The Rambling Writer Visits Thailand, part 14: Khao Sok National Park

Continuing your virtual vacation with Thor and me, join us in a hike through the oldest evergreen rainforest in the world.

NOTE: “And now for something completely different.” Thor and I made our first trip to Asia — the beautiful country of Thailand.  We were lucky to squeak through the pandemic flight closures in January/February of 2020 as we returned from our three-week trip. Since more travel has now become a distant prospect, we hope you’ll take a virtual vacation with us in the following weeks. (This blog series started on June 13.)

If you’ve been following this blog series, you know that Thor and I were staying in a treehouse in Our Jungle House on the edge of the Khao Sok National Park, and visited an elephant refuge nearby. The next day, we hopped onto a “taxi” — a pickup truck outfitted with wooden benches — for a short ride to the park entrance. The park covers 285 square miles and rises to a height of 3150 feet at limestone peaks. It shelters wild elephants, tigers, bears, boars, and monkeys, along with 188 species of birds and countless insects. (Surprisingly, we weren’t bothered by mosquitoes there.)

We were welcomed at the entrance by a replica of the largest flower in the world at 31″ diameter, which blooms here once a year: Rafflesia kerri. We didn’t see an actual bloom, but since they apparently have a nasty, fetid odor that attracts pollinating flies, we were content with the replica:

The main trail enters through an impressive bamboo forest. This part of the park borders tourist development, so there’s a barbed-wire fence until you get deeper into the park. We saw some locals slipping through gaps in the fence, and we figured they had a right to enjoy the park and a cooling river swim without paying the entrance fee.

The rainforest is believed to be older than that in the Amazon. Because of its location, the area wasn’t as affected as the rest of the world by geologic upheavals and the ice ages over the last 160 million years, so most of the forests in Thailand were maintained until recent drastic human incursions such as logging and mining. By the 1900s, most of Thailand’s forests were destroyed by logging. Then, in a lucky twist of fate, from 1975-1982, a group of Thai students who had joined communist insurgents holed up in Khao Sok caves. Armed and keeping the Thai Army at bay, they also prevented loggers, miners, and hunters from destroying this precious sanctuary, until it was declared a protected park. Poachers are still a problem, but the government is doing its best to protect the forest and its wealth of species for the benefit of the rest of the world.

The first animals we saw were a group of long-tailed macaques like the ones living around Our Jungle House.

The monkeys, used to visitors, mostly ignored us, except for a larger, aggressive male who was pushing around some of the smaller members. Typical primate/human behavior? When he saw us watching, he stalked toward us with an angry attitude, showing teeth, so we decided to move along. We’d been warned that monkey bites were dangerous sources of infection. He followed us for a while, then turned back.

We didn’t see any sign of wild elephants or tigers, but we didn’t get that far into the interior of the park. We had to settle for informational signs about the elephants:

The female elephants we’d visited and bathed at the sanctuary were much smaller than that (for reference, Thor is 6’6″). And sweet Dawn was 83 years old:

Moving along, we passed different varieties of trees:

Thor spotted this yellow snake climbing up through the underbrush. About 3 feet long, it was about as slender as a pencil.

The muggy heat in the breezeless forest was intense, so we explored a couple of narrow side trails toward the sound of the river and a possible cooling swim. Our way was temporarily blocked by a few wild boars who made it clear that the trail belonged to them.

Finally we found a good swimming hole, which involved climbing around and over some boulders. The cool, clear water was divine!

One wilderness creature we were glad to avoid were the leeches:

Next week: Back to Our Jungle House to swim in the river with the monkeys!

*****

You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is available in print and ebook: The Ariadne Connection. It’s a near-future thriller set in the Greek islands. “Technology triggers a deadly new plague. Can a healer find the cure?”  The novel has received the Chanticleer Global Thriller Grand Prize and the Cygnus Award for Speculative Fiction. Sara has recently returned from another research trip in Greece and is back at work on the sequel, The Ariadne Disconnect. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com