Escaping the park

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When we awoke in Kaeng Krachan we were looking forward to exploring a large National Park and seeing what wildlife we could. We eagerly made our way to the Park office to be told that we could not enter the park as it was only possible to explore with a ranger in a 4x4 as the roads were partially eroded...?! We were then told that of the dozen or so staff we had seen sweeping the grounds that none of their rangers were free to show us around and of the 6 official 4x4s parked under a lean-to none of the 4x4s were available for showing visitors around the park. Dumbstruck at this obvious waste of resources we asked if it was possible to visit anything at all. We were pointed to a 200m loop into the fringes of the jungle. We wandered along this path and encountered a few creepy crawlies, and began to feel utterly frustrated with Thai misadvertising... National Park? Not likely.

Now we had to find a way out, we had already decided we couldn't cycle out due to the road condition and the dog problem. When we asked, unsurprisingly, there were no vehicles or staff to take us away from the park (minutes later the official in charge took it upon himself to fetch two labourers a silicone gun from their vehicle!). So we waited as they tried to contact the man who had so helpfully brought us to the National Park in the first place. Meanwhile a couple of minivans arrived carrying some official looking visitors. We were keen to keep our eye on them in case they contravened the current commands from on high. Sure enough they were kept within the headquarters bounds, but what was interesting was that they were visiting from a South Korean hydroelectrical company to see the site, but they never left headquarters and instead took pictures of a high-relief model in the very meagre visitor's centre (with antique poacher's rifles and animal skulls lining the walls?!). All in all it was bizarre and after their short and seemingly pointless visit we managed to hitch a lift in their Thai guide's pickup truck. The driver was silent all the way through the journey, fair enough we thought, given that he didn't speak any English. We thought we were to be taken to the nearest tarmac'ed road but as we continued on road after road we kept quiet in the hopes that we might be taken further for the same price (we hadn't paid by this time but expected to be asked at some point). An hours drive later we were almost at our planned destination for two days hence (Chaiya) and once the pickup truck stopped, he summarily dumped our bags and bikes on to the side of the road and took off without so much as an acknowlgement.

This was ideal, a short ride later and we were in Chaiya and had made up for our ill-advised diversion to the National Park. We stayed in the only hotel in town. The mattresses sagged and the walls had mold and more distressingly the neighbouring field was home to a thousand croaking frogs but we were free from the nightmare national park and eventually got some sleep!

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