In the Thai Jungle - Khao Suk Park

Hi everyone! I am thrilled to say that Keith and I survived staying in southern Thailand's jungle-filled region for 4 days. For those who know me well, you will not believe what I had to endure out there in the middle of no where.

We arrived in Phuket on Friday, July 3rd after a 2 hour delay in the Singapore airport - not a bad place to be stuck. We came here not to sit and relax on the beach, but to go on a guided fishing trip to Khao Sok Park. This is located about 4 hours away from beautiful Phuket - 2 hours by car and 2 hours by boat. Obviously, this was Keith's planning, but I was happy to go through with it because he loves fishing so. A note to be made - when he showed me pictures of the water bungaloos we'd be staying in, there were lots of people around (mainly tourists), doing kayaking, and boating through rivers, etc. And I also noticed that when I asked how long we'd be out there, Keith's reply got longer and longer, starting with 3-4 days, and then 4-5 days. Hum??

So anyways, our guide Jonas, a Swedish 40 something year old who has lived in Thailand for 20 years, picks us up and we drive for about 2 hours. I can barely open my eyes because they drive crazy here. They'll pass cars when oncoming traffic is approaching ...closely. We finally get to the water, where a local Thai named "Hot" picks us up in his wooden speed boat. It's dark by now and the only light we have is the moon. It was beautiful! I never knew the moon could provide such light! In the distance, you could see the luminous tree-covered mountains right on the water, and larger ones even in the distance. He directed the boat through smaller openings with these huge limestone mountains on either side of us. I think that's what makes the landscape of Thailand unique (even on the beaches), are these big, steep mountains right on the water. Keith and I had totally felt like we had entered the twilight zone; it's just hard to explain. We go by one water bungalow, where locals live and Hot starts yelling in Thai, only to receive a response from someone in the dark bunglaow, whom we couldn't see. I'm telling you, it was really strange. So, just as our butts are getting numb from the wooden plank that we're sitting on, we arrive at our set of bungalows. There's no lights and no one is up since it's about 10:30 pm. Immediately, I ask for the bathroom. Jonas points me in the direction, up hill and in a hut. So, I go. OK...when I say water bungalow, I mean water bungalow. The whole system was made of logs, some tin for the roofs, and bamboo. As I'm trying to balance on wooden beams, I make it to land, where the toilet is. Basically, you do your business here, and then have to "flush" the business down with pails of water (I had to ask Keith how it works). Then, we're directed to our bungalow, made of the same materials. A 2 inch mat is on the floor, below a mosquito net. The pillows are hard as rock, but we managed to sleep.

The next morning, we wake (as we did most mornings) to the sound of fishing boats setting off at about 6 am. The Thai men who work there spend most of their days finding food in the jungle - fishing, picking edible plants, that the women there cook for guests who stay there. This day, Keith, Jonas, and I treaded upstream to fly fish. I had to bring a pair of tennis shoes that I could throw away afterwards because they'd be soaking after walking through water for 6 hours. UUhhh. My first cast-I catch a tiny Barb. Good for me. Keith caught about 4 Thai Mashier this day. We had a good time...until...the rain came. Ok, when I say rain, I mean torrential downpour. As we began walking back towards the boat, which was about 2 miles downstream, we panicked about our camera we left there in the boat. Our worries were well-deserved. Our expensive, great quality DSL Cannon is ruined. To say the least, it was totally devastating. OK, so I know we're not the smartest to leave a camera in a boat in the middle of rainy season in SE Asia, but you'd think the guide would've mentioned something of it not being a good idea. The day was beautiful to start off. Now we know that it rains EVERY DAY here for at least 30 minutes in the afternoon. I cant even talk about it anymore. We then returned to camp, pissed and drenched.

Moving onward, as you can expect from the toilet situation, there's no running water here. This means to "shower" you have to jump into the water in your clothes and just wash yourself in front of all the other Thai families that were staying there, which was about 3-4. It seemed all the Thais were fine with this. For me...I dont think so!! So, the camera situation on top of there being zero facilities to clean myself and "take care of business," I was ready to get out of there. I mean, I had a total nervous breakdown. Keith, somehow, managed to get me back under control, and by the grace of God I found a way to deal with the situation I was put in.

By the second day, I was jumping into the river (with God knows what swimming around me) in the bare minimum in front of Jonas and Hot. I was going "number 1" off the side of our water bungalow. Best of all, I caught the biggest fish....a 7 kg Thai Mashier. It had been raining for the past two hours and we had no bites. All of a sudden around 5:30 pm, the fish got hungry. I hooked this fish, and my wet hands kept slipping off the rod! I could barely hold on, let alone reel this thing in. Keith started to help, and then the reel came off! Jonas then quickly screwed it back on, and the fish was mine - with everyone's help!! I have no idea how it didn't get away. Jonas says it's definitely the record for a woman catching a Thai Mashir! You can see two pictures of us on his website at http://www.bluewater-anglers.com/fishing_cheow_lan.html. Keith is in the first picture fly-fishing from a distance, and the picture of my big catch is on the 7th picture if you scroll down.

So, what started off to be a disaster, ended up being a really cool, authentic experience. We stayed with Thais and no tourists. We ate only real Thai cuisine, and Jonas was the only person who we could speak with. Nothing was put on, and for that I am thankful for. Also, I lived with the bare minimum without any facilities for 4 days, which I never knew I could do. What I have seen so far, Thais are wonderfully kind and gentle people. Full of smiles and generosity - quick to help you and make you feel welcome. We left our passports and all our cash in these water bungalows (which I can promise had no lock on the doors-they wouldn't even shut for that matter), and were assured by the fishing guide that nothing would be taken. He has been here for 20 + years and has never encountered any crime.

Also, the scenery there was amazing! As I mentioned before, these huge limestone mountains covered with trees surrounding the water. Also, while we were fishing through rivers, monkeys were jumping in trees all around us, provoked by Hot with his own animalistic calls. We saw an elephant one day, which was very curious of us people. The guide said that he was orphaned early on, and that Jonas suspects that
his only contact has been with humans, since he's so tame. We saw many exotic birds; no snakes, thank goodness. The weird thing was that although the humidity in this area is like 100%, there were very few mosqitos! Only a couple of small ghecko lizards, but nothing like what we had experienced in southern Africa two years ago.

Hot (the boat captain) and his wife showed us around Phuket before our flight left yesterday. Surprisingly, I cant say I was too impressed with Phuket. It is VERY touristy, with people laying out on a tiny beach crammed up againist one another. There are people selling stuff left and right. It's much more expensive than other areas, like in Bangkok. I'd rather go somewhere quieter. Granted, this was Patong Beach, a public beach, and that is just one of many, so I'm sure there are more secluded places.

We stayed there for 4 days and 4 nights. Now, afterward, I am glad to be in air conditioning and staying in a city, but at the same time, am thankful for the experience. Yesterday, we left Khao Sok for Bangkok.

Now, I sit in our quaint little air conditioned, clean B&B in Bangkok. We arrived in here last night around 9 pm, after another 2 hour delay in an airport. Never flying Air Asia again. Keith and I are both surprised at how big and spread out the city is. We are staying in "Old Bangkok," where there are no high rise buildings. Kudos to Keith for finding this quiet little clean and cheap haven. It's called Phranakorn-Nornlen, and it's like all organic and zen. Really nice, especially after being in the jungle.

Bangkok is full of street vendors, selling all kinds of crazy stuff...some of which really smells horrible. You find yourself not taking a breath sometimes for 10 seconds or so. Some people say it's just a big, smelly, hot, dirty city. We cant really say for sure yet, but so far so good.

Today, we went to get our camera looked at by Canon specialists, only to tell us our chances for salvaging it are slim. We're going to send it back to the States for further eval, where language is not a barrier. We bought a Canon point and shoot in the mean time. Not as good, but it'll do the trick. Then, we visited Jim Thompson's house, who popularized Thai silks to the rest of the world. Afterward, as the day's getting scorching hot, we went to Bangkok's most famous Buddist temple, Wat Pho. This houses an enormous reclining Buddha, and a million other kinds of Buddhas. Beautiful, gold-lined buildings - much different from the places of worship you see in Europe. Will post pictures soon. The heat is something else here. Not as humid as Phuket, but scorching hot in the middle of the day.

Anyways, we're here in Bangkok until Sunday. There's much more to see here, as we've just touched the surface. I'll post more as the days go on, and the strange stories continue. Hope everyone is doing great! Miss you all!--- Kate