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Leech Attack
The only time I stopped in Khao Yai. It cost me 18 leeches.Michael Franti, morning rain, pancakes and my newest accessory, a half cast up to my knee, have all motivated/slowed me down enough to blog. My life changed immensely when I moved to Bangkok. To this day I'm still finding my rhythm in this city. When I first came here last September I had no idea what the universe had in store for me 😊 Simply put I was overwhelmed beyond words! From bursting into tears after my second day of teaching to wrestling with the fact that I was surrounded by concrete to listening to empowering poetry at a favorite hangout, it's been a trip.
This morning I did something that I'd been putting off for a year...organizing my photos. As Franti says, "The more I see the less I know." As I saw my life spill forth in images and videos I knew exactly what he meant by that verse. I've had the lowest lows and the highest of highs here. Ironically enough usually during the same events!
Let me give you a little example and tell you about one of my latest adventures...so that this whole entry isn't about me going on and on about highs and
There Be Elephants Here
I found a lot of tracks, but no elephants. lows, yada, yada. April 13-15 is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year. This event is called Songkran. It's literally a week-long water fight. I took some extra vacation days and headed to Khao Yai National Park prior to setting forth for the Northern city of Chiang Mai. I knew I wanted to undertake a solo trip to the park before being surrounded by thousands of people eager to douse me with water. Now I LOVE nature and I LOVE solo trips into it. What I'm trying to say is that this concept is not new to me. Nor is the challenge of being alone in a natural setting. I've been stuck in my tent on Mt Hood for days battling out storms, I've dealt with hypothermia, dehydration, animals, being lost, injuries, altitude sickness and so on. Let it be known to all: Khao Yai chewed me up and spit me out! That place is by far one of the most intense and amazing places I've ever traveled to!
To get to the park I had to travel via Skytrain, motorcycle (scooter), bus, songthaew (a truck with bench seats in the back), rent a motorcycle and drive half
Eeeek
I swear that bug is much bigger than it looks in the photo! an hour through mountains to a campsite. By the time I arrived the small store I was counting on for provisions was closed 😞 As I started setting up my tent huge deer surrounded me. I had to charge them over and over in order to keep them from eating my only food, a few bananas and some granola bars. I was not about to loose my meager dinner to a bunch of deer! In the middle of the night I heard sniffing and snorting outside my tent. Thinking it was the deer I just hit the side of the tent and rolled over. A second loud snort woke me up and I knew it wasn't a deer. A list of potential animals ran through my head...wild pigs, monkeys, dhole, bear. Then I slowly glanced up and saw, not 3 inches from my head, porcupine quills. I'm talkin' huge quills! Then as if I were a child thinking the monsters won't see me if I keep the covers pulled tightly and not move an inch, I froze, wondering the same of the porcupine. Then the thing started clawing and biting at the poles of my tent. I was not about
First Class Toilet
Mrigaa and I took a first class sleeper from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. I was very impressed with the quality of the toilets. Much nicer than 3rd class! Note the edge of the train on the left had side of the photo. to lose my tent to a rodent and have to sleep outside with the billions of tropical bugs! So, I took a chance, grabbed my tiny camping pillow, and simultaneously let out the meanest yell and hardest blow I could to the place where my tent was collapsing the most. I thought for sure I'd end up with a bunch of quills, but to my surprise it ran away. The first of an all night battle was won. I didn't sleep much that night and never did figure out what it wanted so badly.
The next day was full of tracking elephants and hiking to waterfalls. I was exhausted and stumbled back to my tent, only to find it scattered in pieces! The guilty party was still present, a troop of monkeys. Those little shits managed to shred the tent and steal almost everything inside. I didn't even have any food in there! I chased them off and sat down, tears filling my eyes. My mind reeling with thoughts of how I had finally gotten my vacation that I'd waited months for and this is what happens. So, I stood up, marched over to where the monkeys were sitting
and searched for my things. I took back what I could find/chase them away from and regrouped. I made my way to the camp headquarters and rented a tent from them. I was bound and determined to have a fun vacation! That night I chased away the monkeys again before going to bed. Then little by little I kept waking up to ant bites. This is nothing new really as this one species of tiny red ant is everywhere here! But at one point I thought they were all over me. My head, armpit, toes, back, everywhere! Thinking that I was just itchy from not having showered for so long and surrounded by tropical jungle I started to meditate in order to relax. Haha, that lasted all of maybe 20 seconds, followed by me shooting up in my sleeping bag and reaching for my headlamp. What did I see when I turned it on? A tent floor alive and moving! Thousands and thousands of ants! I froze, again. After some investigation and hundreds of ant bites I saw that they had chewed through the floor of the tent. Yes, chewed through it! They were after some melted chocolate that I
Our Bus to Pai
Look closely at the exposed wires... didn't even know was on an inside strap of my backpack. There I stood at 11:30 at night, sweat drenched, body stinging from head to toe, staring at the new ant colony in my home. What to do now? I couldn't leave anything behind or the monkeys would carry it away. I grabbed the essentials, beat off as many ants as I could and started looking for a new place to sleep. I almost kicked another porcupine, no joking it was maybe a foot from me when my headlamp illuminated it's presence. That's when I gave up and searched for a spot off the ground! Now I understood why people sleep in hammock tents in the jungle.
I stumbled into another campsite and sought refuge with a group of Thai teachers. They were so sweet to take me in! We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning chatting away...well as much as our broken English/Thai language skills would allow us. They gave me, a stranger, one of their tents to sleep in. People really are amazing!! After about 3 hours of sleep I bid them a fond farewell and set off for the jungle. By the end
Don't Fall Out
For over 4 hours we battled 762 curves along mountain roads, Songkran Festival dousings, a rain storm and two mudslides. of the day I had learned why people wear leech socks. I stopped counting the number of leeches on me when it reached 50. They weren't attached, but they were crawling, literally up my gators and onto my pant legs, on the edges of my shoes, on my hand if I happened to touch the ground. They were everywhere! As I hiked I could see them squirming along the ground toward me!
The first day of this trip I spent hours talking to people in search of a local guide. Eventually I met a night safari ranger, who knew a guy, who called another guy, to get the cell number of a local guide, who about an hour later came puttering up on a motorbike. Instantly I knew this was the guy for me. Next time I go to Khao Yai I'll be heading into the jungle with him! Not only is he a wonderful man, he's even survived a tiger attack there. I saw the scars to prove it! Some places on Earth perhaps aren't meant for solo excursions...
Oh yeah and my half cast, well that's from playing soccer. I have to wear it for 2
Just Outside of Pai
Our transmission failed. After a bit the drivers had us on our way. weeks in the hopes that during that time all the ligaments and tendons I injured in my foot will heal. Ladies soccer might be more dangerous than Khoa Yai.
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