If you click on the link up here the map will
appear and you'll be able to magnify it how much you prefer.
1) Khon
Kaen
2) Na
Haeo f.p.
3) Phu
Ruea n.p.
4) Phu
Luang n.p. No Nepenthes here. See previous note.
5) Phu Kradung n.p. Yes, Nepenthes smilesii here.
Of course. Click on the link, read the story and see a few pics (trip 2004)
6) Pha Taem n.p. Yes,
Nepenthes here. Read the story and see the photos (trip 2006)
7) Ubon
Ratchathani, that’s the main city. In 2004 at the BKF in
8) Trakan Puet Pon. Nepenthes here, but no photos, I couldn’t see the plants. Trip 2007.
9) Phu Khieo n.p. Nepenthes
smilesii here, in Thung Kramang…read the story and see the photos. Trip 2006.
11) Sakon Nakhon, that’s the main city. In 2004 at the Chulalongkorn
herbarium I found some specimens that looked like N. smilesii, but with more
bulbous pitchers. They came from somewhere around this city. The pics are here:
pic1, pic2. And also check The Trip for more details. In 2006 I
went there. First I have to tell you that
the red spot on the above map is pure fantasy, as I had no idea where in the
whole region the mokao had been found, so I just put the spot near the city.
But the “Sakon Nakhon” of the Chulalongkorn specimen could be the Sakon region
or the Sakon City, as here every region has the same name of its main city, to
make things “easier”! When I arrived in Sakon I found an old hotel that was
going to be knocked down, so I had a good price. The room was horrible of
course, dirty walls, dirty bathroom, dirty mirrors…but what can you expect from
a place that is going to be knocked down? After a fast dinner with padthai I
looked at my map to find some track to follow and I realized that in the south
of Sakon there were two national parks that hadn’t been called during my
previous 2004 trip: Phu Lek and Phu Pha Yon. Plus, one park that had been
called and said “no mokao” (Phu Phan), but I had the possibility to check once
more. So I asked the hotel owner, a very kind, old lady, if she could call the
three parks the following morning, asking for mokao moken lin. I showed her my
maps and drawings and she looked quite interested in the project. The following
day she called Phu Pha Yon, while she couldn’t reach by phone the other two,
Phu Lek and Phu Phan. The lady was told by the Phu Pha Yon staff that the mokao
moken lin grows in all the three national parks. It seemed too easy and too
good. “But” I thought, “they can’t be wrong three times after having been wrong
another ten times with another ten national parks”. They can. I jumped on a bus
and decided to start with Phu Phan. Nothing. Then I went to Phu Pha Yon.
Nothing. I renounced to go to Phu Lek: too angry. To know exactly what
happened, see Phu Phan-note 18 and Phu Pha Yon-note 20.
2007 update: I went back to the Chulalongkorn
herbarium, I saw those 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
Sakon Nakhon. 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.
12) Khao Yai n.p. Nepenthes
here, but no photos, I couldn’t see the plants. Trip 2007.
13) Kaeng Tana n.p. Yes! N. mirabilis here! Read
the story and see the photos.
14)
Mukdahan n.p. Yes, N. mirabilis here.This and the followings are the parks that have been called in 2004 by
the nice and kind lady from the
15) Nam
Phong n.p. No Nepenthes here.
16) Phu
Kao Phu Phan Kam n.p. No Nepenthes here.
17) Phu
Pha Man n.p. No Nepenthes here.
18) Phu
Phan n.p. No Nepenthes here. We called in 2004 and they said “no mokao, sorry”.
But as in 2006 the staff of the Phu Pha Yon n.p. told us by phone that the
mokao grows in all the three national parks of the region, Phu Pha Yon, Phu Lek
and Phu Phan, I decided to try anyway with the last one. After half an hour by
bus from Sakon Nakhon, I reached the park in the morning. I wasn’t expecting
anything as I already had a lot of experience with “yes we have mokao” and then
you go there and “no mokao sorry”. And in fact that’s what they said at the
visitor centre, “no mokao sorry”. I looked at the many photos on the walls, no
Nepenthes. But there were some nice utrics, U. delphinioides, minutissima and
scandens. So I asked where I could find those. The girl told me about a place
called Lan Duk Si Taa. I was told that the only way was to reach it by outside
the park, following the road back to another entry. That’s what I did, but once
I was in the area I spent hours asking the laughing policemen and some very
serious privates and generals with no result. One man was asked by the police
to bring me to Lan Duk with his car. The man brought me to the big, luxurious
entrance of some kind of private gardens. Here he spoke with a man in uniform.
Then he brought me back and left me in the middle of the road. “So?” I said,
“Lan Duk Si Ta ??”. “No, no” he said laughing, asking me to get down from the
car. And then alone again, in the middle of the road. I wanted to kill someone.
To be aggressive with the police was useless, as they probably didn’t know
much. So I decide to be aggressive with the people in uniform. I went back to
the gardens and I sat down on the road, promising to myself that I would have
never moved from there without an answer. After about one hour that some
privates and – maybe – generals were walking around looking at me, probably
deciding what to do or trying to consult a dictionary for the bloody 4 words I
was waiting for or trying to defeat their legendary shyness, a private came to
me and simply said “this is queen property, Lan Duk Si Ta, Queen holyday house,
no entrance, sorry”. Oooohh, finally. “Thank you” I said. And I left. Now I
wonder why the girl from the national park sent me over there. But at least I
know that probably the Queen has a passion for bladderworts. I tried to calm
down and find back in my head the main target: Nepenthes. If Phu Phan resulted
to be negative, let’s go to Phu Pha Yon. I couldn’t even rise my hand that
suddenly an old man stopped his motorbike just next to me and brought me to the
nearest minibus to Sakon Nakhon, where I had a quick lunch and then tried to
reach Phu Pha Yon.
19) Phu
Sa Dok Bua n.p. No Nepenthes here.
20) Phu Pha Yon. Ops, this is a new note, so
this place hasn’t actually ever been called by the Versaille Mansion lady. But
in 2006 I was told at the phone by the staff of Phu Pha Yon that they had (and
also Phu Lek and Phu Phan had) mokao moken lin. After having just been at Phu
Phan, where eventually I was told “no mokao sorry”, I had just enough time for
a very good padthai in Sakon and then I ran to Phu Pha Yon, that I reached in
maybe 45 minutes. On the minibus I met a whole class (can you imagine how much
a whole thai class can laugh!?) of kids, and a couple of girls tried to tell me
in any way that they loved me and they wanted to show me all the English they
had learnt at school. Why the people at national parks are not so extroverted?
At the visitor centre in Phu Pha Yon I asked about the mokao. “No mokao sorry”,
I was told by all the staff members. Of course. No mokao. Where the hell I
could have taken this crazy idea that the mokao grows in these neighbourhoods??
But I saw a lot of pictures of U. delphinioides, minutissima and others. A
smart fellow was quite well prepared about that, and in 3 minutes he brought me
to see the bladderworts. They were growing just in front of the visitor centre,
on the other side of the road that goes inside the park. I found myself in
front of a laaaarge valley, full of big stones, savannahs and sand. Everything
was very dry, and the man showed me the dead scapes of hundreds, millions of
utrics, growing on the sandy areas among rocks. I was surprised that the mokao
wasn’t growing in a park with such unique soil characteristics. But the man
told me again “no mokao sorry”. He brought me somewhere else, where he knew
that the utrics were still alive. Even closer to the visitor centre, just
before the main road and only a few meters from their volleyball ground, some
shallow water was slowly running here and there, sprouting I don’t know where
from. Here the sand and clay soil was still wet and the plants were all alive.
I saw, near some big ferns, some “pillows” of herbaceous vegetation growing on
the flat rock. On the sides of these pillows there were many D. burmanni
(spatulata?), indica, U. scandens and…wow! Four or five vivid red flowers, with
a wonderful white palate. The most beautiful form of U. delphinioides I’ve ever
seen. I thought that this species always had red flowers, but after having been
in many other locations and having seen many photos in so many visitor centres,
I realized that the most common form has violet flowers. The red form is
something unique and shocking. Unfortunately no seeds. And once again I was in
a hurry and I had to go back to the main target, Nepenthes. I was told that Phu
Pha Yon has another two names, as two sides of the parks extend in two
different provinces. So the park in the Sakon region is called Phu Pha Yon,
while the park in the other two regions is called Huay Huat and Tao Ngoi. To
make things easier, on my map I just put the first of these names. After having
been told once again that there’s no mokao there, I left the place and while
walking on the main road a girl from the park staff stopped with her motorbike
and brought me to the bus stop at the nearest village. From there I reached
Sakon Nakhon in less than one hour. In Sakon I headed to the bus terminal to
take the first bus to Mukdahan, the next destination. But there was no time, as
a young guy, about 25 years old, stopped near me and asked with a good English
“where you go? can I help you? I help tourists, don’t worry, no problem”. He
brought me to the bus terminal. He asked about the first bus to Mukdahan, but
there was no bus until the following morning. The guy offered me to sleep at
his family place instead of spending money for a hotel room. We went to his
place. His father opened the door and, while he was kindly saying “hallo”, I
could see a strange expression on his face, something like “oh, no, Jesus, he
did it again”. The guy revealed to be enthusiastic, extroverted and kind as
much as strange. He spoke. And spoke and spoke. Even his father came to our
room saying in English, with a smile, “can you shut up your mouth for a
moment?”. He just didn’t listen. He told me about how he was studying and
getting a degree with a mail-school, how he was able to play guitar (he was not
too bad, he played some songs from Scorpions etc), how he was deep inside
meditation, that it was changing his life etc. We went out for dinner, so that
I paid him a padthai, that he filled with one big spoon of sugar and one of
chili powder! “I like it spicy”, he said. I see. Even though he was able to
speak. And speak, and speak. About how to pronounce words in English, how to
use computers, how to reach the total knowledge of the whole universe. He spoke
about everything a part from mokao moken lin. Argument towards which I had
tried of course to move our speech. No way. After a long night spent sleeping
on a thin mat on the floor, while he was “meditating”, shaking and emitting
strange breaths (he told me that he usually sleeps 3-4 hours per night), I woke
up with the burning desire to leave the quite disappointing city of Sakon
Nakhon. The amazing guy brought me to the bus station, where I could see from
their expressions that everybody in the city knew him. After the last few
(many) words about meditation I thanked my strange new mate and I took the bus
to Mukdahan.
21) Phu
Wiang n.p. No Nepenthes here. We called in
2004 and they said “Yes! We have Mokao Moken Lin!”. But then in 2006 I went
there. After the adventure at Thung Kramang I
arrived at Phu Wiang at lunch time, also thanks to a final lift by some kind
gentlemen. At the headquarter I saw some photos of D. burmanni, but the staff
couldn’t tell me where those plants were growing. And once again they said “no
mokao, sorry”. They couldn’t speak English, and for each of the following
information I had to sweat for hours. The photos of Drosera and some other
plants were linked to the big image of four waterfalls. These waterfalls stay
on the top of the two flat tableau which rise on the two sides of the national
park. These tableau are about 800 meters high. On their tops there should be
both rocky and sandy habitats. These are all good signs. Unfortunately I tried
for hours, until 4:30, to find someone who could bring me up there or who could
give me some more news, but any kind of communication with any member of the
staff at the visitor centre or at the headquarter was impossible. For 3 hours I
was told that the “boss” was coming to help, but he never arrived. I was asked
my passport but all they could do with it was looking at my photo, laugh and
say “Italy! Italy! ooooh”. I took my dictionary, but they had no idea about how
to use it, and they just had fun looking at all those strange words…After more
than 3 hours spent among the usual laughs and comments in thai, ignoring me,
before I could kill someone I decided to leave. On the way back one person from
the staff gave me a lift to a nearby house, where a thai woman was living in a
little resort together with a farang. Finally there was some hope to
communicate. I jumped out of the pick-up and started explaining my situation to
the farang. After having spoken for 5 minutes, he looked at me with a confused
expression. A terrible doubt came to my mind. “Do you speak English?”, I said.
“Nicht English!”, he replied. Great. Then I realized that the thai woman was
translating in German what I had just said in English. She decided to call her daughter
by phone, as she can speak English and Japanese. I spoke with the young girl
and told her everything. I wrote down for her a few notes about my research,
what to do, where to go etc so that she can go back to Phu Wiang and check
better. I also told her to ignore whatever the staff says about the presence of
the mokao moken lin, as not only they speak about something they don’t know,
but it also seems that most of them are complete idiots. A few weeks later she
emailed me saying that if there’s any hope to find some mokao that’s during the
rainy season. I hope to be able to give some news very soon. The man from the
staff told me that if I wanted him to bring me back to the main city I had to
pay, as he was off-duty. The German man, on the contrary, immediately took his
car and brought me downtown, where I took the first of 3 buses to reach the
next destination: Wang Saph
22) In 2006 at the BK I found a specimen of N. mirabilis, coming from Pak
Tong Chai, where you see the red spot.
23) In 2006 at the BK herbarium in Bangkok I found a specimen labelled N.
mirabilis that was coming from Sang Kla, near Surin.
24) Chong Bat Lak. Nepenthes
here, but no photos, I couldn’t see the plants. Trip 2007.
25) Bung.
Nepenthes here, but I wasn’t even able to make sure
I found the right Bung! Trip 2007.
26) Phu Wua. Nepenthes here, but no photos,
all the pitchers were half dry. Trip 2007.
