Krabi (7)

2002: I spent almost three months in the city of Krabi. I did a stop over in Thailand coming from Sydney, where I had just finished my stage at the Royal Botanic Gardens. There weren’t enough gardening jobs in Sydney and I couldn’t stay there doing nothing for another two months, too expensive. So I decided to go to Thailand and wait, doing nothing but saving money. The best place to do that. Then the spring arrived in the northern hemisphere, and I went back to work in London, where I was able to cover the hole that I had in my savings. But that’s another story.

In Bangkok I was told by a girl to try Krabi for my long staying, as it was a peaceful place, clean and nice, with good beaches but not many tourists. That was my first time in Thailand, but now I know Krabi was the best choice. And, as you can see, that stop over changed the course of my life. My harsh life style, forced as I was to save as much as possible even in such a cheap Country, and the scarce local fun sources lead me to an incredible bore and depression. And that lead me, after more than two months, to the deep desire of risking my life to find something exciting (if you see “The Beach”, with Di Caprio, you’ll see what I mean; and the movie was mostly shot in or next to Krabi!). So I decided, ten days before leaving, to walk eight hours a day out of the city to find some carnivorous plants. Now, today that’s what I do all the time when I go to Thailand, even risking much more than then in many ways. But when it’s your first time, and you have no idea about what kind of people or animals you can find out there, while you’re alone in those forests, bogs and jungles, then it’s more risky and exciting. Who would ever go to Krabi looking for carnivorous plants? Whatever I find could be something no one has…fascinating indeed!

I found U. gibba, minutissima, caerulea, aurea and scandens. And N. mirabilis. The best colony of N. mirabilis was one hour walk from the city. But I only found that place during the last day of exploration, fortunately or unfortunately.

2004: I didn’t go to Krabi, but at the Chulalongkorn herbarium in Bangkok I found a specimen of N. ampullaria that was coming from the Krabi province, without the exact site name. Probably it was growing in a national park. In 2006 at the BK herbarium in Bangkok I found some N. mirabilis specimens coming from Kao Thong-Amphoe Muang and Ao Luk, in the northern part of the Krabi province. In 2007 I went back to the Chulalongkorn herbarium, I saw those N. ampullaria specimens once again, and I asked if it was possible to speak with the person who had collected them. I was quite lucky, as she was right in the next office, while the rest of the staff was going to prepare a surprise party for her birthday! They asked her about those plants, and she said she bought them at Chatuchak, where she was told they were coming from Krabi. This changes things completely, as the lies of Chatuchak sellers are renowned as much as their desire to keep the deepest secret about the places where they find these plants.

2006: after having been in the north and northeast, and after the once more disappointing experience in Phanga, I couldn’t avoid feeling the need to go back to such a familiar place like Krabi, to see how it could have changed in four years. I found a bigger Krabi, cleaner and with more tourists and shopping centres, including KFC.

Four years ago you couldn’t even imagine of coming here and finding a KFC. I saw how the city outer limits have been expanded. Where four years before the road used to finish with a couple of hotels, leaving a lot of room to forests and fields, now everything was filled with new markets and villas. Yes, the villas are the things that are increasing more, probably because Krabi is becoming one of the best places for holydays, with not too many tourists but a lot of facilities at the same time. I went to see my old guesthouse, but there was a perfume shop instead. Looking for a cheap place to stay – there are many good places at low prices here – I found a little guesthouse and a room for 80 bat. This guesthouse was previously a pub, and before that it was Chat Minimart, were I used to go every evening and have an ice-cream four years ago, with the only company of a dog. The dog knew I was always sitting there at the same time in the evening. He never asked me for food, just friendship. He used to lie down next to me, then when he a farang was coming on the main road he would follow him and jump around him begging for food, but then he would come back and sit again next to me, quiet. Like in Phanga, also in Krabi there’s no way to find any trace of the tsunami. So, the same day I arrived I ran to see if the nepenthes were still there. I walked for a lot, as I didn’t remember where exactly I had to turn left. And going there I saw again how the city was growing, the nepenthes site was once OUT of the city, while now it’s among new buildings, villas and hotels. But I couldn’t find the place because it wasn’t really like it was four years ago. I was walking on this secondary road, looking for that nice sandy bog, when I saw some N. mirabilis growing on the roadside, among some bushes. I thought I had just found a new site, while unfortunately I had to realize that the site was the same, but dramatically different. The tsunami didn’t leave any trace in the city, that’s true. That’s because the people were very fast to build and repair. But they needed a place to move all the debris, especially the dead trees brought by the tides power. And if you have to move tons of debris, what place would fit better than a useless sandy bog. So now that’s how my dear bog looks like: pic1. I couldn’t believe it, and for some tens of minutes I tried to understand if that was the right place. It was. On the right, where four years ago you could see just grass fields, now you see the new villas. Most of the nepenthes are growing in the green space that you see between the villas and the debris. U. gibba is completely gone, while U. caerulea, that was vary rare, increased in number and U. bifida (or U. scandens, it hard to tell the difference) diminished a lot but it’s still there. The few N. mirabilis are still very healthy. But I noticed that while four years before there were many different colour and shape forms, so many that you could have the impression that they were different species, now they all look the same, even if still producing many and very large pitchers, probably the largest I’ve ever seen. Here are a couple: pic1, pic2. So, the place looks much worse, but the debris after all are natural and the mokao ‘ken lin is used to fill the places that have been disturbed, in one way or the other. The real problem are the villas. They are increasing. Hopefully the fact that the sandy bog is filled with debris will discourage people to start building there. But I wouldn’t count too much on that. I spent about three days in Krabi, enjoying its beauties and doing nothing, like I used to do years ago. But then I got bored and I wanted to start again my expeditions. I’m never happy, when I’m in the jungle I’m looking forward to go in the nearest supermarket for a drink, a clean place to stay, maybe a visit to the bakery and then go to relax in my room. Then, after a few hours, I start again to feel the need to walk in bogs and forests looking for carnivorous plants. The next destination was Trang, a very sad, dark and dirty place that I left as soon as I could.

2007: The time I spent in Krabi was not very profitable, as it coincided with a little flu I had, caused by the continuous use of the fan, every single night, to keep away mosquitoes. As year after year I used all the possible sources of knowledge about nepenthes locations here in Thailand, I wanted to make a last trial using money. As the flu didn’t leave me a lot of energy to jump around looking for impossible places the whole day, I tried to use my brain first, finding the right people to ask to, then using money to catch their interest and then just sit down at my guesthouse waiting for good news. Before the flu, my original plan was to come to Krabi and see if I could find one of the Phangà islands from this side of the bay. So eventually I thought that speaking with someone working at the agencies near the pier, which are in touch with all the boat men of Krabi, could be the best thing to do. The only one who paid me some attention was a man with a very bad face, a face that seemed to say “I’m here to f..k you”. Despite his face, he was the owner of a big agency right in front of the pier. He was sleeping on a chair in front of the agency’s entrance. After I introduced my usual questions, with his eyes half open and with a bored but good English he said “…man, there are 132 islands here, how the hell I can know where is yours…”. I told him to ask around, with a tone in my voice like the one of a business man just before his next appointment, and then I left. I just had the time to walk for 10 metres and he shouted “why you look for mokao moken ling?”, “To make a lot of money” I replied. “Wait, my friend, come here, tell me!”, but I just said “tomorrow YOU will tell me” and I walked away. The following day he was the one coming to me with a big smile as soon as I approached the agency. He had spent a lot of time making tens of phone calls. “There is mokao, but they want a lot of money”, he said. “They say there was a lot of it, growing on the beach, but now there is not much, maybe it grows only inside, not anymore on the beach, but if they bring you there and there is no mokao, you don’t pay anything”. The things he said seemed to correspond with the “giant thorelii” island, as Nong reported how he saw the bulldozers coming and destroy the whole nepenthes population on the beach to leave room for a new resort. Can we have in the same bay one more island with exactly the same situation? I thought that wasn’t possible, and that was going to be the right place. I thanked the boss, as that was already a good piece of information.

“What are you doing of so special with mokao?” he asked.

“I grow it”

“Well, many people grow it, then?”

“But I’m looking for a special one, without a picture of the plants on your island I cannot risk my money…”

“No photo, we have no camera…how does the special one look like?”

“I can’t explain it, I have to see it. Thanks anyway, bye!”

The following day I went to the Tan Bokkorani national park. No one of the staff could speak a word of English. There was no way to get anything out of them, despite all the time I spent there. As usual I became tired and irritated, but as I had no actual reason to get angry with them, kind and simply not understanding as they are, I tried to leave them some of my anxiety and at the same time I tried once more the money technique. I said my last words very fast and nervously, having care of using the words “mokao moken ling”, and I wrote on a piece of paper “15.000 bat” (all Thai people can read that). I saw how their expressions and movements became suddenly faster and they were now paying much more attention. They were not laughing anymore, they were not anymore in front of the usual, aggressive and incomprehensible farang. They were in front of something serious, involving 15.000 bat, but they couldn’t understand what the matter was, as they couldn’t speak English. I left the office while they were still looking at that piece of paper, trying to find a solution. I had my little revenge, as hopefully some of them were now thinking “If I hadn’t been so lazy at school, I would be able to understand this 15.000 bat problem”. A sad revenge, you might think, that once again shows how western people are in fact more aggressive and cruel without any good reason when compared to Thai people. It’s true, but before judging me please spend a few months every year looking for Nepenthes in Thailand.

After another few days spent in other cities I went back to Krabi to keep on following the track of the agency man. He said he didn’t want to take any responsibility about the results, he had no idea of what kind of mokao I was looking for; he could only guarantee its presence. If we couldn’t find mokao he was ready to give me the money back. He wanted 1400 bat for three hours of boat keeping. I risked and I paid. Once more he said he didn’t want problems from me, so he called again his man to make sure the mokao grows on the island. The man confirmed. The following morning I went to the agency at 9 o’clock to take the boat. But the boss told me that the previous day he sent his man to the island to check once more, and he realized that in fact there are no more pitcher plants growing there. They’re building new houses and the bulldozers destroyed everything. Once again my Angel of the Good Luck was beside me, and the man gave me back my 1400 bat. I pretended to sad because of the event, and with some indifference, while I was leaving, I asked by the way the name of the island. It came out to be the island just in front of Krabi, the so-called Muslim Island, as its whole population is made of Muslim communities. That’s 40 bat to go and come back, 3-4 minutes far. I went there, I asked some people about the mokao and about new houses being built near the beach. Eventually a guy gave me a lift to other side of the island with his motorbike. Once on the other side, even if the area looked good for N. mirabilis (but nothing new in the process of being built near the beach), some people said it used to grow there, some people said it didn’t. We looked around for a bit and then I found no more reasons to go on following that probably false track. How strange that also this island corresponds to the description of the “giant thorelii” place. How many islands with Nepenthes are being destroyed by bulldozers to build new resorts and villas? To go back to Krabi from that point of the island I was asked another 50 bat. But while on the boat I asked a man how much he was going to pay, and he said 20 bat. The boatman realized the topic of our conversation and accepted my 20 bat without saying anything. The same thing happened at the Krabi bus station, where I was asked 30 bat for the minibus to downtown. When we arrived I saw how the only other passenger, a young girl, was paying 13 bat. So I gave him 13 bat as well. The man had just the time to open his mouth and move his hand asking for more when the girl (I had asked her about the price during the journey too) told him something in Thai. The man just raised his hand to some unhappy sort of OK and drove away. Little rip-off but still a rip-off; beware when you visit very touristy (Thai or not) places. Ah, I also paid a visit to the great N. mirabilis bog. You won’t believe it! I found it like this! Completely covered with two metres tall grass! Probably the trees brought there one year before have been burnt and the sandy soil became much more fertile. The rainy season did the rest. The Nepenthes were still growing in the small area in front of the villas, with just a few but very big plants.