Thursday, April 16, 2009

Thailand Week One: Jungle!

April 10: JUNGLE! I awoke and saw that the rainstorms had passed (this is SUPPOSED to be dry season) and headed out to Khao Sok. I was most anticipating this day trip. Khao Sok is a 130 million year old rainforest. It's about 2 hours from Suratthani. I am kind of obsessed with hiking and had never seen a jungle environment. I had to go. After bartering with Thai about how many baht to pay for my minivan to Khao Sok, I arrived around 1:30, grabbed a room for 200 baht (about 5 dollars), ate fried rice, and headed out to hike.

Background: Most of you have seen this in action -- at times I have a strong competitive, stubborn and prideful streak...

The hiking paths for Khao Sok close at 6:00 p.m. I left at 2:30 to begin my hike. Of course, I wanted to tackle the 7 km hike to the waterfall. It was the longest trail, and I was so jazzed to be in a rainforest that I didn't want to miss anything. The woman told me it was too late to start on that trail. I nodded, thanked her, and decided to do it anyway. 7km. That's not that far. About 1.5 km in, I noted approached rain clouds, and about 4km in, decided that I should settle for the pool and cliffs 6km in. I also noted that I passed no hikers going IN, but all were coming OUT. *shrug. I continued. I was a bit nervous at the thought of being on a trail in thick jungle in the dark, but kept on. (I was mentally composing a blog entry about pride on the way, and the blog entry ended with me stating that my pride was teetering with oncoming clouds, but I conquered the jungle trail.) When I finally reached the pool, I realized it wasn't as dark as I had thought, the vegetation just blocked out the sunlight. I felt better.

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NOTE: Earlier that afternoon, this had been my conversation with the guy at the bungalows: "Hi, where you from?" "The United States." "Where?" "The U.S.?" "Oh, America." I winced (that's two continents, not a country), "Yeah, America." "You beautiful." I smiled. "Thanks." He noted my attire. "You go Khao Sok?" "Yes." His eyes filled with warning, "Leeches!"

I shuddered. As a child, I read a lot of Little House on the Prairie. Leeches make me think of Laura Ingalls Wilder in creeks and her subsequent struggle with removing leeches from her legs and arms. END NOTE.
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About .5 km into the return hike, I got off the trail somehow, and it started to rain. Awesome. I noted that on the map, the trail followed a river. I figured I'd follow the river as well, climb rocks, and arrive safely. Until I slipped on a mossy rock and fell. And stood up to note my legs and hands speckled with... yes, leeches. I freaked out and tried pulling them off me only to learn then they stick to your hands, or your shoes, or fingernails, or coat... Bets on following the river: OFF. Name of the new game: Get out of the jungle without falling again.

After 15 minutes of following wrong paths and cursing the park for poorly marked paths, cursing the rain during "dry season", cursing my pride, and then damning leeches for eternity, I got back on a path that seemed promising. A half km later, I got lost again and started envisioning myself in the jungle overnight. This jungle has tigers, bears, elephants, huge snakes, monkeys, and worst... leeches. I knew I'd get out the next morning -- tourists would hike again -- but spending the night standing up to avoid leeches in the middle of a dark rainforest... didn't sound like fun. I'm not sure anyone has ever seen me in adrenaline, panick mode... I had to resort to deep breaths and talking with myself - outloud, mind you - to try to think logically. (haha. I laugh about it now - a lot - but I was freaked. out.)

Again, I did a few circles on paths, cursed rainforests, cursed my self confidence, cursed my love of adventure, cursed my competitive streak (versus my own expectations), cursed the leech I found in my sock sucking at my ankle, and tried to slow my heartrate.
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At this point, I would like to pause and give props to three individuals whose valuable gifts helped me out of the jungle: To my dad who gave me a decent sense of direction, to my friend Kaitlin for waking up in a random Patagonia rain shell at a college party years ago and lending it to me for the trip, and to my friend Jason who fleers my prideful streak more than anyone -- after considering the intense ridicule I would face, I bent my mind on getting out successfully. Thank you to these individuals. Your directions, jacket and pending raillery saved my life.
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I finally found a trail, calmed down, began recognizing marks from my trip in, and then trekked as quickly as possible to flee the dense green and enduring rain. I ceased cursing things and just thanked God, luck, anything, when I hit the 2 km mark and the wider tourist trail. I dreamed of water and fruit shakes.

Quite the adventure, being lost 6 km deep in a leech-ridden rainforest, at dusk, during a rainstorm... I'm not sure I'll ever hike alone in a jungle again. But it was beautiful scenery! I retired to my bungalow, found one more leech on my ankle, cursed it, threw it outside and trid to sleep under my mosquito net. I couldn't fall asleep for over 7 hours I was so worked up. Yikes...

I laugh a lot about it now. My tour guide on my trek this week said, "You went to Khao Sok? King cobra there. You see?"

Hell no. I had no idea they were there. Thank goodness.

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