It’s A Jungle Out There

An elephant named Somporn

I made my first logistical travel error (not counting getting on the wrong carriage on an Indian train which now seems like a lifetime ago and not such a big deal after all) on leaving Koh Tao. I checked in at the ferry port on Thursday morning, as planned, where it was quickly pointed out to me that my ticket was for the 6am ferry the next day. I’m not quite sure how I managed that, but I was able to book another ticket for that day, there and then. So not really a big deal either, but I was still kicking myself as ferries and minivans are low-budget travel options and I blew what amounted to a taxi fare making that mistake. Which is kind of how I’ve started thinking about money since I’ve been travelling. I find myself weighing up whether something is really worth it and considering how else I could spend the same money. Usually imagining something luxurious like a room with a hot shower. Or air conditioning. I suppose there is often an either/or calculation to make when spending money anywhere, at any time, but this trip has certainly brought it into focus.

Once aboard, the 4 hour boat ride across the Gulf of Thailand was fairly uneventful, except for the storm that raged outside. I left India in a storm too and wondered if, maybe hoped that, this was how it would always be. There is something about leaving a place in weather like that. It’s as if your departure is being endorsed, which I find helpful when I’m leaving somewhere beautiful.

It was still pouring rain when we arrived in Surat Thani and the minivan ride across the southern mainland to Khao Sok was interesting. I had read about how it might be and it turns out Tripadvisor knew. Van man drove more like a mad man and made numerous detours and stops along the way. Local passengers and packages were picked up and dropped off but it all seemed to happen magically. We’d pull up in the most unremarkable place, a passenger would appear as if from nowhere, climb aboard, and then with no discussion, be dropped off somewhere else equally unremarkable further down the line. And kids came running out of doorways to take deliveries of packages that had been picked up some miles previously. Again, all with no discernible communication except for van man occasionally turning round to grin, hold up his hand and say, 5 minutes! It was amusing until I realised how hungry I was and how much I needed the loo.

Eventually, I was dropped off at the bus station, which was in fact a little row of shops on the highway at the edge of Khao Sok National Park. I made a quick call to the Riverfront Resort and within just a few minutes a pick-up truck had arrived to drive me the short way down the road to this incredible jungle wonderland. It was then only a matter of time before I was in a river washing an elephant named Somporn.

Khao Sok National Park is 739 sq.km of protected land and encompasses the mighty Cheow Lan Lake. I took a long-tail boat ride around the lake yesterday and it is truly awesome. I had recollections of Jurassic Park and have since found out that the surrounding rainforest is considered the oldest in the world. It felt like it. Enormous limestone karsts rise out of the water like those in Halong Bay but although Halong attracts more visitors, I am told that here they are bigger, taller, and more majestic. I scrambled, and I mean scrambled, slid and slipped up a waterfall in a tropical downpour and then tripped and skidded my way back down again. Noom, our guide, was a delight, as well as an ex-international 400m athlete. He pointed out elephant tracks and dung and had us crouching and listening and sniffing the air for possible sightings. How an elephant could have got up there is beyond me, and to tell the truth, I really couldn’t be sure if Noom was playing a role for us tourists. But whatever, it was good fun and he seemed to be enjoying himself too.

And now it’s Saturday night and I’m sitting in an open-walled cafe overlooking the Sok Khlong (river). The sun has gone down and the cicadas are making a right old racket. There are geckos on the ceiling and Lesser False Vampire bats are swooping back and forth all around me. I’m glad they are both lesser and false as I’ve had a bit of a day with the wild life.

This afternoon, after a slow morning drinking coffee at Art’s Jungle House and watching life on the river, I decided to walk to one of the waterfalls in the park. I had heard it was no huge adventure and weighed up the cost of another guide against a future boat ride on the Mekong. The Mekong won. But on the way back I was rounded upon by a troop of long-tailed macaques who showed me their teeth before mugging me for the litter I had picked up at the waterfall. I gave up the goods pretty easily but did find myself yelling, ‘It isn’t food!’ Like they would understand and spare me. Thankfully, a family were also out walking not far behind, and they had acquired the services of a guide who very kindly, and easily, rescued my water bottle and my rubbish. So I walked with them a bit. And I’m glad I did because it was only moments later that I realised that it wasn’t a mosquito I could feel sinking its sucker into my ankle, but a leech. The horrible, slimy little thing was holding on tight but again I was saved by the guide who whipped it off and squooshed it like it was no big deal. But it was a big deal. So I went and spent the Mekong money on a massage.

It’s now Sunday morning and today I make the short flight from Surat Thani to Bangkok. I really wanted my next post to be called One Night in Bangkok. But I’ve gone and booked two.