Mams little adventure

Kaeng Krachan National Park ,Thailand. I was laying in my hammock reading “The monkey king” (by Timothy Mo) when I heard my friend Mam call my name from out of the woods!

Needless to say that I was surprised! A few days prior I had talked to her briefly on the phone letting her know where I was. The area where I was at is the province where Mam grew up so she knows it pretty well, so, through the coconut telegraph it was an easy matter to track down a farang (foreigner) who was sleeping in a hammock in the woods.
I was glad to see Mam, it had been a while since I had actually seen her and plus, she came bearing gifts! Mam has brought along;
6 golden mangos
1 green crunchy mango (still sweet even though green)
4 ears of steamed “Indian corn”
1 medium sized Durian (my favorite)
1 small bag of pork and fried rice noodles
2 small bags of sticky rice
Some “Monkey meat” on a stick (BBQ Pork)
A bunch of about 20 small bananas
And one bottle of coke.

I took down the rain tarp from my hammock and spread it on the ground under a tamarind tree near my camp. Mam and I dipped in to the food. The “Monkey meat”, corn, fried noodles and sticky rice were excellent. We washed them down with sips of coke and long pulls on my water bottle. I’m not much of a pop drinker but the coke tasted pretty good.


For dessert we grazed a few bananas and then I took out “Old butch”- my trusty green River Knife and cut open the Durian. I love the smell and taste of Durian, in fact, I believe it has to be my favorite fruit.

I have heard people (westerners – Americans, Europeans, etc.) complain about the smell of Durian, saying that it smells like shit. But those are the same type of guys that hang out in bars with a lot of other guys smoking and drinking all night. I can assure you, Durian smells a whole lot better than the interior of a bar with its residual smells of sweat, old man, stale beer and 2^nd hand cigarette smoke.

After eating we took a hike around the area so Mam could take a few pictures. We saw many species of tropical birds and lots of fish from the bridge we hiked across. I had been hanging out (literally) around there for a week or so and was getting a little bored with this area so Mam suggested that I go back to Bangkok (Krung Thep as the thais call it) for a few days and make my plans for Malasia.

That was a good Idea. Mam told me she had a good time hiking around the area I was camped in and hoped to return to do some camping and fishing. We headed to town and took a van back to Bangkok. I checked into a room near soi 27/Sukumvit and began to get back into city groove.