Welcome to the Jungle

I only have one more week of work remaining in Phang-nga (actually, I've been calling it Phang-nga, but it's actually Laem Pakarang... the province is Phang-nga... now you can rest easier). I decided on Wednesday that I haven't seen nearly enough of the area to be leaving it. I've done the beach thing, but there's a huge National Park that's only about an hour away. It's home to the oldest rainforest in the world (they claim) as well as a rare flower, Raffleasia, which is the biggest in the world and is also a parasite. It lives off other plants, blooms for 3 or 4 day, during which it emits the smell of rotting meat (apparently attracts pollinators), then shrivels up and dies. Unfortunately the visible and smelly stage of Raffleasia is in January and February. But the thought of real jungle was pleasant. There are apparently tigers and bears and cobras and pythons or something, too, but I'm not that into chasing around animals in their natural habitats. I don't like it when dogs stand next to the table when I eat.

So I was looking forward to a solo adventure, so I could do what I wanted. But when I mentioned I was thinking of going, one of my co-workers got really excited about a girls' weekend at the national park. I was sort of irked, knowing that instead of hiking we would now be going to the visitor's center, walking to a nearby waterfall, taking a picture, then sitting around for the remainder of the time. Plans changed, however, when I mentioned my 6 AM departure on Saturday morning. I was on my own!



I arrived at my hut, left my stuff and changed into proper hiking attire. The owner of the huts, however, suggested shorts, as it was hot, saying "There are some leeches (which I'd read about), but not so many... You'll be able to climb easier in shorts." (Note: This is foreshadowing)

Off I went, rigging the top of my backpack with my camera strap to make a little backpack. I got a map and set off for a 10K round trip hike to a 6-tiered waterfall. The day was sunny, the jungle was beautiful and I was thrilled to be off on my own. I took a zillion pictures of interesting trees and fungi.



After about 1 K into the hike, the official park trail ended, and I set off on a narrower trail, which was steeper, but easy enough to navigate.
A bit damp, however, and I noticed a leech on my leg. This brought to mind the movie "Stand by Me," which I've never seen as at the time of its popularity, I was not even permitted to see PG-rated movies, as they use words that are not only impolite, but also take the Lord's name in vain. I've seen the leech scene, though. Never having had a leech on me before, I took a picture before pulling it off.

I continued on my way, noting that the trail was beginning to erode, causing it to be quite narrow in certain places, but still easy to navigate by holding onto vines. As I walked further and further it, the number of leeches increased and I was stopping every 10 minutes or so to scrape 5 or 6 from my sneakers. The hike traversed the river numerous times, and involved some interesting scaling, which added to the initial excitement. It began to rain, but only a bit and due to the natural canopy of the rainforest, wasn't too bad. I had been walking for about 2 hours and felt I should be close to the waterfall. As I reached the river, a lone arrow indicated that I should walk upcurrent in the river. I figured I'd come this far. I took off my shoes and found about 30 leeches sucking my feet. It pulled them off (which is a nuisance, as they then suck your fingers... I found flicking worked best). Still in good spirits, I took another picture of my bloody feet (I'll spare you) and set off against the current. It started to pour, but I was determined to reach the waterfall. After another hour of walking in the river and along the bank, I reached a series of tiered rapids. Hardly a waterfall, and still not sure this was the main attraction. As the rain had been pretty torrential, I was drenched and thought it time to head back.

On the way back, the erosion had worsened, the paths were flooded and slippery, the ledges less defined, and the streams overflowing. With the rain it was difficult to see. I now had visions of Bridge to Teribithia when the boy dies by heading out along the stream in the rain. I ran into a man and woman in ponchos as I was leaping from rock to rock. I told them about walking in the river for an hour, and they continued on to the waterfall. I encountered them an hour later as I reached a dead end and was turning around. Apparently they'd decided against the waterfall and had been following my lead. We set off together for the last bit. The woman said I was "a brave young lady" for hiking by myself. I replied that I was a stupid young lady (people continue to think I'm 18 and treat me as such... These two couldn't have been older than 35). They kept falling, their ponchos and backpacks putting them off-balance, I pulled down a piece of bamboo that almost clocked the woman on the head, the man was grumbling in French about how he didn't really want to go on a long hike in the first place and how the park map was poorly drawn and not to scale. It was fun to secretly listen to foreign language I understood. It was nice to be with people, as it really wasn't too safe for any of us. When we got to the final stretch, I told them to go ahead while I de-leeched (I could feel them in my shoes and saw some had reached my knees). The woman kindly offered to burn them off, but it didn't seem to work. I thanked them and sent them on their way. My leech situation was foul. At least 50, and I couldn't take them off fast enough. I finished the hike as quickly as I could, terribly excited about my upcoming shower. It had been 5 hours of blood, sweat, and dirt.

I realized on my walk back to the hut that there was blood streaming down my legs. I took off my socks and shoes to go inside and trekked blood all over the floor. After the shower I was bleeding worse than before. It seemed like nothing would clot (I later learned that leeches secrete an anti-clotting enzyme into their victim's bloodstream). I waited an hour in the shower, bleeding through band-aids. I continued to bleed all evening. I had to mop my room twice. It looked like someone had been eaten by one of those tigers and bears. I went to dinner, the hut guy apologized for recommending shorts, though he said he doesn't really advocate hiking in the rainy season anyway (little late, eh?) I ended up having a nice time reading, chatting to some other tourists. I discovered my cell phone is no longer working, perhaps due to the monsoon it encountered while in my bag.

This morning I did a short waterfall hike, but on the park trail with the Thais wearing pressed khakis and polo shirts. That seemed safe. The ride home was fairly uneventful. All in all, exciting weekend and good me-time. A nice event to remember when stressed out about work or annoyed to be waiting in line, in a "I was lost in the jungle with leeches sucking my blood- I can certainly handle this" kind of way.