Khao Yai -Day 2

You will notice that I spelled the name of the National Park differently in this post than in the last post. This is intentional. You see, in Thailand there is no official translation of Thai characters to the roman alphabet so there are numerous ways to spell things.

After a sleepless night the alarm finally sounded at 5:30. We dressed in preparation for a day of hiking and were out the door shortly after 6:00, on our way as the sun was rising, into the national park. We shared the road with several monks and a few women. The empty roads were a stark contrast to the backlog of cars on the roads the night before as people were coming from all over to enjoy a nice long weekend out of the city. As we arrived at the entrance we were prepared to pay our entrance fee but found that due to the celebration of the King's birthday the entry was free. Not bad.

We drove in and made our first stop at the salt licks which are supposed to be a favorite place for the local wildlife. We were hoping to find a heard of elephants there but were disappointed when we found nothing. It ended up that we were the attraction! A group of Thais asked if they could have their photo taken with us. We continued our drive to the visitor center and decided to begin our trek from there. As we got out of the car the sky was filled with noises. We didn't know if they were made by birds, monkeys or what but we decided it was a good sign that we would have lots to see on our hike.

We crossed a rickety bridge across a narrow river, holding our breath and trying to make ourselves as light as possible afraid if we stepped wrong we would fall through the rotting, wood planks. Making it safely to the other side the noises lulled us into the jungle on what we hopped would be a day full of wild animals from a safe distance. The vibrotic, high pitched calls were perplexing to me. What was making that noise?! Despite the attempts to look through the trees to find the source the jungle growth was too thick and the attempts were unsuccessful. I even climbed to the top of some scaffolding that had been placed for research purposes but still couldn't get a view of our music maker. We saw a wood pecker and knew he was not the the culprit and we saw a gorgeous, red breasted multi colored bird but nothing that could make such a big noise. So, we continued on our way, found the waterfall...meaning the water was falling off a 3 foot cliff, and then decided to delve a little further into the jungle on a trail indicating it was 8 kilometers. We looked our our map and saw that it lead to an area of 3 waterfalls and began down the path.

The calls continued to fill the air and we continued to be unsuccessful at finding the source. Then I heard movement and we stopped, again looking into the trees. I couldn't see well so I stepped off the path to try and get a better look. I saw something swinging from tree to tree...several somethings. I told my friend to come see the beautiful sight of monkeys swinging through the trees but the noise of the cracking branches under our feet scared them off and they were gone before she could see. My heart leapt with joy! What a beautiful sight!! We finally knew the source of the calls we were hearing.

A few more steps down the path I heard another noise. It was strange, almost like deep breathing...but not quite. I wondered if it was the breath of elephants as it sounded deep and made with great effort. We snuck forward to see what it could be but saw nothing. Then something large swooped among the tree tops. The jungle brush was so thick and I only saw the mysterious creature's shadow. Then I saw something on the ground leap through the bush and then heard a loud barking noise. I remembered that one of the animals advertised as native to the area was the barking deer. That was the only explanation I had for what we had just experienced. But there was still no answer to the swooshing in the tree tops and the heavy breathing. Then the noise came again and looking up we saw 2 huge nests. We realized that the breathing sound was not breathing at all but was the sound of a very large birds wings. Unable to get a clear view of the birds flying over their nest very aware of our presence directly underneath, we finally got a good enough view to see that the bird was a great hornbill, indeed a great bird! What a treat! We stayed around a bit longer to see if we could get a better view but the smell of bird poo was so intense and uncomfortable and the view so obscured by jungle growth that we decided not to hang around any longer.

Back on the path we walked and walked and walked sometimes finding the path obstructed by fallen trees and having to navigate around, through the growth and back to the path. We knew we were headed in the right direction as we followed the red paint occasionally marked on trees along the way. At times we wished we'd had a machete to chop our way through the dense vegetation. We came to a few places where we had to cross the river as well, sometimes it was narrow enough to cross on stones, other times it was walking across a fallen log. It was definitely a jungle experience! There were vines hanging everywhere and the temptation to pretend to be Tarzan was strong but avoided.

At about 10:30 we got to a point where we just couldn't figure out where to go. Trail led to a place where several trees had fallen and we were unable to crawl over so we tried to go around and meet up with the path again, as we had done before but the trail just seemed to end. There was no clear indication of where to go and the vegetation was so thick we really needed a machete to get through it, a clear indication that it wasn't the right direction. We back tracked to see if we had gone a wrong way, as the way was often obscure and overgrown and sometimes it was a guessing game which way to go. It seemed so clear that we were headed in the right direction but just couldn't figure out how to move forward. Again, we backtracked and this time we found signs we hadn't seen before but one had fallen from the tree and it wasn't clear which way the arrow should be pointing. The other sign had an arrow pointing into thick jungle brush that was impassable. It was decided that we should just turn around and go back to find a path to one of the other waterfalls. As we did this we found that, again, the path was obscure and we were unsure where we had come from. Nervous about leaving the path for too long we made short deviations to see where the path would continue but always found dead ends. Finally we decided to head west as that was the direction we eventually needed to go. Quickly we were able to find a trail and we followed it.

Again, we walked and walked and walked and felt confident we were on the right path as we continued to find occasional paint markings on the trees. The trail took us over more fallen logs, through more overgrowth and deeper into the jungle until we reached a cliff. We climbed down the cliff to a narrow river but there were, again, several fallen logs and it was unclear which path to take. We tried several routes but nothing seemed right. Frustrated what could we do but to turn back and try to find our way back to the car. By this time it was after 1 pm. I had packed some snacks for us along with a can of tuna and some crackers. This would be our lunch but we had to eat fast and get on our way if we were going to make it back to the car before nightfall.

I said a quick, heartfelt prayer that we would be able to find our way back safely and quickly but I didn't know how we would possibly be able to make it back before dark. We hadn't seen another living soul on the path other than the monkeys at the beginning. We started thinking that maybe paying the $100 for a guide wasn't such a crazy idea after all. The trail seemed so clearly marked when we begun but since the trails hadn't been kept up real well, it was hard to know where to go.

We started back at a much quicker pace than we had kept prior to this and made our way back through the jungle. You can imagine the relief in our hearts when we spotted a small group of hikers with a guide just in front of us. The guide in his broken English asked where we were going. We told him we were unable to find our way after the cliff so we were headed back. He looked concerned and indicated that we wouldn't make it back before dusk. I asked if we could follow them and they, of course, agreed. It turned out that the hikers were from Mexico and we were so pleased to be able to speak Spanish with them. They were so kind and it was such a relief to be with them...with a guide.

The guide led the way back along the path to the cliff, down the cliff, over the river by way of the fallen logs and up the steep side of the mountain on the other side. My friend and I looked at each other...there was no way we would have found our way!

Finally, we reached the waterfall and enjoyed the cool water and rested our weary feet. I got talking to one of the other trekkers who informed me that he had been told that the waterfall we were headed to originally was unreachable at the moment. I laughed and told him I could confirm that. After about 30 minutes we continued on to the next waterfall. Again, there was no way we would have found it on our own. We felt so lucky to have found this group.

Then we had to face our next obstacle. How to get back to our car. We decided the best option would be to hitchhike. We imagined there would be so many cars in the parking lot at the end of the trail that we could find someone to take us back. When we got to the parking lot we found that it was almost completely empty. It was only 4:00, where was everyone? We spotted a nice Japanese man and approached him. He spoke no Thai or English. Luckily the woman with him spoke Thai so I explained to her that our car was at the visitors center and asked if she could give us a ride. Sweetly she agreed, amazed that we had walked all that way! As we drove we realized how far we had really gone!!! And so thankful we didn't have to walk back to the car.

On our way out of the park we decided that on our next hike we would either take a machete or hire a guide.

I'm grateful for a loving God who listens and answers my prayers so directly and quickly.

Um, Yikes!

Ok, BRING IT ON!!