain on the roof and the broken shoulder. My crappy Casio cheapo watch alarm wasn’t loud enough to wake me up though and I had to throw everything I needed for the lake tour into bags in a matter of minutes, wolfing down breakfast before my truck arrived.

I shared the back of the pickup with three other travelers, friendly Andy and Katarine from Switzerland and an attractive German girl called Anne. We chatted as the truck took us along the scenic highway, past the impressive limestone formations and the jungle back towards Surat Thani for about an hour, stopping at a town on the way to pick up some last-minute things. I bought a new poncho, as our guide, Ya Ya (yes really), warned of rain, and I’d forgotten to bring my dog-scarred one with me.

The truck drove us uphill and over the crest we saw the mighty reservoir. It was made in the 80’s and covers hundreds of kilometers. They made a big dam and flooded the national park valleys to create it, for hydro power. It was a massive disaster for the environment, destroying the habitats of the jungle wildlife and trapping many animals on islands in the middle of the lake. A rescue effort was made to try and save some of them but it was a futile exercise. Now the lake is touted by the Thai tourism board as one of the most beautiful places in the world, which it may well be, but at what cost?

View from the docks

We were dropped off at a dock where we bought a pass to enter the national park (I had to pay again despite paying yesterday!) and hopped into a longboat, which Ya Ya drove. The docks were quite busy with other tour groups, long boats roaring out into the lake. We set off and passed a few big dams on the left. On the right the jungle loomed  on the shores, and in the distance were impressive hills and limestone formations.

The sun was shining to begin with but as we came closer to the amazing scenery ahead, the rains came, and hard. We hunkered down and peered through our hoods at the awesome surroundings as rain lashed against us. Tree covered islands poked through the water. Towering limestone cliffs reared either side of us with greenery filling every crevice. The hills in the distance were dark and moody silhouettes. You could see banks of rain in the distance and mist rising off the forest.

Waterproof camera gets some use!

Rain sweeps in the distance

We occasionally passed other longboats in the distance and the rain cleared up. Now you could see the tops of dead trees sticking up in the water, just like the reservoir up at Sangklaburi I’d been at a few weeks ago. They were 30 years old but still standing, creating an eery atmosphere. Although the scenery was awe inspiring I felt mixed emotions that so much had been destroyed to create it.

We passed a row of raft houses, one of the four floating lodges on the lake. The expanse had opened up here, jungle and towering hills were in every direction. Ten minutes later the lake narrowed as we turned into one of the large inlets. We saw an eagle swooping overhead. Ya Ya steered the boat deftly between some dead trees by the shore and cut the engine. As we coasted forwards he pointed out a large hornbill bird perched on a tree skeleton. It was black with a huge yellow beak, similar to a toucan. It flew off when we got too close.

A little further up we turned into another inlet and saw our raft lodge near the shore. The location was amazing, here the lake was narrow, still and full of little inlets. There were no sounds except the boat and the jungle. Thick forest came right to the shoreline all along the bank. We hadn’t seen any other boats here. There were about 15 little floating shacks connected by a wooden walkway, and some larger buildings with a few longboats moored alongside. As we pulled in, we saw another tour group having lunch, and as many Thai staff lounging around and chatting. We agreed we’d need to kill this other tourist group so we could have the place to ourselves, maybe by sabotaging their boat. Ya Ya gave us a choice of activities and on his advice we decided to do the jungle trek tomorrow and have this afternoon free, as it was likely to rain the rest of the day. Animals don’t like the rain either so we might stand a better chance seeing them tomorrow.

The whole lodge was connected by wooden plank walkways, punctured with bent nails and uneven footing. One part of the walkway looked like it had come from an old door or house. The rooms were small and super-basic, a mattress on the floor with a mosquito net and simple wooden walls and doors, a single window with a shutter hatch. Through the gaps in the floor you could see the water inches below, with little fish swimming around. The structure floated with a bamboo base and big trunks from a buoyant kind of tree. The lake water was quite clear by the edge and you could see large fish swimming. The restaurant sported some big animal skulls, one of which was a tapir, a strange large furry mammal whose skull almost looked like a rhino without a horn. A wooden walkway led to the shore where concrete steps led uphill to the simple toilet shacks (amazingly western flushes!), surrounded by dense jungle. Aside from the chatter of the staff and their blaring radio, the place was amazingly peaceful and the water completely still. Monkeys and birds called in the distance over the sound of cicadas.

Anne’s hut

We went straight for a swim, diving off the lodge. The water was warm and relaxing. Andy took a kayak onto the water and I decided to try too. They’re really hard to roll so even one-armed I should be alright. Getting in was tricky but once on the water I was fine, paddling gently around which didn’t seem to aggro the collar-bone too badly. We came back to have a hearty Thai lunch and afterwards decided to take the kayaks out again, this time in the two-man ones. Andy and Katarine took one and me and Anne in the other. I took a life jacket in case I ran into difficulty, but soon used it instead as a cushion!

Jumping off the lodge walkway into the warm water

Andy and Katarine exploring an inlet

We paddled down an inlet and immediately saw monkeys in the trees alongside, a troupe of black lemurs.  We watched them swinging around and eating for a bit. We pushed through a load of wooden debris in turgid water upstream, and got to a rocky river flowing into the lake where we had to turn back. Now we headed out into the main lake. It was very peaceful. We watched an eagle getting harassed by a smaller bird, both swooping around in large arcs. The eagle eventually gave up and went out of view. We crossed to the other side of the main stretch to explore smaller inlets covered in forest, finding some more monkeys as a hornbill flew past. The rain kept schizophrenically coming on for a few minutes and would then stop, even as bright sunshine shone on us. All over the lake clusters of big water skimmers (or water spiders as they call them here) scooted over the surface, sending little ripples everywhere. Occasionally you’d see a fish jump. At one point I saw a bird of prey in the distance dive into the water and take off with a fish in its claws.

Spectacled languar monkey, photo courtesy of Andy (with the same big zoom lens as mine which was broken!).

Our lodge, taken from the kayak

Me and Anne scooted ahead, I was able to paddle a bit and help. Anne was from Berlin and last year part of a rowing team so I was in good hands! A few boats passed us, one guy in a small motorboat who we found later in an inlet fishing. We continued to explore until we got tired and headed back. It was an amazing place and a great experience, so quiet and fun to explore at your own pace. When you get tired you just sit back and float along, watching the scenery and scanning for movement in the trees.

Me and Anne spotting monkeys. Photo courtesy of Andy.

Inbetween the rains, mist rose off the trees.

Back at the lodge we relaxed a bit and the other tour group had left (maybe Ya Ya did kill them after all?), leaving only four of us for the rest of the day. We were outnumbered by staff two-to-one! One boy was fishing with a tin can and string with bait on the end, straight off the walkways. A few of the staff slept in hammocks and listened to the blaring radio. Ya Ya had spent much of the afternoon lying asleep on an open-air mattress. The staff here work for 3 weeks and have one week back at civilization, all year round. It must get pretty boring when it’s quiet. They seemed to play a lot of card games for money. Although it was quiet now, in peak season the lodge’s full every day with tourists. There’s no road or paths here, the only way in is by boat, and all supplies are delivered that way.

Reflections were very nice when the lake was still

The rains came again. The pattering of raindrops on the lake looked pretty cool. Andy returned from the toilets to say he’d seen monkeys on the loo roof! The fisherman from earlier returned with a catch, completely drenched.

The jungle was alive with noises, and you could hear the air raid siren cicadas blaring out over the lake as it got dark. A bat flew above us under the roof, catching flies. Out on the walkways, you could hear loud frogs very close, but we couldn’t spot them. Up at the toilets there were loads of frogs hopping off the path. The lights up there attracted many bats and they swooped all around the little cubicles at breakneck speed, really close to the walls and doors, even swooping down into your cubicle from above and swooping out again. Andy went up there and let out a girly yelp when a bat swooped past his legs! We tucked into a massive dinner, including a big fish from the lake. No-one else ate fish so I devoured half of it!

Nom nom nom

At 8pm we set out on a night safari, it was only drizzling now so we stood a chance of seeing something. We got into the longboat and it was pitch black once we got away from the lodge. Ya Ya steered and had a powerful spotlight which he shone along the lakeside at the forest wall, scanning for movement, or the telltale reflection from animal eyes. Not far up, he spotted a civet cat (like a small leopard which eats fruit) really high in a tree. It was far away and I couldn’t make out the reflections of its eyes so I can’t claim to have seen it really!

Further along we saw a brown owl perched on one of the dead trees. It would screech from time to time. Later Ya Ya spotted some red hornbills sleeping on some bamboo branches. They sleep on bamboo so that if a larger animal tries to climb up to them, the vibration wakes them up. Amazingly even with the light on them and all the noise we were making, they didn’t wake up. Too many beers that night, I suggested.

We didn’t see anything else unfortunately. It’s quite lucky to see the big animals on these trips, but in the past guides have seen cats, tigers, and tapirs down by the waterside. It started raining again. Back at the lodge Anne went to bed and the rest of us played some cards. Mid-way through, Ya Ya brought me a present!

This huge cicada was alive, and one of the ones which sounds like an air-raid siren. Ya Ya held its wings against its body so it couldn’t escape, but you could hear it buzzing loudly. I took it off him and you could feel its wings vibrating hard. He’d found it disorientated, attracted by the light. It was quite a freaky thing to be sure! When I released it, it flew around randomly and crashed into the floor. Ya Ya said once they hit the lights it’s pretty much game over for them. A shame, because they only come out at the end of their life cycle – the massive noise is to attract a mate, but they spend over five months underground before that. We continued with our game of Shithead (or “The Biggest Loser” for the polite amongst you!). Katharine, who’s never played before, won nearly every game, and I was definitely the biggest loser! Never trust the Swiss, that’s what I say! Ya Ya joined us for a game and put us to shame, he gets to play a lot of cards because he comes out here all the time! When the generators got turned off for the night, it was time to turn in, with the sound of the rain and the jungle all around us.

Dessert

Day 24

22/09/12

I got up pretty late, catching up on some sleep. Spent a while getting all my gear together for a solo jungle trek and got to the entrance around 11am. You have to pay every day you enter the park so I coughed up and retraced my steps from yesterday. It was sunny and humid. First of all I ran into the monkeys again, chilling out and entertaining some other tourists. To my annoyance I discovered my big zoom lens was broken again, it wouldn’t focus, even manually. The one place I could have made really good use of it too! Despite trying again on subsequent days, it was truly borked. Gah.

Terrible light but proof nevertheless!

According to the entry book there were only about 10 people in this part of the park today. I went off on the little side paths exploring, most of them led down to the raging river at little sand banks. I saw plenty of butterflies and a few spiders in their webs. There were a few birds too but no big mammals, until I heard the pigs again somewhere nearby.

Roaming down the side paths, dodging vines and bushes

One of the paths wound through the jungle before turning back on itself and petering out. I decided to forge a little through the jungle as it was sparse and found some old elephant tracks. Wild elephants do come down here at certain times of year. I also disturbed some bats which flew at breakneck speed erratically around the undergrowth, dodging trees and bushes by inches. Got my clothing snagged on some nasty thorns which are around some of the palms here and eventually found the main path again.

Elephant tracks

Further ahead I found another group of long tailed macaque monkeys who were eating the local shrubbery. They were really close and I watched them peeling palm stems apart to get at the juicy innards, and a funny baby one who wasn’t so good at climbing and kept sliding down branches like a lazy fireman. One of the adults came down onto the path a foot away from me but didn’t try to grab anything or put out his hand. A guide told me later that humans have probably fed them before so they could be hoping for a treat. Just as I was about to get a good close-up photo, it started to rain and my simian buddy wisely took cover. Damn.

A rare stationary butterfly, despite there being quite a lot of nice ones around they are the worst nightmare to photograph!

By the time the rains had stopped I’d reached an old disused restaurant and car park at the end of the path, down by the river. Signs pointed on to waterfalls more kilometers ahead, but the path led through a swollen, waist height stream with slippy rocks. A sign on the other side warned no entry when raining. I decided it wasn’t worth the risk to wade through with a broken shoulder plus risking my camera equipment getting a soaking. Instead I followed a path near the river signposted for another waterfall.

The stream barring my path, deeper than it looks

Down at some sand and rocks by the river I met a small tour group having lunch and I joined them. The guide had spotted gibbons in the trees across the river. After that, I felt something a bit weird at the top of my bum crack, and – hey, you cheeky little bugger!

A wee leech! It’s really hard to get them off your fingers, they stick no matter what you do. The trick is to quickly slide your fingernail under them to prize them off. I checked my legs and ankles. As soon as I looked down I saw a big red patch on my white socks – one had already eaten my ankle, got his fill and dropped off. The guide told me that wearing long trousers actually makes a ladder for them to worm their way up inside to your more juicy bits. I took the hint and rolled them up, no more leeches in the underpants thankyouverymuch!

The guide directed me to the waterfall down the river. I clambered over big boulders and found it peering out of the trees on the other side of the river, on a separate waterway which flowed into the main one. In fact this was the same place I’d made it to yesterday, but approaching from the other direction the waterfall wasn’t visible. It was pretty nice, full with the rain and rushing hard.

The waterfall peeks out on the other side

Bamboo towers above

Cool fungus could be found on some of the old rotting bamboo

In some parts of the forest bamboo takes over completely, making a huge tunnel

Heading back, I set up the tripod in a stream to get a shot and a few drops of rain started. No worries, I still have enough time to get the shot, I thought. That was a mistake!

The downpour begins!

In ten seconds the heavens opened and the hardest rain I’ve experienced in Thailand hammered down in a monsoon. I scrambled to get everything into my dry bags but everything got a bit wet. In a minute I was drenched through and so was everything not inside a dry bag. The good old plastic bag and rubber band kept the worst of it off my camera. I started to trudge back as the rain quickly turned the path into a flowing quagmire.

The path/swamp

The rain didn’t let up, and as I paddled along the path/stream I regularly checked my feet and legs for leeches. Sure enough they kept coming! I’d find them looping their way up my shoes or already sucking my blood through my socks. There were little baby ones only the length of a fingernail which were hard to spot! I even saw a big one swimming along in the muddy water. When I went off on some side-paths a few times, I always came back sporting some little slimy friends. Horrible creatures! One which I extracted from my leg I put on the ground to film. No matter where I moved he seemed to find his way towards me, standing on one “leg” and searching around. Brrr.

Leech on the hunt for me. I have a horrible video of this, unfortunately I don’t have the bandwidth/space to upload it here. I’ll try to get put on Facebook soon. I actually scared a girl who didn’t mind leeches and now hates them after seeing the video! Haha!

Back on the road, I watched tourists tubing down the river. Tubing is just sitting back in a rubber ring and getting swept downstream. Looks like fun, but my shoulder prevented me from trying.

As I watched, a local kid offered me a snack. I asked if he would like his photo taken, and him and his gang of friends happily posed as kids do!

Power Rangers

I got back tired and saturated. My walking shoes were drenched and I knew I’d never get them dry. Everything I owned was damp or soaking now. Mr Bao had arrived back with the two tourists he’d taken on tour, a young Dutch couple. They had had a good time at the lake and seen a python, monkeys and a huge snail, and of course leeches. Mr Bao was a good laugh too and found a tour for me for tomorrow going to the big lake. I spent the evening chatting to the Dutchies and drinking Chang. Some big moths decided to visit us and one died and laid a load of tiny eggs on the table. If your last act is to reproduce at least do it somewhere your babies might survive! Back at the hut on stilts, even the bed and towels were slightly damp, the huts aren’t sealed so they get all the moisture in the air inside. I fell asleep to the sound of rain pattering on the roof and cicadas all around.

Day 23

21/09/12

Another early start to see if the missing bag had actually arrived at the police station. Praise the gods – it was there! So, how much stuff had been pilfered? Amazingly, nothing! I was surprised and happy. Despite the time and money spent waiting for it to reappear – re-buying everything would have been a huge hassle and expensive. Phew! I said my thanks and goodbyes to the tourist police.

The tourist police office

Arron steals the Big Bosses desk

Live ammo target practice results, wouldn’t want to mess with this shooter!

Arron gave me a lift to the bus station and made sure I had the right mini bus. We said our goodbyes – I felt lucky to have met such a nice guy when the sticks were down! I was now off to Khao Sok, a jungle national park towards the west coast. The journey was a few hours and started off passing through massive rubber plantations, which are rows of rubber trees with little black cups attached to the truck. The bark is scored and the white sap runs into the cup. The scenery became quite spectacular with big limestone formations and cliffs sprouting out of the jungle, showing white where they weren’t covered in trees.

From the bus

I was dropped at the road leading to the national park entrance, which is a few km long and lined with lodges, restaurants and mini marts. I got a taxi to Khao Sak Valley Lodge. Mark had recommended it as the owner, Mr. Bau, speaks English and knows a lot about the park. Mark used to live at Khao Sok so he should know! Unfortunately Mr. Bau was out leading a tour but his wife arrived to advise me. She would try and get me a tour to the big lake the following day. I dumped my stuff in the raised wooden bungalow (most accommodation is on stilts out here), and set off for a quick walk into the park.

From the road I could see jungle hills with mist rising from them.  In ten minutes I was at the entrance where I wasn’t charged as it was so late in the day, about 4pm. I took one of the clearly marked paths, which used to be a vehicle track before they were banned some years ago. It immediately went under the trees and my world became darker. I passed small tour groups and some Thai youths coming back, clearly from swimming. The weather was hot, humid and damp.

Into the bamboo

I didn’t have to walk long past the bamboo and jungle noises before coming across a troupe of grey monkeys in the trees, long tailed macaques. They were moving around and quite close. They didn’t seem bothered about my presence and must be used to people. Unfortunately the light was terrible for photos.

Spot the monkey

Further up the path, I was happily surprised to see some wild boar running across the path, one after the other. There were about five of them. As I passed where they’d been, I could hear them rustling and oinking in the undergrowth nearby. As I walked butterflies were fluttering around, some as big as my hand. I followed a narrow side-path which went off into the jungle, signposted for a waterfall. I ducked under vines and carefully navigated the slippy path, clambering down rocks to get to the river. It was flowing very fast. A wide stream led to the river with sandbars and fish swam around in it. I couldn’t see a waterfall though, just rapids. I found another path which followed the river and saw some more monkeys swinging in the trees nearby, but not close enough to get a good look. At a beachy area I still couldn’t see a waterfall so I headed back for home, it was getting dark.

Spotted this big lizard. Never would have seen him if he hadn’t moved. Good camo.

I’d prepared for this by bringing my headtorch, as it slowly turned pitch black save for patches of moonlight through the trees I was glad I’d brought it! As dusk came the animal activity rose. Birds flew around and chirped, cicadas started to make a deafening other-wordly call like an air raid siren. As I was walking under the trees, big bats would hurtle along flying inches from me, and smaller ones could be seen flitting around above the canopy.

In the pitch black I heard the pigs off to the side and suddenly wondered if the males could be aggressive. I could be in trouble if they got scared or defensive and charged from the undergrowth, being unable to see a thing and with a broken shoulder! But I passed without incident. I later learned that they are scaredy-pigs and a loud noise is enough to frighten them away. Of course the pigs then reminded me about the picture of a tiger I’d seen on the book about Khao Sok. Would they venture this close to civilization? If so, I was a pretty easy target. Oh well, at least I’d die in an exciting way if a tiger decided some tasty Alan flesh was on the menu. But I got back around 7pm un-munched. Mrs Bao told me unfortunately she couldn’t find me a group tour to join tomorrow, so I decided to do a trek myself – I could speak to Mr. Bao tomorrow afternoon when he returned to see if he could arrange something for the lake later. I spent the evening reading about the Khao Sok park in the very informative book “Waterfalls and Gibbon Calls”.