Pat Pong+ Khao Yai National Park

On Friday night, a group of about 10 of us exchange students decided to head down to Pat Pong, which is Bangkok’s red-light district. It was quite the experience and one of the most fun nights I’ve had in Bangkok, but the activities of the night are perhaps not entirely blog appropriate. E-mail me and I will tell you all about the night; it was great fun and very “Bangkok”.

After arriving home from Pat Pong at 6am, I wake up at 7:30 a.m. to head to Khao Yai National Park with Sofia, my Swedish friend. Khao Yai National Park is about 2.5 hours north of Bangkok and it was quite the journey to get there. First thing I had to do was wake up Jin at his apartment to get my camera from last night (sorry Jin!!), then I grabbed a cab and headed to the skytrain, about 20km away. I took the skytrain to Mo Chit, and met up with Sofia. From there, we walked through the weekend market and grabbed another taxi to get to the northeastern Bangkok bus terminal. From there, we get on a bus to Pak Chong, and after 2.5 hours, the bus driver starts yelling at us in Thai to get off the bus, and we get dropped off in the middle of the street, with no idea where we are. Luckily, a Thai helps us and takes us across the street, where we wait for about 30 minutes for a truck taxi, which takes us to the entrance of Khao Yai National Park. Once at the park, Sofia and I try to sneak in to avoid paying the 400 baht foreigner entrance fee. After about 20 minutes of walking, the park ranger picks us up and takes us back to the entrance and makes us pay. Darn good try though! Then, I flash my Thammasat ID and get a student discount, yay! Okay, next thing we have to do is hitchhike (which is completely safe and normal at Khao Yai) to the top of the park, which is about 14 km from the entrance. This is where things get interesting. We are able to catch a ride with Katchaloyaman (?), a 60 year old man who immediately takes a liking to Sofia, as he has spent some time in Sweden. He takes us to the visitor center and tells them we want to rent a tent and camp. Apparently the ranger tells him we cannot camp, as the campgrounds are much too wet. Um duh, who goes camping during monsoon season?? Me. Without any hesitation, Katchaloyaman (I think I made this name up, but it could be almost correct) states that he is going to take us to his lodge, where we can stay free of charge. So, he takes us to this beautiful, clean room with a queen size bed, blankets, pillows, a hot shower, and even toilet paper in the bathroom (this is fancy stuff!). At this point, Sofia and I are really confused and don’t really understand what is happening (really, we can stay here for free?? Really? REALLY? But, why?), as we are not used to Thai hospitality. In Bangkok, there isn’t much true Thai hospitality, as they are very used to foreigners and instead of being genuinely friendly and kind, they fake it to rip farang off.

So, this incredibly kind man not only lets us stay in a clean, safe place for the night (thank god we didn’t end up in a tent, we would have died), but he also invited us to his 60th birthday/retirement party in the main lodge. So, we clean up and head down to the party, where we see a huge table set up with tons of food. Everything from an entire fish cut open, to pig fillets, to beef, peanuts, rice, noodles, chicken, and many other things I am not sure what they are. It was incredible, there were probably 100 people at this party, and Sofia and I spent the night hanging out, trying new food, and trying to talk to some of the Thai people there. After a couple hours, we head back to our lodge, take a hot shower (phenomenal), and walk around the area for a few minutes. That didn’t last too long though, as it was about 55 degrees outside, which actually felt amazing, compared to the hot, humidity of Bangkok we have been experiencing for the last 6 weeks. We go to bed, and wake up a little late for breakfast, thereby missing Katchaloyaman, as he has already headed home. Although, when I initially woke up, I saw him sitting outside our lodge, waiting for us, probably to say goodbye and offer us a ride home to Bangkok. What a sweet man. So, Sofia and I go to the main lodge and enjoy a breakfast of sweet rice, cake, and coffee with some of last night’s partiers. After breakfast, we begin the 5km hike back down to the visitor’s center, where some hiking trails are. After finally arriving, Sofia and I head into the jungle! This is Sofia’s first hiking/camping experience, and she certainly had an interesting one. Since it was so rainy and muddy, there were leeches EVERYWHERE. I reassured Sofia that they wouldn’t jump on us, so long as we kept moving. Well, I was wrong. They jumped on us. Sofia spent a good portion of the hike screaming, and swatting at her legs and feet, as the leeches were all over her (and I). They are harmless but freakishly annoying. They just latch on to you, and its quite difficult to get them all off. By the end of the hike, Sofia and I had some bloody feet. But, were we deterred from other hiking trails? Not yet. Soon, though. We take a break, grab some food, and head into another hiking trail. This one was exceptionally muddy and therefore, very slow going. After about 25 minutes of hiking through this trail, we come to a point where there is a stream, with only a single branch going from one end to another. Sofia and I stare at it for a few minutes, and I hand her my backpack and begin to try and “tight-rope” it. Doesn’t quite work, as I can’t balance enough to make it across without some kind of stabilization. So, I grab a branch, use it to stabilize myself and slowly make it across the stream. As I’m walking, I hear some branches breaking and leaves rustling and my first thought is “Oh goodness, tiger. Oh, my, god.” So, I get to the other end, look at Sofia (who looks as scared as I feel), and say “so shall we head back?” and she positively replies. Okay, I go right back across the stream I just traversed, and Sofia and I begin walking very quickly out of the jungle, as we are not feeling entirely comfortable at this point. We finally make it out of the jungle, and look down at our feet and legs. A bloody mess indeed. Not too bad, but we definitely need to clean ourselves up. We head to the cafeteria, find a water hose, and spend the next 30 minutes cleaning our feet and eating. Then, we visit the visitor’s center, take some pictures with the animals (which are thankfully not alive), and begin to head down to the entrance of the park. We stick our thumbs out to hitchhike back down and immediately get picked up by the sweetest couple I’ve ever met. And so we experience our 2nd dose of true Thai hospitality. They pick us up, and begin talking to us about where we’re from, who we are, etc. We learn that the woman’s name is Red Bull (at least that is what I heard), and they have a beautiful golden retriever named Gordon. When we reach the entrance, they ask us how long we are in Thailand and we reply 5 months, as we are studying at Thammasat. Once I drop the name Thammasat, the couple gets all excited and asks “Ooooh, Thammasat! Where you go, were you go?” We tell them we are going to Bangkok, and they ask us how we are getting there. We reply we are trying to get to the Pak Chong bus station, but don’t quite know where that is. They very kindly offer to take us, and off we go, after picking up Gordon at their house. They take us all the way to the bus station (which Sofia and I would have spent 5 hours trying to find without them), and wish us luck in the future, and we bid our farewells. They were probably some of the sweetest people I have ever met, and Sofia and I realize how lucky we got this weekend. It had the potential to be a terrible, rainy weekend full of leeches, but instead we had an incredible experience due to the good nature, and generosity of Thai people. This really is the Land of Smiles.