Thailand Days 5-6: Koh Sok (the town)

Q: How far can a dog run into the jungle? A: Halfway--after that, he's running out.

Koh Sok Continued...

On day 5 we left our bamboo abodes and made our way out to Art's Riverview Lodge in Koh Sok, the city. Well, not really a city. More like a village at one of the main entrances to the national park. I would venture to say less than 100 people lived there. Anyhow, it was a long trip. It began with an hour long boat ride back to the launch and then another two hour sangtheaw ride to the lodge and our little village for the next two days.

We were all quite amazed by what we saw. Upon arrival, we were all greeted with glasses of mango juice with orchids dangling off the rim and a beautiful seat at the hotel's riverside restaurant with a view to die for. Then we checked in to our rooms and were pleasantly surprised. All of us were staying in tree house bungalows. Some of them even had large bridges from house to house making what seemed like a little tree village in the sky. Even so, every tree house was incredibly private with big beautiful windows on all sides that could be opened to the jungle outdoor. We were warned, however, that the monkeys have an insatiable curiousity, and that if we wanted to keep our belongings, we had better keep the windows shut, at least when we weren't there and at night. Note taken.

After dropping our stuff, we all got suited up and headed down to the river and "the monkey swimming hole" where all the hotel guests (which was about 10 people other than our group) were sitting in hammock chairs on the rocky beach and watching the monkeys play on the rocks and in the trees. We would wade out into the water and swim alongside their rocks, watching them jump all over, pounce on each other, and the babies cleaning themselves in the river right next to us. It was pretty amazing. I can't quite capture the magic os swimming with monkeys. I waded out with my camera and had to take some pictures.

This guy was taking a running start before he leaped from one big rock to the next!

And there he goes! Flying monkeys? Wizard of Oz anyone? I'm quite proud of this picture. It took a lot of patience waiting for that little guy to jump.

Erm, yes, he's pooping. I didn't realize it until later when I was reviewing my photos, but I guess that just adds to the authenticity of observing wildlife. I thought he was just making a funny face. :)

We even had fun feeding the monkeys bananas!

This woman wasn't in our group (she was just another guest) but we all took turns swimming out the monkey rock and holding out bananas for them--something we shouldn't have done. The resulting effect is something like feeding seagulls...

Everyone was having a great time watching the monkeys, including this father who was out teaching his two little kids how to swim. What an amazing experience! Learning to swim alongside monkeys! But it wasn't long before they all left. About a half hour after we showed up, so did two dogs from the next house down stream, and the monkeys all retreated to the trees, never to be seen again while we were there.

But their absence gave some of the little kids a chance to use the rope swing and watching them was almost as entertaining.

After watching the monkeys, the Australians and I went out exploring and hit the road in Koh Sok. Well, that didn't last long--tere's only one road in Koh Sok and the down town stretches about 200 meters. There wasn't much to see. However, we did have a good time munching on fried bananas and sweet potato. :)

After dinner, while walking around, a man brought us a flyer for a big party at the Funky Monkey Bar that night. Seeing how we had little else to do, we decided to join. Oh, what do I say about our time there? It was wild. Located out in the jungle, far from anything else, the party was pumping a new jungle song. There was an old Kiwi (New Zealander) couple there that must have been on some heavy drugs because they were dancing like maniacs! The old woman was hilarious. She told us later that she was about 55 yrs old and she was just going nuts, twisting and turning her hands in the air and watching with a curious mezmerizing stare. She kept trying to dance with me too and would sometimes get a little too close for comfort. But it was great fun anyway. With one liter buckets of booze and free tequila shots being passed around our group, it wasn't long before everyone was wasted. I, on the other hand, drank about half of an incredibly strong margarita and headed back before midnight because I had an elephant trek appointment at 7 am. Staying out late wasn't really an option. I have videos from The Funky Monkey but posting them right now is a little challenging. I'm convinced that YouTube hates me. I'll get them up later.

However, the night didn't end there! At somepoint in the night, I was awoken to hear a huge racket coming from the bathroom in our tree house; it was the sound of our belongings being scattered on the tile floor. I knew instantly that it was a monkey. Our bathroom had these square windows without shutters or glass--the perfect size for a small primate to squeeze through. But the startling part was that we had left the bathroom door open to our room. I tried whispered to Rosie (my roommate), "Hey! I think there's a monkey in the bathroom!" but she wouldn't wake up--too many buckets I supposed. I took a few moments to think about what I should do: monkeys carry rabbis and if I get bit I'll have to go to the hospital, but I can't let him crawl into our room either... At the very least I had to get up and close the door. So I stapped on my head lamp, grabbed a water bottle, crawled out from under my mosquito net, and quietly made my way towards the bathroom. And with what I hope was the element of surprise, I stuck my head in the bathroom and chucked the water bottle at the monkey then quickly grabbed the door and secured it. Rosie never heard a thing and I returned to bed.

I took these photos in the morning while waiting for my ride to the elephant trek. The colors on this plant are beautiful.

Corn sitting out for someone to buy it.

I had arranged the previous evening to catch a ride with a sangtheaw out of Koh Sok and go do an elephant trek out in the jungle. No one else wanted to come because they had all done the elephant trek before so I went by myself, but that was just fine with me. I had an elephant all to myself and the great pleasure of meeting a really nice French couple with a two year old daughter. Since I returned, we've exchanged a few photos and emails though only one photo of me is really worth sharing.

Getting on an elephant is rather interesting. The mahout (elephant trainer) leads the elephant up next to a giant platform built in the trees so that the rider can hop on from a decent height. On top of the elephant is a big metal chair that sits on top of some pads (you can see the bottom of it in the picture above), with ropes wrapped around the elephant's belly and one secured snuggly under his tail. It actually looks rather painful (the butt part). The only thing that holds you in while you're up there is a small rope tied to the chair's rail (it made me think of a cheap and dangerous carnival ride that I went on once). The mahout? He got onto the elephant the way I wanted to: he was lifted up by the elephant's trunk and sat securely on her head.

Once we got on, we headed out into the jungle, chugging through some muddy streams/trenches, across huge fields, and into the jungle river. My elephant was a subborn old girl (they said she was 32) and kept stopping to eat so my mahout would whack her with a stick and yell, "Ooey! Ooey!" or "Go! Go!"

It was really difficult to hold on while we were walking, especially when the elephant went up hill. Between trying to secure my being and secure my camera bag, there were several moments when I almost tumbled off. The photo above is of the male elephant that the French people rode. It was really difficult to turn around and hold on at the same time and even more difficult to take a picture that was even halfway focus as my elephant lumbered on, but this one was the best one I had from our journey down the stream. If you want to see more elephant photos, just check 'em out in my web albums. Elephant videos to come as well. :)

I love this photo because you can see our shadow in the water as well as the view from the top. That's my mahout sitting on the elephant's head.

And there we are, chugging through the river. This was pretty deep but we got even deeper. Notice the elephant's little nose poking up out of the water; she kept blowing water out her nose and I got sprayed a few times. It was cute. Just like a whale. At one point, the water was so deep that I could actually put my feet in it while still sitting in my seat on top! Notice how small the chair is; that's all I had to hold onto. Eek!

Here's the French family. Cute, huh?

Had to take a photo of myself, though you can't see the elephant that I'm on.

Here's my mahout, smiling as we went along. I had lots of fun talking with him too. He was 20 yrs old and had spent his whole life working with the elephants. What you can't see that is in his hand, is his "stick." Really, it's a bamboo stick with a long metal claw-like spike on the end. Mahouts carry them while riding the elephant in case the elephant looses control and goes on a rampage. There is a definite crease down the back of the elephant's heads where the skull is very weak, and should the elephant flip out, the only way to stop it is to kill it by punching through the skull with the spike and puncturing the brain. I had heard about this proceedure long before I came to Thailand but I was surprised none the less to acutally see my mahout carry one. All of the elephants looked like they were well cared for so I wasn't worried about abuse, but seeing that stick reminded me that this is not an elephant's proper place. They are wild animals. They should be roaming free in the wild, not hauling wild foreigners, and I kind of felt bad for being a participant in such an exploitive industry. But then again, I was fulfilling a life long dream to ride an elephant, and my remorse was cut short by uncontrollable smiling. What a thrill!

The elephant trek lasted a total of two hours but after an hour we stopped and took a break at a platform out in the jungle. It was really great because I was able to get off and go pet the male elephant (he was much more willing to interact with us). One thing that really surprised me was that elephant skin is really rough like sand paper with tons of little hairs and crawling with ants! In fact, one ant crawled down my face and into my eye! Oh it hurt so bad! I hate ants. They're the pestiest-pest on the planet.

The elephant was really funny. At one point he tried to take my camera out of my hands while I was taking a photo. I snapped this one just before the latched on to my lense and had to fight him off to keep it! lol. An elephant's trunk is really cool. The end is wet just like a dog's nose and they have a little point on the end which they use just like a thumb. I even got to hold hands with the elephant! Well, sort of. I guess I held his trunk... But if you think of the point as a thumb, then I guess we were holding hands... Yeah, we were good friends. :)

After about 10 minutes, we all hopped back on our elephants and headed back to our starting point. It was so hot, I was getting sun burned, the elephants were getting restless (mine kept stopping), and the mahouts were getting annoyed that the elephants wouldn't move faster. So they hopped off. And we rode by ourselves. The French family were a little freaked out because here they were sitting on this elephant with their baby and the mahout was chasing the elephant from behind, making it run. I was a little nervous as well but enjoyed the excitement of riding all by myself (granted my mahout was just behind us). Interesting though, just like a horse, if you walk behind an elephant and shuffle your feet a little, they move rather quickly. It was a little hard to hold on to a running elephant but I made it.

Once we got back to the elephant camp, I purchased 10 bananas for 20 Baht (less than a dollar) and fed the elephants. It was really cool. At first they were taking the bananas out of my hand but eventually they got a little lazy I guess and wanted me to stick the banana in their mouth! I was a little scared but did it! Watch the video of me feeding the elephants below!

When I returned to Koh Sok, I was really tired. I had spent a lot of time out in the sun. So I took a nap for about an hour and then met up with the Australians for a rather spicy lunch at a roadside cafe. It was so spicy that I was sweating and Dane was crying. We were a pathetic looking bunch. :) After lunch we all returned to the lodge and sat on beach for a little while, listening to the sounds of the jungle, enjoying another glorious evening, and watching for monkeys (though they never returned). It was a good and relaxing afternoon and I got a lot of reading done. By this point I had already read three books and was currently devouring a couple magazines. After the sun went down, about 8 of us all headed into town and went out for pizza. Now, I would have rather ate Thai food (seeing how we were in Thailand) but I no longer have an overwhelming desire for foreign food, unlike these foreigners, nay, "tourists." Though they never complained about Thai food, it was still pretty obvious that they were already missing the comforts of home.

After dinner, Alex, Michelle, Will, Dane, and I headed back to the tree houses and played blackjack for a couple hours, wagering such valuables as toothpicks. It was high stakes, let me tell you!! Jk. We had a great time but before long we were all ready for bed. Another night in the jungle, falling asleep to rhythmic pulse of cicadas. Our monkey intruder didn't return.

In the morning (day 6) we packed up our room and got ready for a three hour mini-bus (which translates to stinky, old van) to Krabi where we would be staying the next two days.