Bringin’ in 2011 Mountain Style

1st 2011 sunrise- One beautiful way to start the new year

This past weekend I went to Phu Kradueng National Park with 5 other friends. We met in NKP on Wednesday night and went to the Educational Office New Year’s party (cowboy and cowgirl style. . . too bad I don’t have any of that attire with me). We stuffed our bellies full of Phat Thai and spring rolls. We were invited to dance and make ourselves look as silly as possible and not even get a funny stare as to why we looked so silly. Not a single person judged anyone or for that matter cared how ridiculous anyone dressed or danced. It was a nice change from how judgy us Americans can get of each other.  One song began to play and it sounded a lot like square dancing so I got up and began to dance and within a second a Thai lady was right by my side saying you know how to do the Laos dance? Sure enough in Laos they have a very similar dance to our square dancing so my new friend and I enjoyed steppin’ it up together.

WT hiking Krew

Thursday morning Heather, Peter, Sarah, Jackie, and I met at the bus station to catch the 10:00 am bus to Khon Kaen where we were going to be spending the night. We got there at 9:30 and the people at the bus pointed us to the correct bus and told us to wait. A few minutes before 10:00 we got on the bus took a seat and then were kicked off the bus because we didn’t have tickets and the bus was overbooked. “Thanks a lot bus station people for not telling us to buy our ticket ahead of time!” Off the bus we went, purchased our 1:00 bus ticket, took a tuk tuk back to Sarah’s house, reorganized our packs since we were a bit all strung out with tents, sleeping bags (purchased that morning), snacks and shoes. We made it back to the bus ready to go and off we went on our 5.5 hour bus ride to Khon Kaen. Fortunately this bus ride was a lot more enjoyable than going to Nong Khai because a bathroom was onboard so we didn’t have to dehydrate ourselves.

We stayed the night at the Saen Samaran Hotel, the city’s oldest hotel, for 250 bhat a night, split between 5 people and you get about a $2 hotel room. Can’t beat it!!! After dinner at the night market and a stop for ice cream on our way back to the hotel we enjoyed some great laughs over pillow talk about the days adventure getting to Khon Kaen and the deal of a room we got.

The next morning we arrived at the bus station at 7:30 and were shoved onto a bus going to Phu Kradung National Park. We didn’t even have a second to spare putting our bags under the bus and as we got on we were seated three to a seat which ended up in us sitting on our packs in the middle of the isle for the 2 hour bus ride. Before ending up on the floor though I managed to have a head bobbing seat partner that found my shoulder to be his pillow and the focus of much laughter.

We got to the mountain registered, paid our 400bhat each fee (Thai people only pay 40bhat) and headed up the hill. Peter and I ended up separating from Heather, Sarah, and Jackie and booked it up the mountain and made the 7km trip in about 3.5 hours. I am for sure out of shape after sitting around and eating my way through the past 3 months here. It was a steep climb up the mountain but the stops along the way where we could buy watermelon keep my legs working.

Not a typical National Park experience. The place was littered to the max the trail was gigantic and there were thousands upon thousands of people hiking up the mountain at a time. Many of them overweight and in flip flops or some kind of slip on shoe. Many people were old many were infants being dragged up. Many porters were carrying loads up, anything from suitcases, food supplies for the venders and old old people who couldn’t make the trip on their own but still wanted to join their family at the top for a New Year’s celebration.

SMC reunion in Phu Kradung, Thailand

At the top Peter and I found my friend Sean from SMC who now lives in Chang Mai. It worked out perfectly that we both were planning on going to the park around the same time. It was wonderful to see him since it has been about 2.5 years since we saw each other last. Many SMC conversations came up especially about how upsetting the trail is and how it disobeys every wilderness rule in the book that Sean and I learned about through the Wilderness Program. We also both had SMC shirts that we were wearing which was a perfect touch to our reunion.

That night we all shared a wonderful dinner from the restaurants at the top- basically a night market at the top of the mountain. Then snuggled up for the night and froze our butts off. We woke up just minutes before the clock struck 2011 to uncontrollable shivers and full bladders and brought in the new year by giving each other hugs outside the bathroom.

The next morning we woke up at 4:30 made a 2-3km walk with the other thousands of campers to a lookout point and began the new year by watching the sunrise as we still shivered from the cold. We returned to camp ate a hot breakfast and had some hot coco to warm up. Sean and his girlfriend left to hike down since they had a long drive home and the rest of us went to check out one of the many waterfalls on top of the plateau. It was a small trickle of a waterfall but had a neat cave that we got to go peak in. In our little exploring I managed to step in a puddle of water covered by maple leaves and get my foot soaking wet. Fortunately the sun is intense enough that my shoe dried out before our decent. Ben, another WT volunteer, met us at the top in time for lunch. We were planning on staying two nights at the top but after freezing the night before and being kept up by people who were staying up all night we made the decision to go down after one night leaving poor Ben to make the hike up and down in one day. The hike down was brutal and quite jarring on our bodies. We made it into Khon Kaen late and had quite the time finding a hotel for a decent price that had hot water. We ended up paying about 250 bhat each for a luxurious westernized hotel.  It may be the best 250 bhat I have spent here so far! We got to sleep in the next morning thank goodness because we were truly exhausted and full of aches and pains. I have never been so soar after a hike in my entire life.

After a search for Dee Dee’s restaurant for breakfast and not finding it anywhere (thanks Lonely Planet) we ended up eating across from our hotel. We then went to the wrong bus station and tried to get on an NKP bus but couldn’t because it was full (they wouldn’t let us buy tickets earlier that morning so we were a little peeved we couldn’t get on the bus). We had to go to another bus station and wait 2 more hours for another bus. Once on the bus it was uneventful and I got home about 7:30. I slept almost all day today as I am exhausted from all the travel and my body can barely move still from being so sore. It is nice to be home in my own bed but it was nice being away and breathing fresh air on the top of a mountain. Now back to school tomorrow and may the smoke inhalation continue.

The weekend had its ups and downs and complications with travel but there was no greater joy than beginning the hike and being in the woods where there was fresh air to breath and get a good workout in. Although we were among about 5,000-8,000 people.

Tent City