When I heard that Friday was going to be a half-day because of sports day, I knew I wanted to head far away from Chonburi for the weekend. I was itching to explore Thailand’s jungles because I had spent the last two weekends on the beach. Saleem and I decided to head to Khao Yai national park. It was founded in 1962, making it Thailand’s oldest national park and second largest. Khao Yai is 2,166 square kilometers and spreads across four provinces, Pranchin Buri, Nakhon Nayok, Nakhon Ratchasima and Saraburi. Before I go on, say the last sentence five times fast, or better yet even one time correctly. Anyway, it’s an enormous park. I wanted to explore a jungle, so why not a really, really, really big one? I did a little bit of research on how to get their via bus, but all the information was pretty vague. There isn’t a website of buses and routes for the country so basically write a few cities down and wing it. That’s exactly what we did. After sports day we ate lunch with a few friends and then we all went our separate ways. Jill and James headed to Ko Samed, Danielle to Saraburi and Saleem and I to well, we had no idea, we just went. Somehow, someway, our entire weekend went off without a hitch and it was all because of the knowledge and kindness of strangers. Strangers that spoke Thai. Saleem and I counted over thirty people that helped us. You’re about to hear all about them. After lunch we took a song tow to Forum mall because we heard that there may be a bus there that goes to Korat. Korat is north of the park so we could take that bus and then hop off in Pak Chong, which is a town near the park entrance. When we got to Forum we asked a man near the buses, “Which one to Korat.” He explained with gestures that the buses were around the corner and across the street. Although we thought we knew what he said, we decided to ask a motorbike taxi man. He led us into a shoe store because he knew the people inside spoke English. I was a little ashamed at my lack of Thai language, but we thanked him and stepped inside. The people at the shoe store were really helpful, they told us in words what the man by the bus said with his body language so once again we were off to the next and basically first step of our weekend traveling whirlwind. Once we got to the buses we asked a driver, which one was headed to Korat. He pointed to the bus we were standing near and hurried us to the end of the block to buy tickets. We made it just in time, the bus pulled out five minutes later. We felt really lucky and we were happy to be on our way. Saleem and I were all smiles. We thought we would ride this bus for a few hours and then get off at Pak Chong, maybe even in time to see thousands of bats fly out of the infamous bat cave at sunset. That was not the case. After four hours on the bus we stopped at a bus station to pick up more passengers. I went up to talk to the bus driver because I figured we were getting close to our stop or we had missed it. Neither was the case. We had gotten on a bus that was headed to Nakhon Ratchasima not directly to Korat, so we weren’t going to pass by Pak Chong we were actually way east of it. The bus driver explained to me that we should wait until we get to the bus station in Nakhon Ratchasima and then transfer to another bus that would take us to Pak Chong. Saleem and I were a bit bummed out, but only because the air conditioner was blasting on the bus and it was getting both of us sick. I was worried that the buses wouldn’t be running by the time we got to the station so I paged through my guidebook looking for places to eat and sleep. When the bus stopped an hour and a half later the driver rushed us over to a ticket window and told the seller where we were going. She stamped our tickets and pointed us to the correct bus. Once again we were on our way, directed by friendly, helpful strangers. Once again we had made the bus just in time, it pulled out less than ten minutes later. I couldn’t sleep on the second bus ride because I was worried we would miss our stop. I realized I had absolutely no idea what Pak Chong looked like or how long it would take to get there, so even if I was awake it was likely we would miss it. After about two hours I started seeing 7-elevens everywhere we stopped. I knew the bus stop in Pak Chong was in front of a 7-eleven, but which one? I was getting a little anxious and then a Thai couple next to me tapped me and said, “Pak Chong,” so I woke up Saleem and we got off. We stood in the median for a few minutes trying to gather our thoughts. Here we were at 10 p.m. in Pak Chong. We hadn’t eaten since lunch and I had to pee. We wandered over to a restaurant and I said the word for toilet in Thai. The waitress smiled and showed me the way. Never, ever does this happen in the states. I was worried I would have to buy a meal when I was finished, but nope, just smile and walk on out. Our next mission was finding a hotel. We didn’t see anything that looked like a hotel and all the signs were in Thai, duh. We weren’t stressed about it though. I made a joke about having an all night picnic in the median and that made my stomach growl. We decided our first step should probably be dinner because the vendors looked like they were cleaning up. We crossed the street and I started to point to different dishes and ask, “jeh?” Which means vegan. I’m not vegan, but it’s easier to say the word for vegan than it is for vegetarian, I know, I’m a bit pathetic. The first man smiled and shook his head. I’m used to this because there is rarely ‘jeh’ options. I usually find a stand and stick to it, but this was a new town, so I had to start searching. After my first failed attempt, I asked another man who had many food options already bagged up. I kept pointing and asking, “jeh? jeh?” but he kept shaking his head no. I grabbed a bag of white rice and then began pointing to his sauces hoping I could just pour one of them over my rice and call it a night when a small, old, woman came up beside me. I asked, “phet?” meaning spicy, and the old woman pointed to all the bags and said, “phet, phet, phet.” Even though I was disappointed by her answer, I knew she had my best interests in mind. I paid for my rice and started to walk away when she grabbed my hand and led me through the market. She was walking fast so I hurried to keep up with her. I realized she wasn’t really in a rush, she was excited to help me. She led me to a stand with bagged salads and pointed to the egg asking if it was ok. I was overjoyed at the thought of a salad. I haven’t had one since I’ve been in Thailand. I smiled and went to pay for the salad, but she grabbed the money out of my hand and waited there to pay for it. She even counted out the change for me to make sure I knew that I paid the correct and fair price. I still wanted something to go with my rice so I crossed the aisle and pointed to something on a stick and said the word for tofu. The vendor shook her head and said the Thai word for fish. The little, old lady shook her head, but I explained that I ate seafood and again she grabbed my money, paid and counted out the change for me. I thanked her over and over and then asked where we could find a hotel. She looked baffled. I was nervous that maybe there were no hotels around, but that wasn’t why she was confused. I was saying the words completely wrong. I had managed to mangle two words so badly that I had to point out the Thai symbols to her in my phrasebook. A younger girl standing nearby told us where to go and once again we were on our way. After winding down a few dark alley ways we felt a little lost. Nothing looked like a hotel and worse yet, everything looked closed. We walked up a street and then turned back around. We were about to go into a pharmacy and try the words for hotel again when an older man said, “Can I help you?” A smile broke across both of our faces. We couldn’t get over how helpful everyone was being. The man asked us if we wanted to pay a low price or high and we said low was better. He directed us down an alleyway and told us the name of the hotel. After two blocks we had made it. A room with a fan was only 250 baht, that’s a little over $8. Our bellhop took us up to the room and we asked a few questions about how to get to Khao Yai. He said to wait in front of 7-eleven in the morning and it would pick us up. We went up to the room and ate dinner. We only had one spoon so I ended up eating the rice like you would chip crumbs out of a Lays bag. I didn’t even care how ridiculous I looked, I was so close to Khao Yai and better yet I had this overwhelming feeling of faith in humanity settling over me. Saleem and I couldn’t stop smiling and talking about how this would never happen in Philly. I laugh at people after they ask me where 14th street is or how to get to Rittenhouse Square. Not anymore. I felt so grateful and in a strange way loved because no one had to help me or care about my situation, but they did. So many people did and they cared a lot. After dinner we walked to 7-eleven to get tiger balm and a nasal inhaler because we felt like we were getting sick from spending hours in the bus that felt more like an icebox. We went to bed relatively early so we could get a jumpstart on what was about to be an even better day at Khao Yai. The photos above are a few teasers of what’s to come. Stay tuned.
