Khao Sam Roi Yat National Park and Wai Kru

The past weekend was quite exhilarating, mostly because of my decision to leave on Thursday for a weekend excursion. I had a makeup class on Wednesday because Friday's class would be canceled. This led to an unexpected long weekend, that Ricker and I took advantage of because we were the only UNC students without a Friday class. Thursday, though we had to get up early and dress nicely for "Wai Kru" day. This means Teacher Appreciation day in Thai and it's a much bigger deal than whatever lack of Teacher Appreciation Day we have in America. I don't understand why we don't do things like this in America, but I guess it says something about how we value education. Anyway, we are supposed to give our teachers garlands, but the school bought us flowers to give to our teachers to make things easier for us. Neung instructed us to get to school thirty minutes early because we had to learn a song in Thai that we needed to sing. Things got interesting, especially when you get 8 UNC students without a clue, any idea of the melody, or a lick of Thai to sing this song:

From khao sam roi yot

Following our introduction to the song a Nepalese student gave the Powerpoint presentation and introduction to Wai Kru that segues into the Director of JGSEE's speech. The surprising part about this part of the ceremony was that all the Thai students were so loud during everyone's speeches. Seriously, it was really weird and a little funny becuase it's supposed to be a respectful ceremony, but they were just talking in the back the entire time. We presented our garlands to the teachers and kneeled before them as they said some kind words and gave advice. The teachers tied string around our wrists as some sort of symbol of good luck. After the ceremony all of the teachers and students went camera-crazy and took probably 10 of the same group pictures, which got to be pretty excessive. After Wai Kru, I had a meeting with my capstone group teacher and students to lay out a plan for the next 3 weeks. I have a lot of information to read and then give a presentation to the rest of the group about what I learn. There is no shortage of pdfs to read in Thailand right now.

After my meeting finished around 12, I called my friend Sadie who goes to NC State to tell her I probably wouldn't be able to meet up with her that afternoon, becuase the meeting did last a lot longer than I expected. But, we met up on Tuesday night and had a good time and I will probably see her again once before she leaves on July 1. It's neat to see someone random and familiar among so many Thais. I am pretty sure Bangkok is ethnically 80% Thai at least and then probably 10-15% Chinese. The school though is well represented with students from Laos, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, Miami, Nepal, Tanzania, and Canada. This allows for interesting pre-class conversations, just because of the eclectic mix.

Ricker and I didn't have too much of a plan for the weekend, but decided to head out around noon to Hua Hin. Many of the lonely planet guides recommend it as a beach within a reasonable distance from Bangkok. So we took it's advice. The other students were tentative about coming and it was nice to travel with a small group of 2 for a change.

Ricker and I were confused when we were literally the only people on the bus from Bangkok as it was pulling away from the Southern Bus Terminal.

From khao sam roi yot

But along the way we picked up more people and things made more sense. We got to Hua Hin just as the sun was setting, so we didn't get to see much of the beach at night. We found a nice place to stay and it was about $5 a night. After paroosing through the night market and around Hua Hin, we didn't really find much to see or do. The beach was okay in the morning. We knew that Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park was relatively close by, so we actually just decided to get up really early in the morning and catch a bus to Pranburi.

All of our travel guides said the park was difficult to reach unless you had your own car. They were right. But they failed to mention the difficulty in traveling between areas of the park because it's not continous like many parks in the US. We got on a bus to Pranburi, struggled to communicate with some people there to figure out where our supposed bus to Bang Pu (a small village that you can hike 1 km to the park entrance) would arrive. That bus/songthaew didn't exist, so we had to hire a taxi to take us. After mulling over the cost, it was definitely worth it because the scenery on the ride was really awesome. We arrived at Bang Pu, everything was gravy, and then we hiked up a limestone cliff.

From khao sam roi yot

Then we explored this really large cave with a shrine to an old Thai king from 400 years ago. After hiking up and down a couple mountains, attempting at swimming in the beach (the park lies along the Gulf of Thailand), except the water was too shallow, we were hot and tired so we rested for awhile. It was about 2 pm when we decided we should find a place to stay for the night. Hat Laem Sala (the beach of our current locale) rented tents for camping for very cheap. We also read that we could sleep at Khao Deng which was another cave site and campground. It didn't look far on the map so we started walking along the beach. But then, we realized the beach didn't exactly continue and we couldn't get around one of the points several kilometers away from Hat Laem Sala. We had to turn around and reconsult the map. The park map makes it look like everything is connected, when in reality, it may be but there aren't trails to hike between certain parts. This is why the book recommended having your own transportation.

From khao sam roi yot

We didn't realize until later the name of the park means three hundred peaks, so that could explain the discontinuity of the park itself. We talked to the park ranger and he said we had to either hire a taxi or boat to go over there. The boat is the more expensive way so we decided to take a taxi. This is where you may or may not want to keep reading depending on how you feel about hitchhiking in the middle of nowhere. We walked to Bang Pu and there were only 2 people we could find. They were very nice and then we asked them how to get a taxi, but they kept motioning for us to just climb aboard their truck filled with water that they had to deliver. So we climbed aboard their pickup truck and rode for 5k to the main road where they dropped us off, probably no better than when we started. We saw the sign for the Khao Deng which was 9 km from where we were. I think we figured we had a couple hours until sunset and we would see what happens. After 5 minutes a truck drove by and they rolled down their window offering a ride in the same direction. Unfortunately there was a large communication barrier so they stopped the truck at Sam Phraya beach pointing for us to get out because we would later find out there would be camping supplies at this area, but we insisted that we were trying to go to Khao Deng, because the lonely planet guide said you could rent stuff there. They dropped us at a park entrance 14 km away from where we started. There was a park ranger there so we tried to ask him for the camping supplies. He spoke very broken english, but basically told us that Sam Phraya rented supplies not where we were. This is 9 km in the direction of where we came. But no worries, we figured we could just hitchhike back up there and get there between 5-6 pm. Our only worry was they might stop renting campsites at some point, so we felt pressed a bit for time. We started walking and were unsuccessful in finding a pickup truck driving in the correct direction for about 15 minutes. We had to cross this bridge and there were probably about 50 monkeys lined across the road. We waited until a couple motorcycles passed by so that the monkeys would clear the road since they are quite the opposite of cute and fuzzy. They are vicious and really strong. If you have something loose dangling they will grab it from you or if you have some fruit they will definitely attempt to steal it. So we did a bit of repacking and then quietly crossed the bridge, no problems. Finally a pick up truck drove by and we hopped in the back. This was embarrasing because I was wearing a hat and for some reason I left it on my head. It flew off after a couple minutes and then I said, don't worry about it (mai pen rai), but this one Thai guy sprinted 100m to get it. I felt bad, but it was pretty funny and nice of them. Then they handed me a cell phone with someone who spoke English on the other line. I said "hello" and the other line said "hello, where are you going?" I said "Sam Phraya" They said "okay, okay". I guess it just takes two people, because Sam Phraya is the same in thai and english, but whatever. They dropped us off in front of the road to Sam Phraya which is about 1 km long. We thanked them a lot and proceeded. There was a huge lizard that we saw, at least 3 meters in length scurry across the road. It was quite a sight. Then luckily we met two workers at the campsite (maybe park rangers, but they didn't have uniforms). We were just relieved to have made it and have a tent and campsite. But they were so nice and the lady was impressed with my Thai and then she came back to the site 30 minutes later and gave us pillows, a mat, and a blanket (not that we'd need it considering it was at least 90 farenheight).

From khao sam roi yot

We were the only people there. And it looked like the only people that had come for a long time. Then she told me kun ja pai gin kow leew (you are going to eat dinner at 7). Shocked, we were really happy that they were going to open the "restaurant" for dinner (we thought it was closed). Basically we had brought a couple snacks at 7 am at a 7-11 in Hua Hin and already ate them all, so we were unsure about dinner. She cooked us tom yum gung (a spicy and tangy shrimp salad in a soup form) cow pat (fried rice). There were a bunch of herds of cows that kept walking around the beach, so it was amusing to watch the guy chase them. By 8 we finished eating dinner, it was pitch black, and we had nothing to do. The rangers left and then turned on the lights to a bathroom, and around the campsite. We read a little and then went to sleep early. Another group of Europeans came and pitched a tent further down the beach around 9 pm. In the morning there were new rangers, but they were equally nice and then we ate breakfast and set out walking to Sai cave. The map suggested it was about 3-4 km. Basically we hiked there although we had to walk along the road instead of a trail becuase the beach wasn't connected. We made it to the cave and randomly right before we walked in saw the same lady from the night before who was working at Sai cave the next day. This was cool, she offered to watch our stuff in a locker for free so we could explore without lugging around all of our stuff. I took out my wallet and some stuff just to keep on me. Then we saw a really cool cave. But, we were exhausted from hiking and then climbing up a steep ascent to get into the cave. At the mouth of the cave you are supposed to rent lanterns, but the guy was busy showing other people the cave so we sort of just tagged along behind them using their light. Also we had cell phone lights, which came in handy. This area was awesome to explore. We came back down, ate lunch with that lady who offered to drive us to Pranburi for a lot cheaper than getting a cab. Pranburi was about 35 km away. She also gave us free pineapples after our lunch. We got to Pranburi and headed back to Bangkok.



The trip was probably the coolest place I've been to so far, because the area was such an awesome place to explore. Also, since we camped and saved money on other things it was pretty cheap especially compared to last weekend at Ko Samet.

This week I have classes and meetings, but then on Saturday or Sunday one of the teachers at JGSEE wants to take all the UNC students to Ayutthya the ancient capital.