Trip to Kaao Yai mountain

This past weekend I began to appreciate the vegetation and wildlife in Thailand. Living in Bangkok, I usually spent more time in the subway than I do appreciating nature. Perhaps this is why my family’s weekend trip to Kaao Yai mountain last Saturday was so meaningful.

Kaao Yai mountain is about 2.5 hour drive from Bangkok, which is quite reasonable compared to drives within the West coast (try driving from UT to CA and you’ll know what I mean). The mountain itself was only a couple thousand feet high—pretty short for Utah standards. Still, the slight elevation was good enough to give a noticeable reprieve in the sweltering heat. Under the shade, the temperatures were in the low 80s. I noticed that the mountains of Thailand are quite different from those in Utah; these are completely covered in trees and growth while Utahn peaks are comparatively naked. Although Utah has deer and some wild life in the mountains, Thailand’s diverse animals and plants are much more obvious. At one point my parents and I took a jungle hike through the trees and near a raging river. The trees had several layers—large ones stood tall stealing the sunlight and stopping plants from growing much on the ground level. There are vines everywhere. The vines, however, are not the small green variety that you see in the states, but small trees with trunks six inches in diameter that wrap themselves around the trees, slowly sucking the life out of the host tree.

The best part of the trip was swimming in the waterfall near the top of the mountain. The waterfall was about 100 feet tall and was deafening to hear. Conveniently, there is a gigantic tree next to the pool, allowing visitors to use a rope swing to launch themselves from the side of the tree into the middle of the lake. Swimming near a real waterfall is an experience everyone should have.

The last spectacle occurred as we tried to leave the park. As we started to drive, monkey’s obstructed our path. About three dozen monkeys were simply sprawled all over the road—apparently they were sick of the trees and wanted to experience the cement of urban life. A couple baby monkeys were nursing, the middle aged ones were busy finding bugs in each others’ fur, while the father of the troop walked around strutting his stuff. My sister was so taken by the cute creatures that she got out of the car and took picture after picture. In the interest of time, however, we decided to drive slowly, hinting to the monkeys to move to the side of the road. In the States you are excited to see rare monkeys in a zoo; in Thailand there are so many that they obstruct traffic.