Jungle Hike in Khao Sok National Park – May 2005

Jungle Hike in Khao Sok National Park – May 2005

We visited half a dozen national parks in southern Thailand, many with waterfalls and jungle flora. But the most memorable was Khao Sok National Park, situated in the center of the peninsula between the Andaman and Gulf coasts. The last 40 km. leading up to the park from the Gulf coast was a series of sheer-faced cliffs, green jungle plants and vines, palms, and banana plants. The mountains were partially covered by a thick, low-laying mist, which settled completely by the end of the afternoon when a moderate rain turned into a heavy one. We were the only ones on the road. It was dark by the time we reached the park headquarters, and when we asked about camping inside the park, the guard looked at us as if we were nuts. “It’s raining!” he exclaimed. Yes, yes, but it was a bit cheaper, wasn’t it? Only 30 baht instead of 350 for a bungalow. And we were already so wet and rain-logged at that point, it didn’t seem to matter, anyhow. He showed us to the pavilion of a restaurant, where we could stay dry for the night.

And there we were…in the middle of the jungle! It smelled like the jungle, it tasted like the jungle, it looked like the jungle, it sounded like the jungle, it even felt like the jungle! The insects buzzed around the light that we had turned on in such a mass that it took us aback. We moved immediately to the other end of the pavilion and scrupulously avoided all lights from then on. There were literally thousands in a matter of half a minute. Then they started dropping to the floor, and the toads that had gathered around for the feast were completely and totally covered in the dropping insects. A cat joined in the fun. We fell asleep to the roar of the swollen river and a deafening chorus of deep-throated toads.

We spent two days in the park, at first waiting for the heavy rain to stop before venturing into the forest for a trek. Then, we realized that it might never end and simply hoped for a slow-down. When we asked when the rain might end, a local told us, “In four months!” Upon further questioning, he admitted that it might stop for about twenty minutes at a time, on a good day, but we’d be foolish to hope for anything more.

After a day of watching the driving rain, we decided to go for it the next day, raining or not. We got lucky and had a break of about two hours in the early morning. Our 15-km. trek lasted for eight hours. We wore our bright orange ponchos, so as to blend in with the scenery! Though the first two km. were on a wide path, the rest of it was on a tiny trail, sometimes so small that you wondered if it was leading anywhere at all. We ducked under fallen tree trunks and we climbed up and down steep, muddy paths, the steps of which were formed from tree roots.

Because we didn’t have our hiking boots with us (we had left them in Bangkok), our only choice was to wear socks with our sandals. This was to protect against leeches, which came out in full force during the rainy season. They got stuck on us often, which meant that we didn’t have the leisure to stop moving. You stop for five or ten seconds, and they pounce! Because you can’t pull leeches off, we used mosquito repellent to make them let go of us (they attack the feet and ankles as their prey walks by). It worked effectively, but I was more than a bit squeamish. I had watched “African Queen” as a kid, and the leech scene has scarred me forever! And even though our leeches were much smaller than Humphrey Bogart’s, I panicked anyway. I’m not sure, but I think the fact that Stephane was laughing at me SO hard upset me even more than the leeches themselves! I tried to remember the line from a newspaper clipping at the visitors center, which read: “Remember, in today’s modern cities’ world, there are many people who are much more dangerous and ugly than the leech!” It didn’t help much.

Khao Sok is Thailand’s largest contiguous space of tropical rainforest and the ecosystem, though much smaller, is supposed to be much older and more diverse than even the Amazon! Tigers, tapirs, Malayan sun bears, wild elephants, langurs, and gibbons, among other animals, live in the park. Wild elephants had just descended from the mountains when we arrived, and we were warned to be careful, but we didn’t see them. In fact, though we heard some mammals in the early evening, we didn’t see any. Apparently, during the rainy season, they have more than one watering hole to migrate to, so they don’t have to go to the river (near the trail), and there is less chance of spotting them. I think that even if there had been animals to see, we couldn’t have possibly seen them, anyway, because the jungle was so dense.

And boy, was it ever dense! And green! We walked through enormous banyan trees, whose roots spread out over the forest floor, we saw enormous bamboo plants that grew in clumps and that soared into the sky, we saw palms and banana plants, red and yellow flowers called “parrot’s beak,” and many jungle vines that hung from the tops of the trees to the forest floor. It was unbelievable, the way in which the trees and vines grew. The vines and plants hung down from the trees, swept the ground, and turned up again to continue growing upwards, only to snake downwards once again, curving every which way. Some trees even grew parallel to the earth instead of vertically!

Everything was OVERSIZED. Khao Sok is even home to the world’s largest flower, the rafflesia, or “wild lotus”. With a diameter of 80 cm., it is a true giant and I was looking forward to seeing it. I was disappointed, however, because it was not the right season. We did see an enormous toad, though. It looked as if it might go down in the Guiness Book of World Records, if anyone would ever care about entering it in a competition! And one of the grasshoppers that we saw must also be one of the world’s largest!

Aside from the jungle vegetation, the two main things that we experienced were the humidity and the noises of the jungle. A continuous mist covered the rainforest, and nothing EVER dries here. We dripped non-stop, sweat mixing with rain and mud and mosquito repellent. A real jungle smell – not one for the faint-of-heart! And the noise of the insects was deafening. It was a constant sound, like a woodcutter’s power saw. Only the sound of the river, with its rapids and waterfalls, was able to drown it out.