I was full of excitement as I laced up my hiking shoes for the day-long trek into Khao Yai National Park. I had not been able to venture out during my trip back to Kansas because of the cold, and by cold I mean cruel, sharp-edged cold that makes you want to stay under a goose-down quilt all day. I wanted fresh air and a steady hike through some of Thailand’s most pristine land. Looking back on it, I should have looked up “trek” in the dictionary. I thought that it was synonymous with hike, but maybe not. We spent the first hour in the parking lot at the visitors center, looking for birds. I appreciate the exotic birds. It makes for an interesting photo subject, but I wanted to get on with it. Finally, we left the parking lot and visited an area where a family of gibbons had made a home. Funny thing about animals is that they always know how to stay just outside of view. We caught the occasional glimpse of dark fur in the trees, but again our guide had us covered with his trusty spyglass. We loaded up in the sawng thaew and headed towards the starting point of our trek. Even sitting in back of the truck, choking on exhaust fumes, I could tell that the air quality here was much better than in Bangkok.
When I had prepared that morning I agonized over whether or not to wear long sleeves, but feeling the cool air of the jungle, I am glad that I decided on the latter. The guide took led us at a slow pace, occasionally stopping to check the tree canopies.. He explained that January was the best time to see birds in Khao Yai. Thailand has 300 species of birds and another 200 species spend winter here. “Dry season is the best time for seeing birds and elephants, wet season is the best time for seeing snakes and lizards.” Damn my rotten luck! I decided to make the best of it and just enjoy the walk in the jungle. We had been walking for 20 minutes when I strayed behind to study a spider in it’s web. When I turned around to join the group, they were all gone. I tried to catch up with them, but there was no marked path. After about one minute of walking, I knew that I must have veered off in the wrong direction. I didn’t want to call out. I didn’t want to scare off the animals and ruin the trek for everyone else, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I grit my teeth, swallowed my pride and shouted, “Hello?” as I started to retrace my steps. I called two more times before I heard Sir Richard call to me that he could see me and to walk towards the direction of his voice. I couldn’t see him, but I could hear him faintly. I followed his voice and finally caught a glimpse of him through the trees. It’s amazing, you can be five feet away from someone and not see them and just barely hear them. Our guide gently scolded me, and after that I stayed right behind him, which actually came in handy because I could see where he stepped to keep from getting his shoes too muddy.
We saw several hornbills that day and an Asian forest scorpion that the guide was so familiar with, the scorpion would just sit in the palm of his hand and allow itself to be displayed. So familiar, in fact that he said the scorpion’s name was Robbie. There were macaques all over the park, but no elephants to be seen. This wasn’t from lack of trying. They drove for over an hour looking for elephants while myself and the rest of the group huddled for warmth in the back of the truck. I found it hard to believe that it could get so cold in the jungle, but once the sun started to set, I found myself wishing that I had brought a jacket. It got to the point where I wanted to scream, “I don’t care if we see any wild f&$^-ing elephants. I’M COLD, DAMMIT” The truck stopped at a place called “Salt Lick City” to check for elephants. I jumped out of the backend and went and leaned against the hood of the truck for warmth. When the guides were satisfied that there would be no elephants that day, we went back to the guesthouse.
I did enjoy the trek that day, but it had more to do with the people that I met and became acquainted with than seeing exotic animals. There were some very friendly people in my tour group everyone was curious about everyone else. Who they were, where they were from and any information they had about traveling in Thailand, or any other part of SE Asia for that matter. There were twin sisters from Germany, one of which had been to Siem Reap recently, and I picked her brain as much as I could since I am heading that way. Sir Richard was brimming with information and he enjoyed playing the pedagogue to my eager student. He was also a film buff, so any cinematic reference he dropped, I could pick it up while others stood around with a quizzical look on their face. I met a lovely couple from Holland and they advised me not to miss the sights in Ayutthaya. I got along so well with Sir Richard and the Dutch couple (M and D) that we decided to extend our stay and take a road trip the next to visit so Temples that were near the Thai-Cambodian border. To hire a private driver for the day was a little out of my price range, even if it was split four ways, but we were having such a good time together that I decided to splurge.
