It was wonderful having my good friend Ginny here in Thailand while I volunteered at Grace International this spring for not only the opportunities to connect with her but to be able to integrate easily into her already-established group of friends. The GIS staff are a warm-hearted and fun group of people who I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know in a variety of settings this spring.
Aside from sharing birthdays, rides to church and heading around town together, we were able to travel to various parts of Thailand together! One weekend venture took us into elevated mountain portions of Thailand in
Doi Khuntan National Park while another week was spent in the southern tropical beaches of Koh Lanta near the Malaysian border. Hiking and camping in the mountains was definitely one trip I will remember for a long time.
Doi is Thai for ‘mountain’ while
Khuntan refers to the numerous flowing rivers, all of which we witnessed during our stay in the park.
But I didn’t realize that
Doi Khuntan has quite a history. Besides it being the 14th national park in Thailand that stretches some 255 square km, one of its distinguishing features is the longest railroad tunnel in the country at over 1300 meters (almost one mile) as located on the right side of the park map. Apparently building this tunnel during the days of World War I did not come cheap for records show that over 1,000 workers died during construction while those who survived were paid for their labor in opium as well as currency. Sadly, the term ‘drug money’ applies here quite literally.
Our trek to
Doi Khuntan started with a bumpy 90 minute ride in the back of a songtaew (covered pickup truck) from Chiang Mai to the front gates of the park. After sending the bulk of our supplies via motorbike we started our own 1.5 km journey up the mountain to our destination camp site called Yaw 3. I didn't realize at the time, but this camp site was a Christian retreat area built by missionaries during construction of the tunnel around 1918.
You see some of the most interesting huts and vegetation while hiking this part of Thailand. For instance, imagine poinsettia plants in the wild among over-sized palms, bamboo and other flowering trees – a lot of vegetation you definitely don’t see while hiking the Rockies or in the back woods of Ontario.
To say our camp site was beautifully rustic is understating the fact - aside from the views and camp fires, we got to experience everything from bucket showers and open windows in our hut to the animal-proof food lockers in the kitchen.
I suppose the daily temperature variance shouldn’t have been as much a surprise to me as it was since we were at higher elevations. Quite the difference from wanting cold showers after hiking during the day to needing extra layers once the sun went down in the evenings. Good thing I brought my sweater even though it went against everything in me, given the high temps in the city when packing for the trip =)
