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Thailand

Mar
2004-09-14 16:16:21

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Karst mountains. The Karst mountains of tropical regions, such as found throughout Southern China, Laos, Thailand all the way to Indonesia, are distinguishable by their steep walled mountains separated by broad flat valleys or plains. These tower like mountains looming above, with rocky overhanging cliffs are riddles with caves and are only found in the humid tropical limestone regions. After these 40km cycling we take a ‘jungle bungalow’ in Tree Tops next to the entrance of the parks for 200 Bht and take the rest of the day off. During lunch we discuss with a park guide what we want to do. I suggest at least a night safari and a good ‘not-in-the-books’ hike trip. He takes away the books and comes back with a guestbook where a couple of tourists described a hike they did together with him. We read that it takes about 8 hours, so the next morning we want to have an early start. In the mean while it seems that René has moved to another bungalow, the fan in his room is broken and what is easier than just to offer a new room. Probably they don’t like him very much because first thing in the morning he tells us he was kept awake due to a fight with a red ants-trail leading right over his pillow... the DEET mosquito spray didn’t do any good either. The next night René becomes "King of Ants".

A pick-up drops us off 5 km out of the ‘backpackers village’ and I see a small dirt track that leads up the steep hill and curls itself around the old and high trees of the rain forest. The humidity makes sure we are soaking in our own clothes after the first 15 minutes walking. I will definitely watch out where I place my feet, because it’s not unlikely that you step on a snake that is resting on the small footpath. Luckily for me I am fourth in line so that reduces the chance that I get bitten. In the distance we hear the Gibbons making their loud hauling or whistling sound. Our guide tells us, to be able to the Gibbon we have to stop and be quiet as ...