gibbon calls and elephants

Thursday, April 30th 2009:
Unfortunately Basti and Claudine had to leave on Monday to catch their flight from Krabi to Bangkok and then further to Hanoi. It was nice meeting them again and spending 2 and a half day together, especially in this very special place.
smiley bungalows lacked something however: Praiwan was on her business meeting at Ko Chang. Her staff tried their best but she's the hear and the soul of smiley's, always laughing, joking and making people feel at home in no time- I missed her. In fact I mainly always come back to Khao Sok because of her and her family.
Luckily the National Park offers a lot of activities: although I had lived several months there I had never experienced Khao Sok as a tourist, so this is what I did now being there with my girlfriend who had never been there. One day we went canoeing. The Khao Sok river can turn into a raging torrent in rainy season. You can cut your skin easily from the rapidly passing leaves. Beside, being handicapped I am a non-swimmer now. But I went down the river in a tube many a times, I know every turning of it. And in a canoe it's much easier anyway, I just have to sit in there and let the beautiful scenery pass by.

The water was low, very low. In fact I have never seen Khao Sok that dry. So the canoeing wasn't adventurous but it was still nice to see the beautiful nature.

The next day we went for a hike to the National Park by ourselves. I had done that a lot 10 years ago, but under my circumstances it was more of a walk than a hike this time. We left early at the bungalows and had a small breakfasat. Then we followed the road to the Park's entrance and from there the well beaten trail to the nearest waterfalls, which is about 4kms one way. Yet these 4 kms seem like 10 at least since it is very tiring walk. The humidity is unbelievable and made me sweat a lot. It took ages at my speed but finally we made it to the waterfalls. We hardly met any other tourists, neither did we spot many animals. But the sounds of the jungle were overwhelming, one could hear the call of the gibbon and the constant sounds of circades which was almost like an otchestra. When we finally reurned I was so hungry like I hadn't eaten for days.
 On Thursday I called Praiwan who told me that she was going to come today. She was on her way already. I asked her if I could do the elephant riding. I had doubts due to my bad balance but she encouraged me to try. And so I did. I love elephants, and the sight of this beautiful animal filled me with delight. I sat on one already, but that was 10 years ago and I didn't have a handicap that time.
Getting on it was easier than I thought but once sitting on it it was quite hard to hold on to it with only one hand. I decided to trust her, it was an experienced animal who went that way every day for about 25 years.

Riding through rubber plantations the trail got steeper and the elephant had to wade through deep water and climb some stones. It's incredible how surely they find their way matter what.

Elephant trekking @ Khao Sok N.P

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