Advertisement
Published: December 18th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Elephant with two babies
The mother decided to take the two babies across the road, but then a group of motorbikes came upon the scene and everything got a little scary for a minute. The babies huddled underneath her, then she led them back over the guard rail to the forest. The motorbikes were happy to scoot out of there! Since Kanda’s big exam is coming up, we left her alone for a day to study and hired Mr. Jeep (the birdwatching guide we’d met a few days earlier) to guide us for our day off. It was our only meeting-free day in the park and we wanted to try to see some wildlife before heading back to Bangkok.
If I could make an action figure, it would be of Mr. Jeep. At 5 foot 4 or so, he was a fairly small man with a shiny, bright smile and shoulder length glossy, wavy black hair that looked like it could have been cut from a wig and glued to the bottom of his wide brimmed canvas safari hat. When he met us in the morning at the park entrance at 6:30 a.m., he wore layers of khaki, white tennis shoes, and a pink woven scarf. He carried a scope on a tripod, three different bird books, a video camera and a pair of brand new binoculars he’d bought from a tourist the day before. He spoke clear and formal English, often answering our questions with a, “Yes, madame” or “Sure, madame.”
We went to a fig tree near
the road to spot hornbills. After spotting a few pied hornbills, we walked into the forest to wait for the wind to die down and the sun to warm the tree. “Too cold for great hornbills,” he’d say. “We take it easy.” In the forest we played with huge spiders, nibbled on a variety of forest products (leaves used to make MSG, ferns that locals like to stir-fry, vines of morning glory that taste like green beans). We also sniffed menthol/camphor smell of roots used to make the “tiger balm” salve people rub on their temples to relieve headaches. The most glorious tree I think I’ve ever seen rose from the forest floor, enormous and thick branches reaching for the sky. The figs are in season only one week a year and this tree had just finished its bloom.
When we emerged from the forest, we spotted wreathed hornbills fly away from another fig tree, but still no great hornbills. A giant squirrel sat in the tree and posed for us.
Jeep is amazing - we’d say in jest, “So, can you find us a wild pangolin?” and he’d say, “Pangolin? You want to see pangolin? Here, here
I see a pangolin yesterday!” and he’d run up the road with the gait of an action figure and point his scope into the forest at a tree. “Porcupine? You want to see porcupine? Sometimes they sleep here,” and he’d ask the ranger (Men) who was driving us to pull over around the corner. He said he sees clouded leopards on the road 3 to 4 times a year.
We went to viewpoints and lookouts and down forest paths. After lunch, we went on a hike down a path made by elephant footprints - a hillside path with huge, elephant stairs. I had no idea elephants could be so agile! At the bottom was a serene waterfall.
I should mention that all along the way, he’d been spotting rare and beautiful birds and telling us about them. This was my first birdwatching experience since childhood, so I am rusty and impatient in contrast to Karen and Wendy’s trained eyes, but I was starting to get into it (although I think I prefer eating my way through the leaves and roots of the forest if forced to choose). Near the waterfall, he pointed out some sandalwood trees that had
been cut down and hacked apart. A few that were standing had deep grooves cut into the tree - poachers (as they also call illegal forestry harvesters) had cut into the trees to see if the center grain was the color desired for making perfume products. The wood sells for exorbitant amounts, so it is a prime target for illegal cutting and is probably the most widespread poaching problem in Khao Yai.
We hiked up the stream and crossed on rocks for quite a while until we approached the base of the waterfall we’d visited just a few days before. As we crossed one final time, Jeep assured me the binoculars he’d loaned me were waterproof. I reminded him that my new digital SLR camera wasn’t, and he offered to take it for me.
“No, no, I’m fine,” I said. Mere seconds later, I slipped on a slimy rock and fell into the water on my fat farang bottom, my camera submerging in the water. GREAT. Wendy helped pull me out and Jeep took the camera. I ended up taking my water-filled shoes off and crossing the remaining water in my leech socks. After the initial shock, concern
and frustration with myself, the camera appeared to work and the battery, compact flash card and other compartments were left open to dry.
We returned to the morning fig tree to check for hornbills. A few more pied hornbills were spotted, and then Jeep said very calmly with a smile, “I see great hornbill.” Someone said, “You’re lying!” and he giggled and said, “Jeep never lie - only joking.” Then he motioned us to his scope and sure enough - great hornbill! How he spotted it we’ll never know. “I call him up,” he said, gesturing with his phone. We watched for a while as the giant bird preened and ate fruit. As we prepared to leave to “check for elephant,” we heard a noise that sounded like a very loud whisking noise snowpants make when worn. We looked up and overhead flew two more giant hornbills on their way to dinner at the fig tree. AMAZING.
In the car, we rounded the corner and went down the road where the elephants have been most active lately. We all gasped, even Jeep. ELEPHANTS! In the road walked a mother and a baby, their backs to us. They walked
up on to the left-hand shoulder of the road and joined a herd of 4 elephants that were eating the vegetation on the shoulder. We saw at least two babies along the side of the road. We inched forward and past them, then the mom and two babies stepped into the road to cross. A group of motorbikes arrived at that time and scared them since there were cars on both sides of them, so the babies cowered under the mother and she led them back over the guard rail.
We finally left and headed back, when Jeep spotted a fellow guide coming our way. Their guests said, "We just saw a silver pheasant!" Um, pheasant schmeasant. We just saw ELEPHANTS! Jeep gave them directions and we headed up the road to see if we could spot the pheasant. Someone said in jest, "Why did the pheasant cross the road?" and Jeep turned and said quite seriously, "Well, he probably tired and want to go to sleep." Man, I love that guy!
On our back back from our unsuccessful search, Kanda called Jeep to let him know the park director wanted to meet with us ASAP. He suddenly
seemed quite impressed and asked us to please ask them to change the photo of the bird in the English version of the visitor guide because the bird they feature doesn't live in Khao Yai.
We had a whirlwind tour and opinion session with the park director about ways to improve the visitor experience at the Visitor Center, then we were off to do some night spotlighting with Mr. Jeep.
We hopped in the van and headed out. In addition to deer, he found a slow loris on a power line, a couple of jackals in a field, and probably a few more things I'm forgetting. We had to return the spotlighting truck, but as Men drove us out of the park, he also spotted a Malayan porcupine and a three-striped civet - it sat completely still in the tree as we looked at it with our headlamps. (Men was asking him - what? They don't have porcupines in America? He was unimpressed.)
As we left the civet, Mr. Jeep shouted, "CLOUDED LEOPARD!" and pointed out the window. At this point we all nearly had a heart attack until he turned to us and grinned. "Only joking!!"
Amazing! Whatever you do, don't visit Khao Yai without hiring Mr. Jeep for a day.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.093s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0581s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mom and Dad Huntington
non-member comment
What an adventure!!
We have been waiting for a message from Chris about you, Wendy. Then this morning I asked your Dad if he had checked the blog and he said "No". We had a lot of reading to do to catch up with you gals. We are so envious at all you are getting to do. Can't wait to hear more and see the pictures. Did you really eat bugs??? Love, Mom and Dad