Phetchaburi

Back on the Thai mainland now, this latest post of Mr. Lee's is from Phetchaburi. I am learning a little bit about the country as he makes his way north. There are wild monkeys living in abandoned buildings and (literally) hanging out in town. And elephants still live free in Thailand. How cool is that!?

And now for the RANT PORTION of this post:
Unscrupulous people are poaching what's left of the world's incredible, irreplaceable exotic wildlife population and superstitious, self-indulgent Asians are their biggest customers. Together these assholes are responsible for endangering these fragile diminishing populations. Whether it's because of a taste for shark fin soup or an ignorant, misguided effort to increase sexuality (which doesn't work but that's not the point), I'm calling you guys out. Think I'm racist? Too bad. As long as you're killing and eating my friends, fuck off.

Don't support exploitation. If you are traveling in this (or any) part of the world please know that travelers are discouraged from buying food from handlers to feed animals or even having their pictures taken with them. The whole system is corrupt and illegal. In Thailand, Wildlife1.org provides a way to anonymously report handlers. I am including the link in case I'm ever in Thailand and want to report somebody. You can use it too.

So now, on to our guest blogger.

June 14 - Phetchaburi Thailand Photos here

After we got off the phone, I strolled around the town to try and get oriented. It had just rained, so it wasn't so hot and I had a window of opportunity to get out and explore. I was the ONLY westerner downtown. I finally shook off the grubby Euro backpack set. Obviously, there are enough stray visitors that I didn't attract too much attention (or the people were really sneaky about it). Folks actually smiled at me, but no one stared.

I found the food market. Pretty much like any market anywhere. I sniffed out some sweets. They make a distinctive egg-based sweet here, sort of like a custard ball, and that's what I thought I found cooking over a charcoal grill. But what I got was something different though probably no less delicious. The sweet was about the size of a ping pong ball and I would guess it consisted of roasted mashed banana or plantain, fresh coconut, maybe a little egg as a binder and maybe a little sugar for a sweetener. I got 10 for 50 cents.

As I munched my snack, I slowly made my way over to the Rabieng Guesthouse, reputedly the only place in town to rent motorbikes. They had two venerable Suzukis. I took the one with two mirrors So far as I know, there are only two motorbikes for rent in the entire town of Phetchaburi (contrast that with the hundreds available on the tiny island of Koh Tao). That's how slight tourism is here.

After learning that it was way too far to travel to Kaeng Krachen National Park (really, one of my main goals in my visit here), and after assuring the girl that I wasn't going to KK Park, I set off for KK Park. I had no map. I had a compass and a vague idea of where the park might be. It's large, the largest in the country, so I figured if I kept driving in one direction, I'd probably run into it. 50 miles later, that's exactly what happened. Although the roads are generally good, the ride there was perilous and hot and dusty and easily one thousand times more dangerous than my aborted plan to visit Khao Sok National Park on a tour.

At the KK Visitor Center, signs were in Thai and English, but nobody spoke any English. The girl at the desk told me I couldn't continue on "motorcycle". When I asked just how, then, I was supposed to get to a trailhead, I was met with incomprehension. It just didn't make sense to me, but she was adamant. I watched a couple motorbikes whiz by and decided to cross the street to Park Headquarters, maybe find a forester who spoke English. I talked to three fellows but they really didn't understand me and continued to gesture toward the Visitor Center despite my protestations, despite my pantomiming riding a motorbike, etc.

I set my jaw and resolved to drive up the damn road, and the heck with the Visitor Center girl. I hopped on my little Suzuki and, like a renegade outlaw biker, I gunned it straight to the center of the park. Nobody pursued me. Nobody cared.

After some time, I came to a luxury resort. I reckoned that a luxury resort would have someone at the desk who was fluent in many languages. I rode through the extensive grounds, covered in sweat and road grime, my filthy day pack on my back, and eventually I got to the front desk. Open air and quite beautiful. There, a nice woman eating a green coconut welcomed me in English. I asked her where exactly I was. My question was impossible, I know, but I had to start somewhere. A half hour and one coconut shake later and finally we came to an understanding. I was just outside the park proper.

The resort was hurting for business. Normally, rooms were $100 or more per night (nice big bed, TV, wifi in the room, biggest pool I'd seen in Asia, great staff, perfect grounds, I could go on). Without negotiating, she offered me a room with breakfast for half price. Great rate, but $50/nt is still too dear for my backpacker budget.

Back in Phetchaburi, I stumbled across the Monday Night Market by accident. Seems half the city was there. Interesting goods including a lot of manufactured goods that were made in Thailand rather than made in China and that just seems so odd and rare these days. In addition to every kind of clothing and consumer good, there was a vast array of food. I'd already eaten at the Night Market - fish and veggies and a fried egg over rice for a buck - so I just had a milky iced tea with grass jelly and two other kind of jellied things.

I'm at the hotel now. My body is still vibrating from more than a hundred miles of hard riding on a small motorbike. I will sleep now.

Mr. Lee

Read about Wildlife Friends of Thailand's latest rescue and news here.