146. | Ang Thong National Park

Ang Thon National Park is a nature reserve. I have been to many of them in Hungary. On foot. It was a bit strange that I would visit this prominent nature reserve by boat, a three-engine boat at that.

The program I bought yesterday also included picking me up in the morning, almost right in front of the house. It is true that the morning meeting was also in line with the looseness of the program, as they confirmed to me that they would pick me up between 8:00 and 8:20. The minibus arrived, with four young Germans already sitting in it. The car didn’t take us too far, to a place that I had already observed in my article “Lightning over the island” when I was walking along the beach. That was the first time I saw such three-engine boats. I think it was the one I was traveling in today.

After the mandatory registration – which included being asked if I had any special requests for lunch – we waited for half an hour for nine o’clock to come. But then we set off on time.

The young Thai man who was our tour guide today was called Big. He was an incredible energy bomb from the first question. Anyone who might not have enjoyed the day or being on the tour would have certainly responded positively to his motivation.

The weather was quite cloudy, there was even a slight drizzle in the morning. We only saw the damage in one place, but I’ll write about that later.

The program

Today’s preliminary program:

• First stop “Koh Wow”, where you can also go diving.
• Arrival at Koh Wua Ta Lap (Sleeping Cow Island)
• Buffet lunch at Koh Paluay.
• Thalae Nai Lake, a saltwater lake

The locations and order have changed slightly. Let’s see how the day went.

Ko Niat

I have trouble with Thai names. For example, island is a simple Thai word: การ. If you can’t read it, it’s not that big of a deal. You can pronounce it! Although, I’ll add that it’s not easy either. Phonetically it’s spelled Keāa. Our last resort is to read it somewhere where it’s spelled in a European way. Like Koh Samui, for example. But – I knit my eyebrows – it’s spelled like this anyway: Ko Samui. It almost doesn’t matter whether it’s Koh or Ko.

This thought process is only needed here because according to the preliminary program, we were supposed to go to the island of Koh Wow. Which of course appears on the map as Ko Wao Noi. Wao must have been written as Wow by some cheerful English-speaking organizer in the program. These funny things make life quite difficult for someone who wants to write the story of such a day. Now I’m that someone.

Because if you want to search for the island of Koh Wow, or at least pictures of it, you’ll have a hard time finding the right result. And when I finally found it on Google, I was surprised to see that I wasn’t there at all. So again I had to base my post-fact reconstruction on GPS coordinates read from good old pictures.

So, I was at the island of Ko Niat, which is located below Ko Wao Noi, and it’s such a small piece of rock that you can only see pixels of it on Google Maps. Try it! Copy these coordinates into the Maps search engine: 9.766940 99.668699.

Then I tried to find some information about this tiny formation, and at that point I was thinking that if my hair doesn’t fall out, I’ll voluntarily burn myself off. Google calls the island Ko Wao Niat, which I think indicates that it belongs to that. I try to interpret the matter freely, and I imagine the following expression emerging: I was diving near the island of Koh Wao Niat, which belongs to the island of Ko Wao Noi. Which is more like a big rock than an island.

I’d say I went diving. I jumped into the sea twice – okay, I went down – and tried to admire the underwater life. This didn’t work out for two reasons. One is that due to the lack of sunlight, the visibility underwater was about half a meter, so you couldn’t see anything. Two, instead of the full-mask snorkel solution – which I like and do as often as I get to the sea – here we were given a mask that covers the nose with a pipe that you put in your mouth. I can’t use this – this was discovered here, by the way – so the result of both attempts was a heart rate of about 300, a feeling of panic that I was going to drown and the need to leave the sea as soon as possible. So, I didn’t go diving much. I still need to practice using this equipment.

I don’t think my thumbs up in the gallery show that everything is fine, but rather that I’m going to go up, I hope the photo turned out well…

Interlude

I was just here writing this when I went out to feed the dog. So I was on the terrace when something exploded about 20 meters away from me. Literally. There was a huge pop, a flash of light and a shower of sparks, and something electrical went up in the street. The small apartment complex was immediately plunged into darkness. Now you will see how fast troubleshooting is here.

Luckily, I work with a laptop and the little lamp I use for work is USB. Speaking of which. USB lamp! It was funny how this little light-emitting device turned out to work like this. Two weeks ago, I was working peacefully one evening in front of my computer when a pop 50 cm from my right shoulder indicated that something was wrong. The sound was followed by the characteristic smell of electrical burning, and the house went completely dark. The adapter of the little lamp exploded. It went into the trash, and then it turned out that it was a USB LED lamp.

So, I can write for a while now, and I can see my hands.

Update: There is power in the house. It turns out that only the circuit breaker went off. The only damage was in the kitchen, where the two ceiling lights were blown out. Everything else works, thank goodness.

Mae Ko Island – Ta Le Nai: Lagoon

We passed several islands and large rocks while traveling between stations. I took a lot of pictures, but unfortunately the pictures don’t reflect the experience I had while traveling.

This place – based on the previous ones – is interesting because when we arrived there, a sign announced that we were on Mae Ko island, which according to Google images is clearly Koh Wua Ta Lap, i.e. the Sleeping Cow Island. Well, this is where those who uploaded such pictures to the system are wrong.

We were indeed on Mae Ko island – which Google Maps calls Ko Mae Ko, you holy cow shit! – but at least the name of the lagoon is correct on the sign and on Maps. Ko Mae island is above Ko Wua Ta Lap. Without the H!

The name doesn’t matter! We were in an amazing place!

We walked up quite steep and worn concrete stairs to reach the island. In return, we were treated to an excellent view of both sides of the island.

First, we could see Emerald Lake, surrounded by jungle. (9.657965 99.666375)

Then, standing on top of the island, we could see many other islands. We stayed here just long enough for everyone to climb the stairs, take selfies, have a coconut drink and then we were off.

Ko Wua Ta Lap

You’re not confused by the names of Thai islands yet, are you? We arrived at this island, which is paradise itself…

A sign announced that we were in Mu Ko Ang Thong National Park. The name of the island, however, is Ko Wua Ta Lap. Here it says Wua, and the first island should have been a Wao, which someone wrote as Wow. I’m sick of these names. But Csepel Island is much more understandable, isn’t it?

This is exactly the island where pirates used to dig up their treasures. Or where Robinson landed! Romantic fires burn on such beaches in the evenings, and here you can talk to Wilson for years!

They drew our attention to the fact that a specific type of monkey dominates the area. We should definitely not feed it and we don’t want to pet it. Unfortunately, I only saw one, I took a picture of it crouching in a tree, but back home I couldn’t make it out in the picture… We had a monkey-free day. That’s why the black monkey is visible in the gallery… It must be rare to see it, because Big, our tour guide, was enthusiastically shouting to us that the monkey is here, the monkey is here! We didn’t see it at all. Then one of the islanders also started to point at the tree very enthusiastically, I don’t think he sees it often either. I took two pictures at that time, but I only see leaves, I swear!

There was, however, a 500-meter climb. The program draft stated that “There are 6 viewpoints on Wua Talap Mountain. To climb to the highest viewpoint (500 meters high), you need to be physically fit. Along the way, if you find the climb to the highest viewpoint too difficult, you can choose to visit only the first 2-3 viewpoints.” After that – well, without that! – it can be assumed that I climbed to the top. The analogy is almost a good one, because although I have climbed mountains quite a few times while hiking, I dare to say that conquering this mountain ranks high among the difficult terrains.

The 500 meters meant the distance, my watch said so at the end. I reached the top in 25 minutes, and the descent in almost the same time. I would not have liked to do this trip twice in a row! This was the route called Pha Jun Jaras Nature Trail, by the way.

But – as I said before – the view here also made up for the torment!

Well, you can really take a lot of selfies here! It’s a bit like sitting on top of the world. Big said that this is the highlight of the national park. I think he might be right!

In one of the pictures in the gallery, I’m pointing to an island. That island is my current home, Koh Samui.

Ko Phaluai

On this island (which was incognito as Koh Paluay in the program), they fed the birds and us. (9.513014 99.696126)

Lots of birds were waiting for us, happily eating the abundance of bananas. By the end of the lunch, it turned out that they weren’t waiting for us to eat, they were simply flying at the bananas. I think that as soon as our boat docked, they professionally scattered the food for the animals, so that we could enjoy the loud noise.

Here we saw the Eastern Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris), a species belonging to the class of birds, the order of the hornbills (Bucerotiformes) and the family of the hornbills (Bucerotidae). Its body length is 61 centimeters, and its body weight is 567-907 grams.

The hornbill reproduces in a very special way. The female chooses a suitable tree hole, and after mating, she moves in there, then with the help of her partner, she “walls” herself in with mud lumps and all sorts of leftovers and debris carried by the male. She only leaves a very small opening, where the male can then feed her and the chicks that will hatch. This mini-opening den serves as a defense against predators and nest robbers. The bird’s behavior, that is, the fact that it feeds its chicks despite not having seen them yet, led to the conclusion that this animal also has the ability of object permanence.

Plus, an interesting study was conducted on this bird: The six birds examined were given increasingly complex tests, practically increasingly complex versions of the red here, red there six. The hornbill passed these tests as expected, exactly 3 birds passed the six tests, and the other 3 passed five. This makes this bird the first to do so, along with parrots and corvids, and their ability is comparable to that of apes. According to the researchers, it would be worth examining other hornbill species (there are dozens) as well.

Source: National Geographic

I spent my lunch with a German couple. I mainly talked to the guy, because the lady doesn’t like and can speak English that much. I like these conversations that have no beginning and no end, we just start getting to know each other for a while.

I got some good feedback from the gentleman. At one point in the conversation, he said that I have a very exciting story and that he thinks I am a happy person. Then, when we talked about English, he praised my English skills. Finally, it was time for the usual game, where we guessed each other’s ages. I was a year off on their ages, but he was seriously off when he thought I might be in my late thirties.

On the way home

The trip home – just like the trip here – took 1 hour. According to the German guy, I wasn’t the only one who fell asleep. The last gallery shows how big the boat was equipped with motors. Accordingly, it was moving almost at the speed of light. Sometimes it jumped so much that I was surprised that it didn’t take off. It’s not called a speed boat for nothing… Despite that, it’s comfortable and safe to travel with. I didn’t have a problem falling asleep during the trip.

Before docking, Big gave a summary of the trip that sounded completely authentic to me, closing the day with this. He said he hoped everyone had a great time, because if not, then he and the team did something very wrong. It was authentic because I experienced that he did his job with all his heart all day.

It’s no coincidence that I wrote the following review for the team:

I felt good every minute of the trip. The team did everything to make it happen, as they took care of our safety, our satiety and our hydration. I am grateful to have spent this day among such excellent people! Thank you for the experiences and energy you gave us!