Exodus

Exodus

I hopped a minibus from Khao Sok south to Tonsai Beach for a brief stop over and then on further south to Trang. In Trang I also stayed a couple nights and wandered around the Sunday Night Market in front of the train station and ended up sitting with a jeweler from Holland. His success story was fascinating and inspiring to me. We talked about gems and his early beginnings 18 years ago with his Thai wife and a small used bookshop. He had bought a mass of used books from a guy who knew a guy for a fair price but also left a small corner wall open for his wife and him to make and display earrings and necklaces. As time went on the jewelry was making more money than the books and as the books were purchased and left the building, it wasn’t worth it to buy more books. They chose to reorganize the shop making more room for more jewelry by opening up a whole wall that proved to be a limited risk opportunity that profited and the little shop prospered. He didn’t start with a lot of money but what he did have, he and his wife owned. They continued to design jewelry pieces that sold and there came a time when they decided to sell the remaining books off to a competitor and got back almost the same amount of money he spent on the lot in the first place. The shop was converted into a jewelry shop virtually over night and they began working diligently with the silversmith and collecting stones at gem fairs eventually filling the walls and display tables with high-end pieces as well as affordably attractive and creative jewelry. With the silversmith added to the creative collective, girls were hired as sales reps behind the counter while he, his wife and the silversmith stayed after the goal. The shop became very successful and so, with his ear to the ground, he heard of some rental shops available down by the train station where the powers that be were considering a night market near the train station across the street from where he was considering opening a bigger shop, much bigger. The night market now supports maybe 100 portably tented merchants and 50 food carts.

When I first arrived I walked into 1952 Café and the Sri Trang Hotel for a very late breakfast. Their slogan is, ‘You’ll call it home’. Since 1952 is located at 22-26 Sathani Rd. Tab Tiang Muang, Trang, Thailand 92000. www.sritranghotel.com. (ph. # +66075218122) The woman speaks great English and serves up freshly ground coffee, espresso, whatever you want. Her menu is Thai and western basics. Her beer selection crosses the globe from Thailand to Belgian Monks; it was a shocking treat. While I sat there and ate, travelers, expiates, western teachers and their visiting friends walked in and filled the tables in the afternoon glow for lunch and a REAL cup of fresh ground coffee. This is where I first met the jeweler sitting by himself reading a book and having a beer.

After I got situated in a 300 Baht hotel around the corner passed the jewelry shop I took a motorbike taxi to Robinsons Mall for some Apple products that needed replacement due to my rough and tumble lifestyle. Robinsons was one of the teacher’s first recommendations for what I needed replaced. After setting everything up and making sure it worked I wandered down to the busy night market for some cart food and a look around. Satisfied, I headed back towards the hotel only to find the jeweler in front of his shop having a beer and happily watching the stream of people come and go from his shop and the night market activity. He had restructured this building and added an awning for his needs and people were buying. Apparently a lot of famous Thai rockers/musicians/performers come to this shop and the locals look on and respect the jewelry for more than one reason. If famous people buy there, well then the locals will too, as it goes. His beautiful wife came out as I sat down and asked if there was anything I wanted such as a beer. Of course I did and while to beauties worked the floor, we sat for a few hours and had a great chat. The night ended early due to Marshall Law and the curfew.

Tanks are rolling down some streets in Bangkok and home made bombs are going off and being found unexploded in Hat Yai. I was heading to Hat Yai but the jeweler shook his head with an exagerated frown twisting back and forth with his head. It was time to leave Thailand and go travel in earnest. This way I’m not suspect of working illegally considering I’ve spent 6 months out of the last 9 in Thailand. The jeweler and I agreed that I should go to KK’s Travel, one of the oldest and most efficient travel agencies on the block in Trang. It’s right next door to Since 1952 Café. The woman there didn’t remember me but I had asked for the same trip from Trang to Satun and on to Tammalang Pier to Langkawi, Malaysia.

When I got to the pier I realized I had over stayed my welcome by a day and that costs 500 Baht. But I did it with a smile and a laugh and the immigration officer assured me with a smile and putting my money in his pocket that it would go to the government and that I’d be allowed in for at least a month on my return. This is good news because I’ll be back this way more than once and not for work but for language school. That is if I don’t end up in Europe on a boat out of Amsterdam.

The ferry takes a couple hours and then 30 Ringgit to get to the beaches on the other side of the island. Langkawi is big. It’s a duty free island but do not be deceived by its title, it’s not cheap. All in all, Malaysia is not cheap in comparison to many of the other places in South East Asia.

I spoke broke Bhasa Indonesian with my Malaysian taxi driver and he laughed at me but understood that I didn’t speak Bhasa Malay. Many of the words cross-over but not all together the same. ‘Same, Same, but different’. I asked for a cheap place to stay near the beach and he took me to a quaint little place hidden a block away from the beach and the main street on Cenang Beach. Gecko Guesthouse, 70 Ringgit/night, air-con that I don’t use, a bathroom and a covered porch. There are 40 Ringgit rooms with a fan as well but the bathroom is at the end of the building and it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. The restaurant is good with a foreign woman managing or owning the place. She eventually cracked smiles and was enjoyable. The food was good and the staff was very helpful. I also found good street food and a small street bar, ‘Small and Spicy’, right next to 7/11 that serves the strongest drinks for 10 Ringgit that I’ve seen in Malaysia. I’m more of a beer drinker but every now and again a mint mojito fits. Yes I just got here but I have been here numerous times before as well. Westerners and locals alike seem to magnetically come to this bar and it is so small that you can have a group conversation with out yelling over the excellent music.

The rains have come. Torrential rains. It’s the beginning of the rainy season and that also means mosquitos and worse yet, Malaria season if you’re not careful. By morning the streets had rivers running through them, across them, whatever is down hill. I spent the day reading a book called ‘Taboo’ by a husband and wife team that go by the name of Casey Hill. It was a fun forensic read that takes place in Dublin with northern California under tones, Marin County to be exact. It’s an engaging 400-page fiction novel that I finished that day. I recommend it for a rainy day, it goes with Dublin. With the on set of rain I decided to keep moving. Cameron Highlands was my next target.

www.davidcdagley.com

Limestone Lake and Jungle Walks, Thailand

Khao Sok, Limestone Lake and Jungle Walks.

The owner of the Green Mountain View Guesthouse, Tawee, gave me a lift after breakfast to the turn off for Khao Sok head quarters where a mini van was waiting for me. There were two Yanks, two German, and a lost boy from Montreal already to go. I hopped in and off we went the 65 km to Rachaprapah Dam (Cheow Lan Dam) and lake. The lake covers 165 square km and as it was filled, over 100 islands were formed. As we sped our way across the lake, knowing there were houses and villages that were submerged into a modern day ‘Atlantis’, we looked down the numerous fingers and up the limestone spires jetting out of the water covered in jungle green. An hour past before we turned into a finger and headed for the narrows to find Tone Tuey floating bungalows. Tone Tuey is complete with a restaurant and a 3 beer bar; Singha, Chang, and Leo, but it’s cheaper if you pack a few of your own if you’re in the mood. There are a few kayaks available free of charge and you can search the seemingly endless shoreline for signs of life at your leisure.

It became really hot once the boat stopped forcing a breeze. The water was inviting but surprisingly warmer than I expected. Diving down a few meters it got cool and deeper cold. There’s about 20 meters below the floating bungalows so be careful with your cameras, your going to need it.

We had a nice lunch and our van driver/boat captain/jungle guide took us on a short boat ride to a trailhead where we headed off into the jungle. It hadn’t rained for a few days but it was threatening to do so in the near future.

We walked through bamboo forests where at one time roads for log extraction below the water level had been carved into the loose dirt. The rest of the forest is still a true original forest barring any major burning from long ago. There were lots of creeks to cross and since my shoes disintegrated on my trek from Mae Hong Son to Pai and I hadn’t needed to buy any until now. Lucky for me the guide didn’t wear shoes so I wore flip-flops until it came to the water then I’d take them off. We saw buffalo spiders, centipedes, butterflies en mass, and lots of fish in the creeks. There was the occasional leech but that was infrequent but kept everyone looking at their shoes, socks and legs.

We came to a point in the trail where a sign had been erected saying that the Nam Ta Lu Cave was closed due to frequent water flow surges. Our guide thought we should go look since it hadn’t rained in a few days. The water level was low and we went in and I removed my flip-flops, turned on my torch and into the darkness we went. It was a bit of a stumble but nothing to stress about. I was the slow guy in the back.

While in the cave I saw fish between my feet and fist size spiders on the walls. I don’t like spiders. We walked in and out of the water for a ways before our guide asked for anything we wanted to keep dry and put it all in a waterproof bag that he carried. Then the water went from our knees to our wastes and then a bit further along we were either barley touching bottom or swimming for a short distance. (Not far).  Once out of the deep water we maybe covered 100 more meters and we could see light from the other side of the mountain. The river runs through the mountain.

A few years ago a group of, I think, 8 went in the cave while it was raining and only one survived. Our record was better. The one woman that lived stayed on top of the water as it rose and she clung to the rocks for around 12 hours until the rains and river subsided and she could make her way to the rescuers coming in from both ends to look for survivors. Just FYI. The guides are aware of the situation and won’t put you in harms way.

We returned through the jungle for a late afternoon swim or kayak and time on our own. After a wonderful dinner of local fish we got back in the boat to do a nocturnal tour of the shorelines with a searchlight looking for reflecting eyes. We found a Civet cat way up in a tree. Apparently they’re easy to hunt because they don’t move once seen. We found an irritated fish owl and some resting Hornbills, both sizes, but too far away for photos. When we shined our search light one Hornbill bird spread it’s wings as if we could help dry them with our meager light. The glow flies had a better chance of helping the birds than we did. We turned off all our lights and the forest lit up with glow flies traveling through the canopy. We also turned off the engine and sat for a spell listening to the dark jungle stir.

We returned to our floating bungalows and some people crawled in under their mosquito nets and others sat out watching the evening rains go torrential. The sound of the rain drummed on the tin roofs for a period of time and then subsided giving way to the sounds of the jungle. I found a six-inch skink lizard under my pillow. I told it to piss off and it slept somewhere else. I don’t give in to lizards, snakes, mosquitos, and things like that, only spiders. Did I tell you I have a strong dislike for spiders especially the oversized species on steroids? Let’s put it this way, I like them better when they are not around. There are not a lot of poisonous spiders in Khao Sok or on the lake.

Before breakfast if it wasn’t raining we were going out for a morning tour on the boat to see what was stirring along the shoreline. In the back ground Gibbons howled at the top of their lungs, birds sung or squawked, frogs bellowed in the wet and fish jumped for a new hatch of bugs driven out of the ground by the rain. We ran into a female Gibbon with two babies playing near the lake, very rare. We also crossed paths with a troop of Dusky Languor and then some rather common Macaque monkeys watching us pass by. If you click on the pictures the animals are easier to see.

Due to the rainy conditions that night, our guide chose not to climb a big muddy hill and down the other side. We went to another cave instead still walking an hour or so through the jungle to get there. On the way we stopped at the old communist vegetable fields for a quick look around and then on back into the woods. There is a saying in the diving world that says, if its beautiful, ugly or unique, don’t touch it. This is also true in the jungle. Plants want to saw your legs off, bugs want your blood, and if it’s big then you’re in trouble. Tigers do make an appearance periodically but they are very reclusive and don’t play well with others.

The cave we went to was See Ru Cave, a communist strong hold back in the late 70’s with four separate exits for retreat if the Thai Army got within range. A sniper would stay behind and defend the cave while the others escaped deeper into the jungle with what little they had to carry. The local villagers in the valley traded with them before the reservoir filled and the villager’s homes were buried under water. Gunshot holes are everywhere from helicopter fire. Bat guano ammonia is in the air in every cave. Some caves held 30 people and other caves held many more.

Cicadas tore up the silence as bugs focused on your ears. It was awesome and I can barely imagine living in this environment for extended periods of time struggling with Malaria, injury infections, and the constant battle with the wet humid conditions.

We ate lunch back at Tone Tuey and headed out for our last sight seeing venture before returning to Khao Sok National Park and our respective bungalows on ground. By this time the jungle seemed tame and less daunting. It’s still humidly wet but when I see a large spider now I just keep an eye on it while I have light. I hope I’m learning something about the jungle as well as myself, kudos to those before me.

www.davidcdagley.com