Trekking in the Rain

Day 42 (11/08/05): Hills North West of Pai, Thailand

If there was one theme to this trek, it was food. We awoke to a huge breakfast put out for us, once again it was enough to serve four or five people. We started walking, and trekked up quite a few large hills, giving us amazing views from the top. One of the things I most enjoy about the landscape here are the enormous cliffs. Jutting straight out of the landscape are giant sheer cliffs, with any surface that is perfectly vertical covered in dense vegetation. They look magnificent, although they were offset against the gray skies that silhouetted them...

Shortly after we started walking, the rain came down. We had just reached the top a large hill, and there was a small bamboo shelter in there, under which we took cover as the first drops started falling. We were shortly greeted by a couple of local woman with a bunch of young kids in tow. They were all splashing around in the rain and the puddles and having a great time. A huge beetle flew past (it was literally the size of a small bird), which they all chased after and one of them managed to catch. All the other kids then chased him, trying to get the beetle for themselves. He turned the tables by chasing and scaring the smaller kids with the big beetle. And all this was taking part in the heavy tropical rain.

As the rain started thinning out we headed off again, with raincoats and hats on. Although the insulation from wearing a raincoat meant I was soon dripping wet on the inside with sweat, as well as the outside with rain, which seemed rather pointless. The raincoat was soon taken off. We reached the river, which we would be following for the rest of the day, and so we changed into our sandals, and spent the next hour or so, criss-crossing our way over the river. The water was nice and cool, and I think it was the first time my feet were clean in a long time. Unfortunately, being this close to the river, and with the rain, meant that my special little friend the leech was out again. Luckily they weren't many of them, nowhere near as many as Malaysia. Although I was in sandals, with no shoes between me and the leeches! I only got three of them on me, and I got them off quickly enough before any blood was flowing.

We stopped for lunch at an old elephant camp. There were just a few burnt out bamboo huts left, but it was still a very picturesque place to eat. Once again there was no shortage of food, we had rice with chicken and vegetables. To keep with the jungle theme, we ate out of bamboo 'bowls', sections of bamboo that had been cut in half. It was very cool. Ray was looking for some dry bamboo to make a fire for tea, as everything was wet from the rain. But neither of us were too bothered, and so we didn't bother making another bamboo jungle teapot.

Another hour and a bit of walking, and we arrived at a Karen village, where we would be spending the night. This village was quite large, with over 300 families, and large fields of potato and corn (and rice in the wet season). Once again, we were staying with a family, although we stayed in a much more modern constructed wooden building. The family had solar panel, battery rack and inverter, so in the main part of their house, they even had a tv! I had a wonderfully refreshing bucket shower with some very cold water. Then while Clare had a nap, I helped Ray cook our food for the night. The Karen people use a small concrete brazier, in which they light a fire. A pot or wok can then sit on top of this brazier, and a gap in the concrete allows them to control the fire and hence the heat. In the kitchen hut were two of these braziers, and while I didn't prepare any of the food, I helped stir fry several of the dishes in the wok over the fire.

Dinner was quite early, and enough to feed an army. Once again we did our best, but there was plenty left afterwards. We then went on a tour of the village, visiting several different families. Ray's father was the schoolteacher here many years ago, and as such Ray knows a lot of the people in the village. The first person we visited was the oldest man in the village, at 100 years and 3 months! He was quite a little man, his legs about as thick as my arms. He had a huge smile, which showed that he was missing his front teeth. Most amazingly, his thighs and forearms were completely covered in traditional tattoos. He joked a lot, and using Ray as our interpreter, we found out about how he came to the village and about his family. It was very well done on Ray's part, considering that these people speak the Karen language, which is completely different to Thai. Ray told us that he can speak Thai, Lahu language, Karen Language, Burmese, Lisu Language and some English! Very impressive.

Later on in the village we met the old man's wife, who was 93, and just as friendly. We then visited a few of Ray's friends, each of whom was drinking the local whiskey. This 'whiskey' wasn't too bad, actually coming in labeled bottles and made by a local distillery. It tasted more of cheap vodka then anything else, but at 28% was rather smooth and easy to drink. I was passed many cups of it, and not wanting to be rude, finished them all. One large family we visited had just killed a wild pig, and had a large number of people over to celebrate. The meat was shared between everyone, and we arrived just as they started cooking it. We even tried a few pieces. One of the things they were making was a 'pork tartar' of sorts. The raw meat was chopped very finely and then a number of spices were added to it. It tasted pretty good. I also tried the pork soup, which was quite good and spicy as well. Some of the children had those giant bugs we had seen earlier, and Ray dropped one into the fire for a few seconds before eating it. He offered it to us, but we both kindly refused. One last stop at our neighbour's hut to drink some more whiskey, before we all collapsed into bed to sleep off the whiskey and the day's exertions.

Glutton for Self Punishment

Day 6 (05/04/08): Taman Negara National Park

"Millions of leeches, leeches for me

Millions of leeches, leeches for free!"

Had a reasonable sleep in, and woke to find I was the only person in the bunk. I considered having a shower, but realised if I was about to head into the jungle, whats the point? I went down to a floating restaurant and had a traditional Malay breakfast called roti canai. Ita unlevened bread with curry dipping sauce. However, I got mine with eggs and onions, so it was more a bready omellete with curry dipping sauce - brilliant!

My plan for the day was to head out into the Jungle, and spend a night in one of the hides. To do this you need to bring your own food and supplies, so I went to a little floating shop. Unfortunately, they didn't really have much in the way of tramping food, and so I had to settle on some mini cookies, a can of baked beans and obviously some water - I got 3 litres, thinking it would be plenty! On a tip from some other travellers, I got some vegetable fried rice to go and put this in my pack as well.

Took a boat across the river to the Park Headquarters to book my hide for the night. I had the option of going to close hides, only about 1-2 hours away, but decided I may as well do this properly and booked myself into Bumbun Kumbung hide, which was listed as an 11km walk, taking about 5-6 hours. I rented a foam sleeping mat, and popped back across the river to rent a powerful spotlight torch - a must for staying in the hide and left some non-essential items in a locker. At about midday I headed off into the jungle!

Like all tourist places, the provided map beared little to no resemblance to reality, however the paths were fairly easy to follow, with little yellow markers attached to trees. Most of the intersections were sign-posted, so it was fairly easy to find your way. There wasn't a lot of wildlife to see in the Jungle, but us humans make so much noise when we walk that most of the animals run away far before we get close to them. I did however often hear animals scurrying away in the bushes, and some of them sounded quite large, but never managed to see any. The trees, vines and plants were all very impressive though. As the jungle is so dense, all the trees are in an arms race to be the tallest, and as such some of the trees are staggeringly tall.

I realised I had left quite late, and so walked pretty fast to try and make up time. This was alright for the first few hours, however the second half was quite rough; muddy and lots of steep climbs. Coupled with this was the completely de-moralising distance signs. These signs just seemed to sh0w random numbers, and on several occasions, the number actually increased from the previous sign! This really messed with your mind and was quite frustrating. After walking for over an hour from a 7km to go sign, and figuring I must have made some good distance, the next sign read 10km! Completely de-moralising.

While the distance to walk wasn't a huge amount, and the climbs weren't too bad, this would have been an easy walk in New Zealand. However in the equatorial rainforest with all the associated heat and humidity, it was pretty tough. After about an hour, everything I was wearing was completely and utterly soaking wet with sweat, right down to my underwear! So when it started to rain after three hours, I didn't really care, as I was wet anyway, and rainwater is a lot nicer than the sweat/sunblock/insect repellent cocktail I was covered in.

Everyone had told me about the leeches in the park, and they are mentioned in the guidebooks as well. As it had been very dry, I was reasonably lucky and hadn't found any leeches, although I did have some blood on a sock. The leeches in Malaysia don't live in the water, they stay on the ground plants and attach themselves to you as you walk past or brush the leaves. Some even fall out of trees onto you. Towards the end though, I got closer to the river, and combined with the rain, I got hit by a few leeches, mostly around the ankles. Although I did find a small one on my stomach, which I can only assumed climbed all the way up my pants and under my shirt. You can't rip the leeches off, they are strongly attached, and pulling them off only rips them and they leave their teeth in you. Instead a quick squirt from your insect repellent and the leech detaches and you can flick her off. The leeches have an anti-coagulant in them, so the wounds don't stop bleeding, and whenever you flick a leech off, your finger gets covered in blood. The leeches were anything from 0.5cm long, to about 4cm long. They were very skinny, like long little worms, but after sucking your blood, they grew pretty fat.

Finally, after nearly five hours of trudging through the jungle in the heat I made it to the hide. My shoes were completely soaking as I had to cross a knee deep river at the end. But at least I had made it! There was only one other person there, a German guy who had already spent the last two nights in the jungle. The hide was pretty basic, a large room raised up high on stilts with a number of wooden bunks and a viewing window overlooking a water hole. It had a very basic toilet and miracle of all miracles, a rainwater shower! This shower was a lifesaver, and I could wash off all the sweat, blood, mud and dirt that the rainforest had gifted to me over the last few hours. Although my leech wounds kept bleeding, even though it was now several hours since the leech. Damn those anti-coagulants!

I settled down, ate my fried rice using a slice of cucumber as a makeshift utensil and watched the day transform to night and listen to the sounds of the night jungle. The powerful spotlight I had rented was very good, and was able to direct a beam all the way across to the watering hole. Unfortunately, we didn't see anything at all, and my bunk mate said he hadn't seen anything the previous two nights either. Oh well, the atmosphere of the jungle was cool enough. I had a terrible sleep on the hard wooden bunk with no pillow, but just lying in the jungle, in the absolute pitch dark, listening to the sounds, made the whole thing worthwhile.