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Khao Sok National Rainforest covers over 750 square kilometers and is surrounded by hundreds more. It is the oldest evergreen virgin rainforest in the world and stepping from the road onto the trails makes this amazingly obvious. This is the world before we knew it. The rainforest is at once beautiful and treacherous. It's the kind of place you want to go with a guide. Always.
We took a tube ride down the river, as I mentioned, and I couldn't figure out why our guide kept pushing us along whenever the water would slow down a bit. We've spent some time (as many of you have) tubing down the Guadalupe and Comal, floating in the calm water and enjoying a beer as the trees slowly slide past. That's sort of what we had in mind when we signed up for the tube trip. But every time the water would calm down, the guide would paddle up to us and either spin our push our tubes down the river. We began to get quite agitated after a half hour of this, but he also stopped long enough to point out pythons and other snakes curled in the trees above us, or the young monkeys in the tall bamboo by the river.
Afterward, when talking to some Dutch folks back at the lodge, they pointed out that the river is full of perch-sized fish with small teeth, that love to swim up and bite anything new that stops for very long, just to see if it's worth eating. Several of them had been bitten, one girl had lost blood. So then we knew what the guide was up to, and we were suddenly grateful. Our guide told us his name is "sexy man," which was quite funny in a thick Thai accent, so that's what everyone called him. A very nice chap, with an incredible eye for spotting the local wildlife.
The next day, Sexy-Man took us on a walk into the jungle. It was a bit eerie moving away from the paved road into the land that time forgot. There were a few small monkeys high up in the trees, and many lizards and butterflies. There was even a very tiny bee's nest full of microscopic bees. Did you know there is a breed of honeybee that is smaller than a gnat? Neither did we. Sexy-Man can spot a Chameleon on a branch ten feet away. It's true, he did it more than once. He grew up in this place. Considering the dangers of the local wildlife, I suppose it's mostly survival skill to see every living creature around you. There were bats in the trees and snakes in the grass. There were wild elephant tracks and spiders (big ones). The one in this picture is about 7-inches diagonal. Pull out a ruler, I dare you.
But most of all.... there were leeches. Yes... leeches! They call them ground leeches here and they are very small. About the size of a maggot, but they get in your pants no matter how hard you try to keep them out, and they grow to the size of small garden slug on your blood. They are relatively harmless (they carry no disease), but they do leave you bleeding a bit. I still have a dime sized spot under my left knee from one of those suckers. But don't let them interfere with a trip to this place. They are a very small price to pay for the extraordinary beauty of this ancient world.
We hiked for about two hours to this great swimming hole under the waterfall pictured at the end of this blog.
. The water was unusually cold for a tropical rainforest, but much of it comes from springs and it is very clear and clean. We swam in the pool and took a ride down the small rapids on our butts. It was a great refreshing break from the long hike through this dense jungle. Then we headed back and came across some incredible lizards before it began to rain fairly heavily (it is a rainforest after all). Sexy-Man stopped to point out some army ants building what looked like a small leaf fort, and then found us some of the local birds and squirrels to look at.
The Thailand guide book (from Lonely Planet) says tha Khao Sok is the number one must-see place in Thailand. After all our journeys here, I might put it second behind the beaches, but only just barely. It is a remarkable sight to behold. There are sheer limestone cliffs and granite faces. There are palm trees and wild mango trees, banana plants and massive old trees full of monkeys. I wouldn't ever want to get lost in this place at night (there are also leopards), but I'm grateful to have experienced it during the day. Another nights sleep and we're flying back to Bangkok for a day of gift shopping and massages. I'll write a few more words from there.
Until then, say hello to our little friend here, and we'll see you in the big city.
ciao,
Greg and Tricia
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Dawn
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Finally some pictures of you two! Really expressive writing, I am enjoying reading about everything you are doing. It was nice this morning to take a little journey through the rainforest with you, feel the leaves crunch, hear the water rush by . . . then I had to go change a poopy diaper. Ah, reality! Glad you are doing so well, can't wait to hear the next bit.