Been busy with work and the cats and the house. (At least now I've got my sofa back.) Feel like I'm fighting an uphill battle kadang, so many things i want to do sampai tak terlarat nak buat and tak tahu yg mana satu nak buat dulu... Am feeling weary having to deal with all the chores on my own, in between my commitments and outstation work. No fair.
So... dipendekkan cerita, pagi tu I pegi beli groceries kat 7-11, since we all dah makan most of Yumiko's food. Also needed more batteries for the camera. Tergezut jugak, harga telur sampai 51 Baht. Dah beli semua, balik rumah, masak scrambled eggs for breakfast. Since we all dah pack malam tu, pagi lepas breakfast kitorang pun pegi lah naik Skytrain to Mochit, nak naik bas ekspres dari the Northern Bus Terminal. Sampai2, tengok peta, map kata the terminal is across the nearby park. Sampai kat seberang, tak nampak lak terminal bas. Tanya la mamat2 yang dok tunggu kat tepi pagar tu. Tak tau la depa tu polis ke, hapa ke, tapi pakai uniform la. Yang penting, kitorang tak reti cakap Siam, depa tak reti cakap Melayu ataupun English. Dah tu, sebut "bas" pun diorang tak paham...
Belek2 peta, ada la satu tempat tu nama dia "Bang Sue". Nak sebut pun tak reti. Ingatkan tu la nama terminalnya. Dah tu naik teksi, last2 sampai satu stesen keretapi yang sangat kecik dan dengan brutalnya terpaksa melintas landasan untuk sampai ke stesen... saba ajelah... So kitorang pun pergi lah mencari insan2 yg reti cakap org putih. Jumpa la sorang mamat tu dalam the transport office. Dia suruh pegi Mochit 2, nama terminal dia. So, tahan la teksi lagi sekali, pergi sana.Sampai sana, beli tiket, in 10 minutes dah naik bas. Efisien la pulak, diorang2 ni. After 2 1/2 hours, rasa2 dah sampai Pak Chong, tapi tengok keliling, semua signboard tulis Siam. Camna nak baca?? In the end, asked Sali to tanya. Confirm dah sampai Pak Chong, so turun la. Lak tu dah lunchtime, tengok keliling , takde tempat yang konfiden nak makan. Tanya kat org jual kerabu, dia bagi directions ke kedai org Islam. Alhamdulillah... dapat la makan nasi ayam hari tu, walaupun tak reti nak order, main tunjuk2 je.
Then pergi cari the local bus to go to the National Park. Made the mistake of showing the driver a brochure I printed for Greenleaf Travels - we got dropped off halway to the park! After talking to the guy in Greenleaf, we decided to take our chances with the park and caught another local bus there. Did I mention it was drizzling all this while? Sejuk, babe!!
Sampai kat gate, bayar entrance fee, then tunggu keta to tumpang naik ke visitor center. Distance is 15 km, and walking is unsafe, takut terlanggar keta pasal jalan belok2. No bus service, and hitchhiking is the norm... After a bit dapat la naik Ranger pickup - in the back, that is!! By the time sampai kat Visitor Center, my fingers were frozen, nak menulis pun susah. Ha ha..We actually wanted to stay in a room, but since we had no transport, and they were 4 km away,
we had to opt for the nearby dorm, which turned out to be rooms devoid of any furniture. By this time had made friends with a French guy who was travelling with us on the local bus, so it was the 3 of us in the 'rumah panjang' style dorms that night. Sali & me shared while he took one next door. I had my sleeping bag, but the others rented blankets from the caretaker. Oh how I wish I had taken a set too!! It was freezing cold that night and my worn sleeping bag was hardly adequate. When we got there at five, the temperature was 19 degrees C, next morning, when it had already warmed up, it was 12. I'm not sure what the T was in the middle of the night, but it was enough to make me put on all the clothes I had and wish I had more!Makan was at the cafe near the visitor center. We made do with whatever looked halal, had some nice fish for dinner and some kuih for breakfast. The best part of Khao Yai is its wildlife. Wish I could have arranged to go spotlighting that night. FYI, this is driving around in a pickup with a spotlight to look for mammals, and the park has plenty of those. We did see some black-tailed deer and short-tailed macaques while walking, as well as elephant dung, but that was about it. Rugi, sieh... I did a bit of birdwatching outside the dorm in the morning, but could not really identify most of what I saw. We DID see a scarlet minivet, though. Or was it a long-tailed minivet? Whatever. As the Frenchie said - "Magnifique!!" We saw a couple of Oriental pied hornbills while having breakfast and Great hornbills while driving past, but not much else. Am tempted to come again for a proper outing. Yeah, right. If I can raise the cash!!
3 of us went trekking towards a waterfall after breakfast. It was tough, sometimes
we lost the trail due to fallen trees blocking the way. But Sandy caught on the trick of following the "marc rouges" - red marks on the tree trunks or red ribbons for temporary trails. We went on and on without even coming close and had to turn back halfway because we needed to go back to BKK the same day. So we bid goodbye and headed back to the dorm. After a lunch of rice and Brahims, we hitched a ride from a pickup, got on the bus to Pak Chong and the express to Bangkok.Since it was Valentine's day, the jam was BAD. It took us more than 3 hours to get back to Bangkok. The queue for a taxi was long, and the guy seemed disgusted we only wanted to go to Mochit station which was close by. Sorry, la, mana la kitorang tau...
By the time we got back to Yumiko's it was past eight pm. We wanted to belanja her, but she was still at work, and had apparently left her phone at home. Patut la message tak jawab...
She eventually came home, and we decided to go to Hard Rock for dinner. One reason was Risq wanted a T-shirt, though God knows why I bother since he has still come to pick it up from me until now. Am so going to charge him storage fees for this... Kalid joined us and we had a good time. As we were walking back, a guy called us to join his private party at his new shop or cafe. It was kind of bizarre! We walked back all the way to Y's, maybe 2 or 3 km away, with Kalid as escort. By the time we said our goodbyes and went back up it was after midnight...We did some last minute packing and went to bed by 1.30 a.m. Got up at 4.00 to catch our flight home at 7.00. Touched down at KLIA by ten a.m. It was a real good holiday...
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