15 February 2012….Thailand is impressively committed to preserving some of its natural settings despite the insatiable demand for more places for people to live, more farm land and more commercial development.  There are almost 150 national parks in this country covering over 60,000 sq. kms of space – about 10% of Thailand’s total land.  That’s outstanding evidence of the value the country accords its wild places.

One of our new friends in the bush

 

 

The grand entrance to the national park - with a very large hornbill

The most impressive of these preservation areas is called the Western Forest Complex, one of the most unique and untouched forest areas of Asia.  This vast area straddles both Myanmar and Thailand, has 19 national parks and wildlife reserves and covers 18,000 km in total.  It has an outstanding mix of flora and fauna, including many plants found only there, herds of wild elephants, tigers, leopards, bears, many types of monkeys, buffalo, tapirs and something like 400 species of birds.

They make big beautiful trees up here

Did I mention monkeys?  Let me tell you, this place has got monkeys.  No sooner had we paid our fees (camping fees were $1.00 per person) and headed into the park by following the windy road into the deep jungle than we hit the beginning of a weekend of rough dirt roads.  And virtually around the first corner crossing the track ahead of us was a family of monkeys we had never seen, large animals with a funny short tail, almost black with long hair and red around their face and bum.  We watched them watch us for a while before we saw another 20 or so on the other side of the track, drinking from a water hole, staying on the ground, walking on all fours and not bothered by us.  They had a face only a mother could love but their size and long hair made them a special treat. 

The Dusky Leaf Monkey, a cute little fella

We later found out these monkeys are called Stump Tailed Macaques, also called Bear Macaques because of their face and long canine teeth, a first for us, and very unique.  And we later read the males go bald with age, not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course.

We continued up the mountain and the top half of the road is only open at certain times in each direction because it is steep and narrow and a very rough dirt track.  We timed our arrival well and headed up to the top of the range where there were magnificent views across the misty covered mountains and the start of a 4.5 km walking track to Thor Tip waterfall.  But the heat and the time of day limited us to only a half hour walk down this track, heavily covered in jungle vine with strange animal noises not far away.

The jungle took on some interesting shapes

We were planning on camping at the small ground at the top of the mountain but 200 university students with their tents touching each other immediately changed our plans.  The noise from all these students would drown out all chance of us even hearing each other, let alone the wild animals, so we headed back down to the larger and totally abandoned campground about half way down the mountain. 

Flying langurs almost directly over our heads

The rough dirt track up and down the mountain occasionally gave challenge but the might Wish was up to the task.  But wildlife was everywhere and we repeatedly stopped to take in the birds – including the elusive Hornbill – and more monkeys.  This was a different monkey, mostly light grey with fluffy long tails and cute rings around their eyes, very huggable except for their location high amongst the trees.  But they chattered and jumped and swung between the trees almost as part of the free entertainment.  And one monkey in particular, seen through our binoculars in a distant branch, was a magnificent giant.  His colour markings and his poise showed him as the king of this jungle, absolutely stunning.

Our tranquil scene in the bend of a creek under the home of the macaques

We pitched our tent in a quiet corner of the lower campsite called Ban Krang near the little creek with trees hanging over us and having the most magnificent peaceful feeling about the place.  The no alcohol rule of this national park – we’d never seen that before (thank goodness) – meant we had to be a little secretive during cocktail hour at first but after dark, what the hell.  And when it got dark the jungle seemed to close in on us a bit and the strange noises got a little closer.  We can recognise a lot of bird and animal noises but there were a few new ones here and at least one sounded a bit menacing, especially around bedtime.  Tigers, leopards, rampaging tapirs, anything was possible.  Unfortunately we fell asleep too quickly to hear or see more. 

At night the jungle closed in on us....

Julie 1, Jungle 0

The next morning we woke to rustling in the trees just above our tent to find a large family of beautiful monkeys playing in the branches above us.  With coffee, camera and binoculars in hand we watched this family for ages as they played and ate a short distance away.  These were the same as the many we saw the day before, mainly light grey with a beautiful long white fluffy tail and cute white rings around their eyes.  At first we thought they might be the elusive gibbon (which also has the rings around their eyes) that we had heard in trees many times but never seen.  But we later learned they were the Dusky Leaf Monkey, also called the Spectacled Langur (I don’t know why these guys all have two different names). 

These langurs stuck exclusively to the trees, were literally jumping from branch to branch, eating fresh buds, the youngsters playing games and always with those adorable faces.  The contrast between these guys and the Stump Tailed Macaques couldn’t have been greater.  There was a tiny baby amongst them, carefully protected by Mum but unmistakable due to his bright orange hair.  It was easy to count the monkeys up in the trees no matter how close they sat to each other by simply counting the long tails that were hanging down. 

Mum and bub

If I had a tail like that I'd show it off also

After brekkie we took off on a 2.5 km nature trail along the little creek and immediately dove into the heavy foliage of the jungle.  This was great stuff with the giant trees, huge vines, thick undergrowth and of course the monkeys.  These Dusky Leaf Monkeys were everywhere, I tell you, and up in their arboreal perch they weren’t afraid of us one bit.  But we never got tired of them and they seemed never to tire of us.

The other amazing thing we saw on this track and on the dirt roads we’d been driving was huge piles of elephant dung.  How do I know it was elephant dung?  Believe me, no other creature could lay claim to the evidence.  The park is famous for its wild elephants, the highest concentration anywhere in South East Asia (and most recently, the site of some elephant poaching) and the human trails made good elephant trails through the jungle (or did the elephant trails make good human trails?).  We looked and listened but we didn’t catch sight of any elephants this time….but we’ll be back.

Passing elephants can make a mess of our trails

That afternoon we had aspirations of driving to the southern part of the park and seeing a multi-tiered waterfall before heading home.  But we always start off too ambitious and after having to detour to find petrol (there’s not much up in the few villages we found) we decided to gracefully retreat  and save the southern stretches for another weekend. 

I think I know what they mean