We wake at 4:30am, brush our teeth and make our way over to our friends who
are stationed in front of the tent shop, already goofing around. We were able
to piece together the night before that the group of 5 is working on their
senior project together which is some sort of short documentary on "Life
in the Jungle". One of the girls is sitting in a chair with an electric
hair straightener plugged into the side of the building, straightening her hair
in the reflection on the window. She is the narrator/actress. The three guys
are the camera and photo crew. It’s not quite clear what our English speaking
friend does, direct maybe? In any case, it’s not quite clear to Alex and me why
we are just sitting around. Its past 5am now and it seems that we should be
heading to wherever we are going to see the sun rise. After a half an hour a
truck rumbles up the hill and it makes sense. They've hired a truck to take
them to a site to view the sunrise. After about 30 minutes in the back of the
pickup, amazingly cool breeze in our hair, we ascend into a layer of fog, light
just barely starting to creep into the sky. We manage to make our way along a
dark windy path in the jungle and emerge at a cliff's edge in a blanket of fog.
Being on top of the Dong Rak mountain range, we were actually a bit cold. But
it didn't take much time for the fog to begin peeling back, revealing the
layers of Jungle in front of us, and finally a blazing red sun as it rose of
the ridgeline in the distance. It was beautiful.
The students are so excited to have us along and include us in the
documentation. We answer some interview questions, which I'm not quite sure
what they'll do with, since they don't really understand what we're saying.
Pui, our English ambassador, tells us 'we go now to waterfall'. Again, quite
clueless of the plan, we pile into the pickup again and drive another 30
minutes through the jungle to the other side of the park. On the road to our
destination we run into a family of wild elephants. Mom, Dad and two babies. We
proceed with caution until Dad ushers the family into the jungle and then we
speed past. We get to the trail head, and once again the students are goofing
around and we're wondering what we're waiting for. Finally a guide shows up and
again it makes sense. Our guide takes us into the jungle to a viewing point for
a much larger waterfall than the ones we'd seen the day before. We're so grateful
to our new friends for bringing us along on their journey. We would not have
made it that deep into the park if not for them. By the end we also got a glimpse
at several species of deer and two giant porcupines.
As if our friends' generosity wasn't enough already, they offer to give us a
lift back to Pak Chong. We hitch a ride together to the park entrance and wait
for Ti's dad to pick us up. While we wait we enjoy an ice cream from a cart
that rolls by. Perfect. We offer to pitch in money for the truck, the guide and
all the food and water that they've shared with us, but they refuse since their
school department has funded their 3 day trip into the jungle. Still, we are so
grateful to have been adopted by them, we hope somehow we can return the favor.
After a shower and some TV time in our hotel room we go back to the
restaurant we discovered the night we got into Pak Chong. By far it’s the best
food we've eaten our entire trip...and most definitely the spiciest! This was
definitely we worthwhile excursion.
We decide to head back to Bangkok. It’s time to start winding our trip down.
The next morning we board the train again for Bangkok.
