2007: I was at the BKF in Bangkok, speaking with Mr. Pooma, when he told me how
they had found some highland Nepenthes species at Bung Khla, a place near Nong
Khai. Thinking and hoping that Bung Khla was the name of the precise locations
where I could find the plants, the name of a mountain, I went to Nong Khai.
Nong Khai is a small town full of tourists. They all come here to cross the
Thai border and go to Laos through the very popular Friendship Bridge. I slept
in a very bad looking hotel for 100 bat and the following day I asked about
Bung Khla, that fortunately everybody seemed to know. I took the bus and in 3
hours I arrived to Bung Khla. As soon as I was out of the bus I started looking
around. Bung Khla seemed to be just a piece of road with some huts on one side,
selling food, and the little police station on the other side. All the rest was
just fields. Of course the people at the huts were all looking at me, wondering
who I was and what the hell I was doing there. I didn’t say a word. It was
lunch time, and before finding myself in the usual tragedy of trying to find
some incredibly rare plants in a lost place where no one understands what you
say, I just switched off my brain, sat down and had a rice soup. With the same
kind of relax you can have in the one hour break you have at the office. But
the people around me were not in the same mood, they were really curious of
course, all staring at me. It was funny to see how they were probably waiting
for me to say at least one word, while I was…on a break. I cleaned my mouth, I looked again around me and I looked at
them. Then I switched on my brain again, I put my elbows on the marble table
and my finger tips one against the others, and I said “mokhao moken ling” with
a questioning tone in my voice. I knew they were going to do the rest. They
started in fact with the usual “oooooh, mokhao moken ling” followed by long
conversations in Thai. Eventually the only person who was sure about the presence of the mokao
in the area was the girl who was cooking. She had seen those plants on Phu Wua.
She had seen them with her own eyes, and that’s very important, because in this
Country the words “a friend of mine told me that” are considered to be
preceding a divine truth while most of the times they are in fact introducing
the worse lies. But that was not my case, and I was ready to move to find some
way to reach the top of the mountain. I didn’t have any time to think about
that though, as my good luck arrived once again to save my day. From the main
road I saw a white man on a motorbike, coming to me like an angel, a farang
angel. He was about 50 years old. “What are you doing in Bung Khla?!” I said.
“I’ve a house here” he replied. I explained what I was doing and looking for,
finally in a fast and good English. With the typical English practicality and
quickness he said that probably he knew how to help me. And he left. After 15
minutes he was back, he brought me to his place, introduced me to his Thai wife
and then we went around the village with his pick up to find someone who could
bring me on Phu Wua the following day. As a result we had some more people
confirming that on the mountain you can find the mokao, and I even saw a couple
of photos (N. smilesii) at the park’s visitor centre. Ken’s wife (that was his
name) was related to a girl, this girl is a guide, and every other day she goes
up to Phu Wua to show the place to the local visitors. So the following day I
was expected to be up at 7
o’clock, to reach the top with her and another young
guy. Once we arranged the mokao matter, we spent the rest of the afternoon
going around the village, checking the other house they are building for Ken
and some other surrounding areas. I was told that on Phu Wua there’s a plant, I
don’t remember its name, which grows only there and nowhere else on the planet;
it seems that from this plant some American companies could extract a very
important medicine. These companies were ready to give 6 million dollars for a
good amount of this plant, but the Thai government refused. Unfortunately Thai
people have the plants but they have no idea of what to do with them, while the
Americans know what to do but they have no access to the plants. I spent the
night at Ken’s place, watching a dvd, “God must be crazy”. Ken has been living
in Africa for
15 years, but he’s from New
Castle. I slept in a comfortable,
big bed, after having had my favourite thai food for dinner (rice and green
curry soup with chicken and mini-aubergines). At 7 o’clock in
the morning we were ready in front of the guide’s hut. Phu Wua is a flat
mountain, reaching 400 mt at its highest point. But in this area of the
north-eastern region, despite the low altitude, you usually have about 10 C at
night. At the visitor centre I found this very good 3-D model of Phu Wua, and I guess the shape of the
mountain is quite familiar to all of you. We started walking on a decent road
going up on a decent slope. But then I asked the girl how long it would take,
and when she said “two hours” I was a little bit shocked. I hadn’t been
exercising much in the past few weeks; on the contrary I had just started
smoking again. After 15 minutes I was tired already. Or better, my lungs were
tired; my legs can walk for hours without any problem, but my lungs are much
more fragile. Fortunately after another 15 minutes, what a great and welcome
surprise, we were already on the top. The girl just hadn’t understood my
question too well, she thought I was asking how long it would take to go, see
the place and come back. The area was of course covered with flat rocks and savannah like forest, with quite a suggestive
flora. The soil was mainly sand. We found about 50 large plants of N. smilesii,
in an area of about 500 square metres. NOT EVEN ONE had a good pitcher! They
were all half dry. I’m in contact with Ken anyway, and they should send me some
photos this summer. I must say that of course I had been told many times by our
guide that this wasn’t the right season to see these plants. I knew it, but
usually some pitchers are still good even in the driest periods, and I really
needed to check the species anyway. I also said this same thing to her many
times, as she really looked sad because we couldn’t find any good plant to take
pictures of. It seems that the Nepenthes only grow in that area of the
mountain, that is in the middle of the flat top. Once I was back at the
village, I thanked 1000 times Ken for his help, kindness and hospitality. He
made me save a lot of time. I went back to the main road, waiting for the bus
at the food huts. But I realized that in a couple of days I had made many
friends. Ken with his family came to the bus stop waiting with me and while I
was talking with him, his family was talking with all the people at the huts
about what we had done the previous day and that same morning. Ken also thanked
me, as I was probably the most exciting thing that had happened over there in
the last three months, since they saw the last white man in Bung Khla. The bus
arrived, and from the window I saw all those people waving their hands and
saying goodbye all at once, as if they were just one, big family.
