Catching a 7:30 AM bus, we arrived around noon at Khao Sok National Park, a huge area truly in the middle of jungle. This place houses wild monkeys, tigers, clouded leopards, elephants, bears, and lots of other wildlife.
Getting off the bus, we were greeted with "rock star" status. This has been happening lots on our trip, as the second we are in the open, we're mobbed by about 10 people tring to get us to stay at their hotel. It can be quite frustrating, especially when they're grabbing arms and asking ridiculous amounts of cash. Anyway, we checked into our reserved bungalow, Pantaroot Lodge. Thank God we booked ahead for nearly every night prior to leaving Seattle, as we'd have gotten "taken to the cleaners" almost daily and it's quite a hassle dealing with these people.
Our bungalow was rated in Lonely Planet as the most upscale in the whole area. It was actually nice, but yup, no flushing toilet, no hot water, and our back porch looming right at the edge of jungle. Actually, not bad.
After a yummy lunch, we made our way to the park around 2 PM. Despite a Frenchman telling us it was too late and to turn back, we rebuffed his advice and headed toward Sip-Et Chen Waterfall. I hike all the time in the Northwest. How tough can this be? Well, it was almost ugly. About halfway, we realized we forgot both food and our flashlights. Again considering a premature return, we foraged ahead. The terrain at first seemed easy, then it was all-out jungle with Tarzan vines hanging, bamboo forests, roots covering what trail there was, and the trail altogether disappearing at times. In addition, there were 6 river crossings, which made it difficult to navigate. That's when a local teenage couple in FLIP-FLOPS cruised past as (and we were going fast)... They knew enough English to get out the word "Leech." I'd read there were leeches in the jungle, tried to be careful, but to no avail. I had about 5 sliver sized little guys around my ankle, and I was bleeding so bad I had to throw away the sock. Lovely. Terri enjoyed it about as much as I did. Well, perhaps less. These little bloodsucking fiends are quite resilient, as they latch onto your shoes or pantlegs, somersault their way to your body, inject an anticoagulant into your skin, and you bleed like crazy. It takes about 20 minutes for a little opening to stop bleeding. It required a sharp rock to scrape them off, as we had no tobacco to get them to fall simply fall off.
So as you can see, this hike is real fun so far! We finally got to the highly disappointing waterfall, something that would be considered less than a trickle in WA State. Turning around nearly immediately, we discarded a few more leeches and headed back. Darkness was imminent. Going back, we had real trouble finding the trail at the river crossings. Great. Luckily, a German couple that knew the area well built cairns (rocks piled on top of each other) to flag the trail for us at tough spots. If it wasn't for that, we'd still probably be snuggled up against some carnivorous plant, with a spotted leopard eyeing his next meal...
Just as darkness hit, we made it out. Only 5 miles, but it felt like 10. Oh, and we had more leeches to remove when we got back too. It's impossible to feel the tenacious little beasts when they're slurping on your leg.
After a quick dinner, an apparent low complete blood count left me ill. I was asleep by 8:30.
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