Khao Yai (12)

2004: Heiko Rischer kindly provided the following infos: "Ok, it is a confusing rumor about those plants. When I was in the Khao Yai park in 2000 I didn't find them but I didn't ask rangers at that time. The information I got later from a Thai source is as follows: 'The forest guard head whom I talked with on the phone the other day confirmed its whereabouts but his officers said they had never come across the plants in their responsible area! The last target is at Kao Samor Poon which would take 3 days to trek up to. It's said to be 809 m. above sea level and a picture of Nepenthes sp. was taken from this place. I will definitely do this some time.' So if there really is Nepenthes in Khao Yai it could be anything, also mirabilis, but if the altitude is correct I would rather doubt it. The original information I had was from a professional botanist who had been there many years before. He couldn't recall the exact location but also said it was on a mountain."

2007: Having seen how Khao Samor Poon is in the southern side of the park, and as I was coming from Bangkok (south of Khao Yai), I decided to go there via Prachinburi. I got to Prachinburi by bus, and with another two lifts given by some kind guys I arrived to Khao Yai. At the entrance as usual I tried to explain how I just wanted to speak with someone from the staff about the mokao moken lin, without actually visiting the park. But they couldn’t speak English and I had to pay 200 bat (the national parks fee in 2007 was raised to 400 bat!...so they gave me a discount after all). The staff at the entrance stopped a car who gave me a lift up to the head quarters. Here they could speak English, the place was quite crowded with farangs and Thai tourists, and there was a big restaurant with a coffee shop, a minimarket and a few other little restaurant-huts with local food. Accommodations were available at about 3000 bat. And of course I was ready to sleep on a rock instead. I found the chief ranger and thank god he had good English, otherwise explaining the six lines from Heiko Rischer that you read above would have been impossible. The boss understood quite readily, he apparently saw that I knew what I was doing and I was very determined, so he just asked me what was my plan, how I wanted to proceed about that. He called again all the rangers, who confirmed again that in their responsible areas they had never seen these plants. But then he heard about a girl who was quite sure she had seen the mokao right on Kao Samor Poon. He tried to call her until late evening but her mobile was always switched off. In the mean time I described the boss how the typical nepenthes habitat looks like, and he confirmed that the top of the mountain looks exactly like that, a flat tableau with savannah-like vegetation. He told me that it doesn’t really take three days to go there. If you leave very early in the morning and you don’t stay on the top too long, you can be back in the evening. He wasn’t sure about that though, as he was just referring what the rangers were telling him by phone. He had in fact been there just once, with the helicopter. No one ever goes there and even if it seems to be quite an attractive place, it’s still too hard to reach. But again he confirmed that I could go there the following morning if I wanted to. I was getting used to the idea of sleeping under a gazebo that night, but after dinner the boss came to me and said he had found a room for me. It was quite a simple room, and I had to sleep on the hard wood, with all my bones hurting, but at least it was free. I woke up very early because of the uncomfortable bed. A deer was eating some grass just out of my window, looking at me now and then, wondering what I was doing there. I had a typical Thai breakfast with rice and some very spicy meat and then I reached the boss at his office. He wasn’t there, but another ranger told me some more about the mountain: it takes 4 hours to reach the top, a little bit less to come back, and we could also reach the base of the mountain by car. When the boss came he told me that the girl we were trying to contact was still unreachable, but another girl from the staff had confirmed the presence of mokao on Kao Samor Poon. He asked me again if I wanted to go, and of course I said I was just waiting for that. But he said that now it was too late (it was 10 o’clock in the morning, not my fault if he was late, I was up since 7 o’clock!), that I had to sleep there again and before that I had to speak with the rangers near the mountain about my intentions. He also said that the rangers are not supposed to bring me there; it’s not in their duties. So if they had to come with me (at least two of them) they had to be paid, as they were after all loosing a day of work. They would ask at least 500 bat each (but the precise amount is in fact up to them), and if we were leaving in the early morning I would pay less because I only had to pay for their lunch. Of course, he added, if the order was coming from Bangkok, from a letter written by Mr. Chumpon, chief of all the national parks, everything could be done free and fast. But in my case I had to be treated just like a tourist, even if with all his understanding for my situation. The idea of loosing another day doing nothing and waste 1000 bat made me sick, so I told him I was going to proceed with my trip, keep in touch with him and call him at least one day before coming back, so that he could have some time to ask the rangers and the two girls again.

One month and a half later I was in Nakhon Ratchasima, a few kilometres north of Khao Yai. I was coming back from some expeditions in the northeast region. It was 18.30 when I called the boss from the bus station. He was happy to hear me, and I asked if it was possible to organize the Kao Samor Poon trip for the following day. Once again he got my point very fast, and I told him that I was going to call him back in half an hour for some news. Half an hour later I was forced to listen to the usual bullshit that probably the rangers had given to him: it will take at least two days, it’s the dry season and there is no mokao, it’s very dangerous, they will have to cook on the mountain and so they needed time to organize (!!!). Yes, the usual, embarrassing amount of b……t that any lazy person will give you to avoid doing something. So also my last target was ruined (after having just lost my opportunities at Kao Kuap, Chong Bat Lak, Bung and the road 2050). I didn’t get angry at the phone, as after all it wasn’t that man’s fault. But as soon as I hung up I felt like I wanted to kill the whole Country. I was reflecting about how many times my day had been saved by the local people, and how many other times it had been ruined by them. With my two backpacks I started walking around the city, tired and quite angry, looking for some hotel. I was sent from one 6 stars hotel to the other. Of course, I’m a rich farang; there are no hotels for humans in Nakhon Ratchasima, just for rich tourists. That was enough. I was exhausted. I started walking towards the bus station to spend the night on some bench, before getting really too angry. Then, as always more often is happening in my life, just a few minutes after thinking “please, my dear luck, send me a sign, don’t ruin my day without a reason, and make the last few hours of this day more decent than the previous ones”, the sign arrived. I don’t believe in God, but often – especially in Thailand – I really have the impression that some kind of “souls” are looking after me in the worse moments. The sign was a young boy, on a mountain bike, that was just behind me while I was walking on the side of the road, tired, angry and hungry. I heard his kind and soft voice saying ”Hallooo”, with a tone that seemed to mean “Hi, I’m the angel you just called, need to speak a little bit?”. He had good English and quite a relaxing voice. He just wanted to speak with someone, as much as I did. His harms were covered with old tattoos. He was very patient, understanding and a bit sorry for the behaviour of his fellow citizens, while all the problems of the last days and weeks erupted out of my mouth. Talking with him while sitting on that pavement and, later on, writing the lines that you’re now reading, made me feel much better. By the way, he said he has also seen the mokao at Khao Yai, it was growing at the Heo Suwat waterfalls, both on the mountain where the waterfall comes down from and at its base. He seemed quite surprised to hear how none of the rangers had seen these plants in their respective areas. I thanked my angel and left. I enjoyed both dinner and accommodation on a bench at the bus station, and the following morning I went to Bangkok. A few days later Mr. Pooma confirmed that, as far as he knows, reaching Kao Samor Poon is in fact very difficult, and the few people who went there did it by helicopter. It seems you have to cut your way through the thick vegetation, as there is no actual road to follow. And even the Forestry department staff, or anybody else who does any kind of research in a national park, has to fill some papers to ask the national park department to enter the park without paying the fee. Those papers would take a few months to be accepted, so Mr. Pooma said that because of all this bureaucracy it was easier for me to just pay and go. Heiko, do you have the name of the person who went there and took the photo, or the name of the Thai source you were in contact with?