Josh and I put on our hiking boots, packed a tent, and rode our motorbikes to Doi Phu Kha National Park over the past weekend. The main mountain is 2000 meters high and located in northeastern Nan, only an hour away through twisty scenic mountain roads.
After pitching the tent and snagging a map, we anxiously started hiking up a beautiful nature trail towards the peak of Doi Phu Kha. The landscape was an intriguing mixture of forest and jungle. Within 20 minutes, however, the exotic trail spat us out upon our realization of the countless leeches that had inched their way up our hiking boots, latched onto our ankles, and begun sucking away. We flicked off as many of the vexing vampires as we could and ran back to our tent. Less anxiously this time, we returned to the trail prepared with... pants (rather than shorts)! Predictably, wearing pants only temporarily impeded the leeches' blood bath, so we had to systematically stop and terminate the little fuckers every 5 minutes or so.
Not only were the leeches an inconvenience, but we also had to deal with a "Thai quality" map. Imagine you go for a walk with a 4 year old, then give the child a crayon and sheet of paper and instruct a drawing of the route. What would you expect? If you're thinking along the lines of a simple oval shaped trail, that's exactly what our map looked like. The fact that the few words were all in incomprehensible Thai was actually completely irrelevant, because the map never even acknowledged the existence of numerous offshoots and forks in the road along the way. The night began to spread its darkness and we promptly descended the mountain, until we stumbled upon a stunning and salvaging overlook of the sunset! The leeches and mosquitoes were feasting on our flesh while Josh and I were busy feasting our eyes on the inspiring sky. All was well.
We woke up at 4:20 the next morning (purely coincidence...) and attempted to reach the elusive peak in the dark. Did I mention the Thai map really sucked? When we reached the highest point in the trail, we traced and retraced our steps looking for a way up to the peak or even any overlook to catch the imminent sunrise. Needless to say, we were not witnesses of the sunrise that Sunday morning. After three hours of hiking in the dark and of course plucking off leeches, we had finally reached the "fuck it dude, let's play frisbee" moment. We opened up some Chang beers (around 7:30 am) and threw around the disc with the mountain as the backdrop.
"A wiser feller than myself once said, 'sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes, well, he eats you.'" ~ The Big Lebowski (of course!). Doi Phu Kha National Park was a wild Thaiventure, much different than the previous beach bum weekend in Ko Samet, but certainly another worthy experience!
After pitching the tent and snagging a map, we anxiously started hiking up a beautiful nature trail towards the peak of Doi Phu Kha. The landscape was an intriguing mixture of forest and jungle. Within 20 minutes, however, the exotic trail spat us out upon our realization of the countless leeches that had inched their way up our hiking boots, latched onto our ankles, and begun sucking away. We flicked off as many of the vexing vampires as we could and ran back to our tent. Less anxiously this time, we returned to the trail prepared with... pants (rather than shorts)! Predictably, wearing pants only temporarily impeded the leeches' blood bath, so we had to systematically stop and terminate the little fuckers every 5 minutes or so.  |
| Not Curt Schilling's famous bloody sock, but the result of hiking with leeches |
We woke up at 4:20 the next morning (purely coincidence...) and attempted to reach the elusive peak in the dark. Did I mention the Thai map really sucked? When we reached the highest point in the trail, we traced and retraced our steps looking for a way up to the peak or even any overlook to catch the imminent sunrise. Needless to say, we were not witnesses of the sunrise that Sunday morning. After three hours of hiking in the dark and of course plucking off leeches, we had finally reached the "fuck it dude, let's play frisbee" moment. We opened up some Chang beers (around 7:30 am) and threw around the disc with the mountain as the backdrop. "A wiser feller than myself once said, 'sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes, well, he eats you.'" ~ The Big Lebowski (of course!). Doi Phu Kha National Park was a wild Thaiventure, much different than the previous beach bum weekend in Ko Samet, but certainly another worthy experience!
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