The line of the land makes a sound; a music that sings in my heart, stitched together with a thought and a dream
Friday, January 31, 2014
Jan 30 and Nan
It's been quite a while since my last post. I'll be (or maybe already have) putting up some photos, but here is a rundown of my journey so far which this coming sunday will a whole 3 weeks long, though I have to say that it feels much longer, which is lovely.
After that great spot at the info station near Wang Nam Kieaw I headed back west a little and north to wards Sai Tong Nat'l Park. Other than the people working there, I had the whole park to myself and spent 3 days in quietness and visiting some beautiful places nearby. One of which was a huge tree with lots of offerings all about it. I sat by that tree nestled in the forest twice for a good long while.
I haven't been buying water at my camps but rather using my water filter from the tap water. The water is very clear and clean I expect mostly coming from very pure sources but I filter it anyway just in case. I'm not using a 'Brita' type filter that you might use at home but a real camping one that takes out gueardia (sp?) and other bacterial things. So far so good. I figure that if it can filter the water out of a nasty old rank slough in Saskatchewan and not kill me, it'll be good for this as well.
So. A couple of peaceful days (peaceful being the main motivation of this journey it seems) there, I made my way to Phu Kradeung Nat'l Park and a somewhat less peaceful though quite fun stay. I was tenting at the base of the mountain for two days and decided that I should climb up on my second day. Usually people climb up, camp up top (you can hire porters to take your stuff) then come back down on the next day, but I sorta wanted to get the hell out to I went up and down in one day to the surprise and admiration of quite a few. I understand now as my leg muscles and joints are just now starting to feel like i could walk on them a good week later.
I walked 20 kms in total and 12 of those were either going up a, at times, very steep trail and then of course coming back down that damn thing after a half hour break for lunch (which was by far the most expensive meal for me so far - 200 baht/$6.50 - It may not sound like much to all you N. Americans and Europeans but earlier in the week I had grilled chicken, sticky rice and samtam for a whopping 40 baht. It was reasonable of course as all the food has to be carried up by aforementioned porters. I keep thinking that that was too much money for lunch, but legs keep telling me that I got a good deal of it.
From there it was off again, still in Leoi province to Phu Rua Nat'l Park 60 kms west of Loei town. Wher I got there there was only 1 tent up, soon to be 2 with mine. This was about 1 in the afternoon and by the time 5 rolled by with everyone off work, it being a friday, there were HUNDREDS!, of tents all over the place. It was like that for the 2 days that I was there. Basically, party time. It was fun, but I was glad to get out on my own on the road once again and on towards Phu Sai Dao Nat'l Park in Utaradit province and once again all on my own. Lovely.
At this stage I was bouncing along the Thai/Lao border and will continue to do so for quite a few more days.
This is pretty much out of way country and I often will bike along at my 60 km/hr for 30 or even 60 minutes without seeing another vehicle. I stayed 2 days over at Phu Sai Dao much to myself.
Now I find myself at Sri Nan Nat'l Park in Nan province. The motorbiking (a small 125cc manual bike that my brother Mike has lent me) has been absolutely spectacular following mountain roads winding their way north. As I crossed into Utaradit and northern Thailand I notice a real change in the landform. More forest, less large farms (as there were more of as I travelled along the western edge of Isaan/N.E. Thailand) This is the country of my dreams of which I have deep memories from my other, shorter, motorbike trips 2 and 3 years ago.
My friend Ong, of Compeung, suggested Nan as a place to journey to and I can't thank him enough for that suggestion. I keep thinking that if I do end up in Thailand that Nan could well be the place for me to be. I seem to be comforted by the thought that I could always hit the mountainous bush if things to completely awry and this place has that feeling in spades to me. I love it here.
Maybe I should mention things that might seem to counter what some people might have in their minds eye about what it is like in this part of Thailand. For one, it's been bloody freezing, especially at night. I'm sure there were some nights that got down close to freezing. Indeed, the recorded temps of the top of Phu Kradeung was a few degrees below zero. As I went up the mountain, one group coming down commented to their great delight that there was frost on the ground in the morning. People come to these places to experience cold. It is only now starting to worm up at night. Up until last night I was sleeping in a long sleeve wool undershirt, wool sweater, a touque (which I bought at Phu Kradeung) and a scarf and I was still pretty chilled at 4 in the morning even with my summer weight down sleeping bag.
The other thing is that because of the varying elevations there are times where I am surrounded by pine trees with a smell that reminds me of northern Ontario or the Alberta Rockies. Of course there are lots of other forest types as I go up and down that are all so very beautiful. Right now there are a lot of teak trees dropping their huge leaves to the ground soon to be bare. There is another tree dropping leaves when the wind comes up with small yellow twirling leaves settling to the ground in great washes. Lots of big bamboo groves as well that make an deep almost scraping sound against each other as a breeze shifts them a little here and there.
The sunsets here at Sri Nan are incredible with the sun quickly rising around 7 over 4 ridges of mountains to the east.
I've been camping at what might be a sort of overflow camp spot. It doesn't have the instant view of the upper place (it's only a nice 10 minute walk up which I have been doing at 6:30 in the morning to watch the sun rise) but it is quiet, with no lights or electricity and in a really beautiful, fairly open grove of trees with denser forest (jungle, one could say, though I seem to try to avoid that term applicable though it is. I think that there is too much weight put to that word from a 'western' context. As in, deepest, darkest Africa were the jungle looms mighty and where all living persons must quake in terror at the horrors that surely will befall them. You get the idea)
One of the park guys came by to explain that I could camp up top, but I said to him that I like it here. Peaceful and beautiful in the trees and cooler too in the mid day sun. I better mention that there conversations all take place in the beautiful Thai language which also means that they involve a lot of gestures, time for them waiting while I look in my phrase book to look up a word and then try to splice it into a sentence that makes some sort of almost sense. It's pretty fun and thank god that most Thai people have the most awesome patience. I have definitely been speaking more Thai than English over the last few weeks. These places that I have been going are pretty far off the tourist trail and almost all the visitors are people from Thailand enjoying their natural wonders.
I have been practising my Thai daily including learning to read and write. This latter part can come in very handy reading signs on the roads though I have to say that what usually happens is, being what you might call a slow reader, I see the sign and recognise one or two 'letters' before I blast by on my bike wondering what village in actually is. Mostly it works out fine though on the way here I blasted by and ended up adding 70 minutes to my trip. So all in all my Thai language skills are progressing well and if you happen to have a microscope handy it would be readily apparent to all who happen to be reading this diatribe.
One caveat on this subject. Though I have great faith that things work out in the long run, I am actually finding that over the last fews days my Thai skills are getting worse. Way worse. I hope that this is not a trend.
So tomorrow, I'm off to Nan city where I'll post this for a couple of days then heading north to end up at Mae Sai to activate my 2nd entry visa and then heading back south towards Chiang Mai.
Cheers!
Cath
p.s. as always please excuse any mistakes and awkwardnesses in this post. I am, after all, writing on my phone (though I do have a keyboard) and at this stage I can't be bothered reading over what I just wrote. So there. xox
After that great spot at the info station near Wang Nam Kieaw I headed back west a little and north to wards Sai Tong Nat'l Park. Other than the people working there, I had the whole park to myself and spent 3 days in quietness and visiting some beautiful places nearby. One of which was a huge tree with lots of offerings all about it. I sat by that tree nestled in the forest twice for a good long while.
I haven't been buying water at my camps but rather using my water filter from the tap water. The water is very clear and clean I expect mostly coming from very pure sources but I filter it anyway just in case. I'm not using a 'Brita' type filter that you might use at home but a real camping one that takes out gueardia (sp?) and other bacterial things. So far so good. I figure that if it can filter the water out of a nasty old rank slough in Saskatchewan and not kill me, it'll be good for this as well.
So. A couple of peaceful days (peaceful being the main motivation of this journey it seems) there, I made my way to Phu Kradeung Nat'l Park and a somewhat less peaceful though quite fun stay. I was tenting at the base of the mountain for two days and decided that I should climb up on my second day. Usually people climb up, camp up top (you can hire porters to take your stuff) then come back down on the next day, but I sorta wanted to get the hell out to I went up and down in one day to the surprise and admiration of quite a few. I understand now as my leg muscles and joints are just now starting to feel like i could walk on them a good week later.
I walked 20 kms in total and 12 of those were either going up a, at times, very steep trail and then of course coming back down that damn thing after a half hour break for lunch (which was by far the most expensive meal for me so far - 200 baht/$6.50 - It may not sound like much to all you N. Americans and Europeans but earlier in the week I had grilled chicken, sticky rice and samtam for a whopping 40 baht. It was reasonable of course as all the food has to be carried up by aforementioned porters. I keep thinking that that was too much money for lunch, but legs keep telling me that I got a good deal of it.
From there it was off again, still in Leoi province to Phu Rua Nat'l Park 60 kms west of Loei town. Wher I got there there was only 1 tent up, soon to be 2 with mine. This was about 1 in the afternoon and by the time 5 rolled by with everyone off work, it being a friday, there were HUNDREDS!, of tents all over the place. It was like that for the 2 days that I was there. Basically, party time. It was fun, but I was glad to get out on my own on the road once again and on towards Phu Sai Dao Nat'l Park in Utaradit province and once again all on my own. Lovely.
At this stage I was bouncing along the Thai/Lao border and will continue to do so for quite a few more days.
This is pretty much out of way country and I often will bike along at my 60 km/hr for 30 or even 60 minutes without seeing another vehicle. I stayed 2 days over at Phu Sai Dao much to myself.
Now I find myself at Sri Nan Nat'l Park in Nan province. The motorbiking (a small 125cc manual bike that my brother Mike has lent me) has been absolutely spectacular following mountain roads winding their way north. As I crossed into Utaradit and northern Thailand I notice a real change in the landform. More forest, less large farms (as there were more of as I travelled along the western edge of Isaan/N.E. Thailand) This is the country of my dreams of which I have deep memories from my other, shorter, motorbike trips 2 and 3 years ago.
My friend Ong, of Compeung, suggested Nan as a place to journey to and I can't thank him enough for that suggestion. I keep thinking that if I do end up in Thailand that Nan could well be the place for me to be. I seem to be comforted by the thought that I could always hit the mountainous bush if things to completely awry and this place has that feeling in spades to me. I love it here.
Maybe I should mention things that might seem to counter what some people might have in their minds eye about what it is like in this part of Thailand. For one, it's been bloody freezing, especially at night. I'm sure there were some nights that got down close to freezing. Indeed, the recorded temps of the top of Phu Kradeung was a few degrees below zero. As I went up the mountain, one group coming down commented to their great delight that there was frost on the ground in the morning. People come to these places to experience cold. It is only now starting to worm up at night. Up until last night I was sleeping in a long sleeve wool undershirt, wool sweater, a touque (which I bought at Phu Kradeung) and a scarf and I was still pretty chilled at 4 in the morning even with my summer weight down sleeping bag.
The other thing is that because of the varying elevations there are times where I am surrounded by pine trees with a smell that reminds me of northern Ontario or the Alberta Rockies. Of course there are lots of other forest types as I go up and down that are all so very beautiful. Right now there are a lot of teak trees dropping their huge leaves to the ground soon to be bare. There is another tree dropping leaves when the wind comes up with small yellow twirling leaves settling to the ground in great washes. Lots of big bamboo groves as well that make an deep almost scraping sound against each other as a breeze shifts them a little here and there.
The sunsets here at Sri Nan are incredible with the sun quickly rising around 7 over 4 ridges of mountains to the east.
I've been camping at what might be a sort of overflow camp spot. It doesn't have the instant view of the upper place (it's only a nice 10 minute walk up which I have been doing at 6:30 in the morning to watch the sun rise) but it is quiet, with no lights or electricity and in a really beautiful, fairly open grove of trees with denser forest (jungle, one could say, though I seem to try to avoid that term applicable though it is. I think that there is too much weight put to that word from a 'western' context. As in, deepest, darkest Africa were the jungle looms mighty and where all living persons must quake in terror at the horrors that surely will befall them. You get the idea)
One of the park guys came by to explain that I could camp up top, but I said to him that I like it here. Peaceful and beautiful in the trees and cooler too in the mid day sun. I better mention that there conversations all take place in the beautiful Thai language which also means that they involve a lot of gestures, time for them waiting while I look in my phrase book to look up a word and then try to splice it into a sentence that makes some sort of almost sense. It's pretty fun and thank god that most Thai people have the most awesome patience. I have definitely been speaking more Thai than English over the last few weeks. These places that I have been going are pretty far off the tourist trail and almost all the visitors are people from Thailand enjoying their natural wonders.
I have been practising my Thai daily including learning to read and write. This latter part can come in very handy reading signs on the roads though I have to say that what usually happens is, being what you might call a slow reader, I see the sign and recognise one or two 'letters' before I blast by on my bike wondering what village in actually is. Mostly it works out fine though on the way here I blasted by and ended up adding 70 minutes to my trip. So all in all my Thai language skills are progressing well and if you happen to have a microscope handy it would be readily apparent to all who happen to be reading this diatribe.
One caveat on this subject. Though I have great faith that things work out in the long run, I am actually finding that over the last fews days my Thai skills are getting worse. Way worse. I hope that this is not a trend.
So tomorrow, I'm off to Nan city where I'll post this for a couple of days then heading north to end up at Mae Sai to activate my 2nd entry visa and then heading back south towards Chiang Mai.
Cheers!
Cath
p.s. as always please excuse any mistakes and awkwardnesses in this post. I am, after all, writing on my phone (though I do have a keyboard) and at this stage I can't be bothered reading over what I just wrote. So there. xox
Friday, January 17, 2014
This just in!
Nuch, who I met at khao yai and who, with her boyfriend Best and his two sisters Tong and Toey, just me some photos of us hanging out together. Thanks so much Nuch! And just have a look at that incredible food. Yum!
Here are the photos
Here are the photos
january 17 check in
I feel as though my motor bike journey posts so far have been far too terse. I even neglected to mention that I am having the time of my life out here.
Every day brings something beautiful with things to laugh about.
For instance, today after breakfast in the morning, I discovered that the back tire of my bike was completely flat. Even before I left there were some issues with it going flat-ish here and there but it seemed to stay put for a few days when i last filled it and so I thought that it would be ok, though I also thought that I'd better keep an eye on it.
I asked the wonderful Boon Tao, who runs the information/impromptu camp spot here if she knew of a place nearby where I could get the tire repaired. She said that there was a place just a little up the road. After writing out some instruction in Thai for me, she decided that it would be good if a couple of the guys that work the grounds went there with me as well. So one of them took my bike and the other took me and we went to the place which took all of 3 minutes to get to. They talked to the fellow there and he set about replacing the tube straight off.
I did find a little piece of metal in the tire - it looked more like a little stone than a piece of metal - and so figured out what the problem was. I had brought a can of stuff that can repair a tube. It's pressurised and has some gunk in it for an emergency repair. The problem was that I pulled it out to show Boon Tao, then replaced it under the seat in the storage area and wouldn't you know it, it gushed all over the place to the point which it was no good at all. 500 baht down the drain and a giant sized mess as well! I must try and get some more of that stuff someplace down the road though it could take a while before i find a place that has it.
At any rate, I had a great time at motorbike repair guy's place and visited with his son and mother and wife while he quickly got me back on the road. Plenty of laughs were had all around.
Here is a photo of them all together.
So bike now once again road worthy, I headed out to look for the road I'm going to take on Sunday on my way to Pa Hin Ngam Nat'l Park. I've decided to hold out here for an extra day so that I get into the park on a sunday.
While on my little trip today I found a stall selling grilled chicken, somtam and sticky rice. My first authentic Isaan lunch on this trip. It was aroy mag (very tasty) I asked for the somtam to be maipet (not spicy) which means it was perfect and quite spicy for me and I can handle (or rather I think I can handle) spicy food pretty well. We had some good laughs here too. It very easy to make people laugh by simply trying to speak Thai (and, of course, laughing at myself first!) A good one is to say, in Thai, "di chan poot thai" (I speak Thai) and then put my hands around my head and make them go like my head was exploding. That gets'em every time!
Here is a photo of where I stopped to eat before heading back to my camp.
So, like I said, having a blast in rural Thailand. More to come! Cheers, Cath
p.s. not real elephants in the photo. Wouldn't THAT just be crazy luck!
Every day brings something beautiful with things to laugh about.
For instance, today after breakfast in the morning, I discovered that the back tire of my bike was completely flat. Even before I left there were some issues with it going flat-ish here and there but it seemed to stay put for a few days when i last filled it and so I thought that it would be ok, though I also thought that I'd better keep an eye on it.
I asked the wonderful Boon Tao, who runs the information/impromptu camp spot here if she knew of a place nearby where I could get the tire repaired. She said that there was a place just a little up the road. After writing out some instruction in Thai for me, she decided that it would be good if a couple of the guys that work the grounds went there with me as well. So one of them took my bike and the other took me and we went to the place which took all of 3 minutes to get to. They talked to the fellow there and he set about replacing the tube straight off.
I did find a little piece of metal in the tire - it looked more like a little stone than a piece of metal - and so figured out what the problem was. I had brought a can of stuff that can repair a tube. It's pressurised and has some gunk in it for an emergency repair. The problem was that I pulled it out to show Boon Tao, then replaced it under the seat in the storage area and wouldn't you know it, it gushed all over the place to the point which it was no good at all. 500 baht down the drain and a giant sized mess as well! I must try and get some more of that stuff someplace down the road though it could take a while before i find a place that has it.
At any rate, I had a great time at motorbike repair guy's place and visited with his son and mother and wife while he quickly got me back on the road. Plenty of laughs were had all around.
Here is a photo of them all together.
So bike now once again road worthy, I headed out to look for the road I'm going to take on Sunday on my way to Pa Hin Ngam Nat'l Park. I've decided to hold out here for an extra day so that I get into the park on a sunday.
While on my little trip today I found a stall selling grilled chicken, somtam and sticky rice. My first authentic Isaan lunch on this trip. It was aroy mag (very tasty) I asked for the somtam to be maipet (not spicy) which means it was perfect and quite spicy for me and I can handle (or rather I think I can handle) spicy food pretty well. We had some good laughs here too. It very easy to make people laugh by simply trying to speak Thai (and, of course, laughing at myself first!) A good one is to say, in Thai, "di chan poot thai" (I speak Thai) and then put my hands around my head and make them go like my head was exploding. That gets'em every time!
Here is a photo of where I stopped to eat before heading back to my camp.
So, like I said, having a blast in rural Thailand. More to come! Cheers, Cath
p.s. not real elephants in the photo. Wouldn't THAT just be crazy luck!
Thursday, January 16, 2014
near Wang Nam Kheio
Camped at an info centre which they said is free to camp. It right beside highway 304 but I have this amazing sight outside my tent window! Lovely rural ride today.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Leaving Bangkok into Khao Yai Nat'l Park
Now settled in at Khao Yai Nat'l Park.
After a somewhat harrowing ride out of Bangkok, the success of which had a great deal to with my brother Michael what with getting around a blocked intersection, him taking over my manual bike until we got into calmer roads and the general good feeling of getting a fine sendoff. Thanks so much Mike!
I decided right away to stay for three nights here in the park to decompress and surround myself with some clear air and lots of forest. On that account, I think that I may just bounce my way up north from park to park. Lots of friendly people and especially a lovely couple that I spent the evening with last night with them generously giving me some drinks and tasty food as well as some water and noodles and eggs and jok for the coming days. Aor and I lit about 60 tea-lights and placed them around their camp. Very splendid and just the thing for friendly alien landing zone.
They suggested that I visit Wang Nam Kheio and that's exactly where I shall to tomorrow.
There are lots of monkey around and deer as well which are basically sort of campground pests but they are very sweet. My own habit of hanging food in trees would do nothing whatsoever here as it the monkeys' domain so I keep my food in a bag just inside the vestible of my tent. I also saw a giant sized porcupine last night with quills about 8 to 10 inches long. Amazing.
Off for now. Hope everything is fine out there.
Cath
After a somewhat harrowing ride out of Bangkok, the success of which had a great deal to with my brother Michael what with getting around a blocked intersection, him taking over my manual bike until we got into calmer roads and the general good feeling of getting a fine sendoff. Thanks so much Mike!
I decided right away to stay for three nights here in the park to decompress and surround myself with some clear air and lots of forest. On that account, I think that I may just bounce my way up north from park to park. Lots of friendly people and especially a lovely couple that I spent the evening with last night with them generously giving me some drinks and tasty food as well as some water and noodles and eggs and jok for the coming days. Aor and I lit about 60 tea-lights and placed them around their camp. Very splendid and just the thing for friendly alien landing zone.
They suggested that I visit Wang Nam Kheio and that's exactly where I shall to tomorrow.
There are lots of monkey around and deer as well which are basically sort of campground pests but they are very sweet. My own habit of hanging food in trees would do nothing whatsoever here as it the monkeys' domain so I keep my food in a bag just inside the vestible of my tent. I also saw a giant sized porcupine last night with quills about 8 to 10 inches long. Amazing.
Off for now. Hope everything is fine out there.
Cath
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