Another Go At Trekking

Wednesday 18 October

When we awoke this morning Colin opened the front doors to the lodge and across the river, the monkeys were already up, running, jumping and swinging in the trees. They put on quite a show, and were even coming down to the beach when a dog arrived and barked so loudly, they all ran back up the trees. Another visitor was what looked like red coloured squirrels – much darker red coat than I have seen in pictures before - with bushy tails and real cute, pointy faces set with beady black eyes. They were running along on the same top branches as the monkeys used, but didn’t venture downwards. Breakfast was from 07.30 and we had to be ready to leave at 09.00 so had to stop watching the wild life and get ourselves ready.

Breakfast was from the a la carte menu and Colin chose porridge with banana and toast, while I selected a banana pancake – not the thin variety we eat at home, but more like a giant scotch pancake, topped with 2 ½ bananas!! They did put pots of maple syrup on the table as several of us chose this dish, but it was all too much for me, and Colin had to finish mine.
Just as we finished eating, we noticed a band of monkeys making their way along the shore on the far side of the river – it was particularly rocky here, and they scampered over boulders, up the cliffs and leapt across inlets to make their way to a flatter rock area, exactly opposite to where we were sitting. The leader of the troupe was easy to spot, a large light brown male, who gamboled backwards and forwards to keep everyone together in their trek along the river. Some of the mothers were carrying babies underneath their bodies, while some other very small monkeys had to seek easier routes to get to their destination. When they all arrived, there were what we presume were a few extra male monkeys – or perhaps a few monkeys from another troupe – anyway, the leader of the pack soon saw them off, chasing them away and hooting in a loud, threatening voice. They soon scampered back the way they had come. There was about 30 monkeys in this troupe. The rest of the monkeys grouped themselves together in five circles and started to groom each other. Sometimes the little ones strayed away, but Big Daddy soon marshaled them back in line. We sat and watched these antics, fascinated by their display of devotion to each other, their concentration on being clean and looking after each other. Eventually, once fully clean, they began to disperse, either back the way they came, or up the cliffs into crevices and holes. Colin had already gone back to the lodge by this time, and was there ready with his video, to capture on film a few of the monkeys who swam across the river, right outside our lodge, and ran across his feet before climbing the trees, looking for some sweet monkey bananas to eat (humans don’t eat this fruit – it looks like a midget banana but inside it is white and creamy with small black pips). Seeing the monkeys this close had been a real treat.
We then prepared ourselves for another trek – at least this time we weren’t carrying heavy backpacks! We had been led to believe by Pok (our last tour leader) that this trek would be easier, and he was right. We walked to the National Park, about a kilometre or so up the road, where we had to sign in before receiving our tickets. Our trekking guide (also doubling as a waiter in the restaurant here), stopped many times to show us insects, plants and herbs of interest – lime trees and kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, pineapple trees, palm oil plants, and he explained the life cycle of the banana tree, even before we got into the tropical rain forest.
The walking was fairly level at the beginning of the park, with wide, but often very muddy tracks. We were shown various types of bamboo, prickly rattan plants used for making cane furniture, lizards, a small thin dark red snake, which when touched raised its tail like a cobra’s head, which was turquoise and yellow striped on the under side. There were water bugs, and huge spiders living in holes in the banks, with widespread webs to catch their prey, and we even spotted a couple of owls sitting high up on a branch of a tree in the canopy. As we pressed on into the jungle we noticed the differences between this tropical rain forest and the jungle up north- the trees here are mainly bamboos, palms, and bananas, some of the bamboo trees growing up to about 50 feet in nine months. There are lots of shrubs which form a thick layer of undergrowth, below a very tall canopy of trees, but the vegetation is nowhere near as thick and dense as that we had seen last week. It was a hot and sunny day, and even though we were walking under the forest canopy in the dappled shade most of the time, the humidity made us ‘sweat buckets’. We eventually turned off the main path and made our way precariously down the side of the hill – a few hundred feet - over large tree roots, boulders and greenery, to reach a beautiful waterfall tumbling down the opposite bank and joining the meandering river in a torrent of white water. The water was so clear, that even where it was deep in the middle, we could see the river bottom quite clearly. We stopped here for a breather, before trekking on – back uphill to reach the main pathway and a watering hole stop for people. It is essential to keep drinking in this climate and bottled water does a roaring trade. We continued to see more wild life, chameleons, as well as plants that change colour when moved, small figs, which the Thai people put in curries, and rose apples, with their crisp but watery tasting centres. By the time we reached the tut-tut to take us back to the lodge, we had seen more wildlife in four hours, that we had seen the whole time we have been in Thailand. We took lots of pictures and videos, and some may appear later on the blog – if we ever get connected again!
I felt quite pleased when we got back that I had managed the trek with no real problems – my toes were not too painful in my shoes (I had to be careful walking down hills and Linda found me a walking stick similar to the ones we had found invaluable last week), and walking uphill has become much easier (although I still go very red in the face!). Today’s trek was nowhere near as challenging as those we did last week, but it was still walking for nearly four hours, in high humidity, with only a couple of five minute breaks.
Back at the ‘ranch’ it was time for lunch, after a ‘quick wash and brush up’ to refresh ourselves. We could choose our food from the a la carte menu again, and Colin and I chose green Thai chicken curry, fried pork with cashewnuts, pad Thai noodles, and some steamed rice. As with all the food at this place, it was absolutely delicious, and easily some of the best we have eaten while being on our journey.
In no time we were all being gathered together to go to the start of the ‘tubing’ activity further up the river. We arrived at a bridge, on the main road, in our tut-tuts, which had large rubber inner tubes on the roof. Life jackets were available if required. We were each given a ‘tube’ to take down to the water’s edge, and sit in. The water felt icy as we settled our bottoms in the hole of the tube. The current from the river immediately took us out into the centre of the river and we were on our way. We floated downstream for a while, past the lodges, till we met some rapids, which hurled us along and around and towards the banks in the strong currents. We had to paddle with our arms away from any obstructions like overhanging trees, or plants growing in the river, or even other people in tubes (I collided with Colin on one occasion, and pushed him into the bank! and one of the leaders had to give him a push out). At one point one of the leaders showed us a ‘python’ asleep in a tree overhanging the water. We continued in this pattern of gently floating along, then being caught in the eddies and swirled around as the rapids gushed over the rocky riverbed (which if the water was shallow would give your bottom a big bump, sometimes even tipping you out). We went about 5 kms down the river, in about an hour, and were sorry when we had to make our way to the bank to catch the tut-tut back to the lodge. Being already wet, I went for a swim in the river – which was very cool and refreshing. The current here is quite strong and it is sometimes difficult to land in the right place. The rest of the afternoon was spent blogging.
It is very difficult to get dry after a cold shower - no matter how many towels you use your body still seems damp. We flooded the bathroom again – it’s a shame there’s no squeegee or mop to push the water to the drain hole right in the far corner of the bathroom. Everyone else was in the restaurant by the time we arrived, and having ordered a couple of cocktails, our trekking guide came and asked if we would like to see a large spider! Well – errr – no, but yes too. He took us out of the restaurant, and up one of the muddy tracks – it was a good job it didn’t rain today – where he showed us by the light of his torch a large hole in the bank, padded with leaves, where we just caught a flash or the spider rushing inside. We went on to an even bigger hole, but this one was empty. The holes are built like funnels, padded with leaves and debris just like a bird’s nest. The spider uses the immediate vicinity to gather grubs and insects for its food. On returning to the first hole, the spider had emerged again, although we could only see four huge hairy legs sitting at the front of the hole. These spiders will bite, but are not poisonous.
Back to the restaurant for dinner – another set meal of magnificent food – green chicken curry soup, tempura of vegetables – some of which we could not recognize – sweet and sour vegetables, and pork with mushrooms. Of course there was as much steamed rice as you wanted – the first portion on your plate was in the shape of a heart with a purple orchid flower in the join at the top. This was followed by the usual plate of watermelon, pineapple and banana. The food here has definitely been one of the highlights of this tour.
We have definitely enjoyed our stay here at Khao Sok and the standard of accommodation has been luxurious compared with the “huts” last week – not 5* AA (the beds are extremely hard and no softer than sleeping on the mattress on the floor) – but you could be happy to spend a few days here enjoying the countryside. I have added another ‘first’ to my list for my 60th year – tubing. This was great fun and like rafting I would love to have another go. Despite my pushing Colin into the bank he enjoyed himself too. Trekking I am still not sure about – I enjoyed today’s venture into the rain forest here, but I don’t think I could tackle mountains again.
My toes are not doing too badly – seeing as they went trekking again today. The nails have turned pearly white, but the skin around the nails is going a nasty shade of black – I am assuming this is bruising! I think I must be a delicate creature – while paddling the tube I rubbed the inside of my arms on the rubber, and I now have two very red and sore arms on the inside of my elbows!!! Never mind, lots of Savlon and TLC they will soon mend.Tomorrow we are leaving for Krabbi – in a remote resort there, where we have to use long tail boats to reach the hotel! I am not sure how all our luggage is going to fare – these boats lie pretty close to the water’s surface in my experience, but we shall see