The Scariest and Most Beautiful Moment on the Thailand Journey in Two Days

One of the most unusual adventures in Thailand was the trip to Cheow Lan lake. They explained to us that it’s one of the largest wild lakes in Asia and that we were going to spend a night there. We packed our backpacks with the most necessary items, while still unsure what to expect. Sui, one of the tour guides, who smiled in anticipation, was wearing an olive-green hat, big backpack on his back, waterproof vest and bulky running shoes for walk.

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In a traditional long-tail boat there was a shady looking man resembling a movie character. He seemed experienced enough so we didn’t worry even when he, five minutes after departure, turned the engine off and slowly steered the boat through a labyrinth of gigantic rocks protruding from the lake. The rocks looked so powerful during the quiet night on a shiny lake. Unfortunately, we had to put our cameras back into our bags quickly. We were moving very fast and we felt so cold and wet before we managed to put our rainbow-coloured raincoats with hoods, which were provided by Sui. We all looked like drunken Teletubbies while trying to disembark from the vessel upon arrival.

Our planned activity for that day was a tour of Pakarang Cave (Coral Cave). The unplanned part was the trip to our accommodations, but I will talk about it later.

The road to Pakarang Cave led through a jungle. It was about half an hour away, or a bit longer if we include walking in mud, overcoming acclivities, sliding down declivities, stopping and admiring every lizard and bug in hope of seeing at least one monkey, and then speeding up once we hear an unfamiliar sound… When we finally reached a small group of rangers stationed on the coast of the lake, isolated from the population, our expectations have already surpassed the cave itself.
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One of the rangers, who was cutting bamboo while listening to some meditation music, put his axe down and came to say goodbye. He gave us flashlights and let us into darkness. We weren’t much impressed, as far as we were concerned, the cave was like any other cave. Except for the fact that it was huge and cold, adorned with large shiny stalactites and that everything inside is somewhat silvery. However, since we were already there and it was important to our hosts, we decided to look around a bit, so we saw bats, spiders crawling on the walls, and in the deepest corner there was a golden statue of Buddha which was put there for the purpose of looking after the ones who enter.
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Later that evening we were grateful to him, because this adventure started only after we left the cave. We realized that dusk started to fall and that in less than half an hour, the time that we estimated that we needed to get back on the boat, it was going to be completely dark. And we were in the jungle.

We sped up, there was nothing else to see, with all the sounds produced by wakened animals everything around us looked dark and scary. During the last phase of the trip we practically ran and yelled to one another to check if everyone was keeping pace and to make sure we didn’t lose each other. The boat was ready, complete with the boatman who didn’t look worried at all, even though the lighting was starting to illuminate the dark sky above the lake. Taught by our past experience, we promptly put our Teletubbies “uniforms” on and boarded the boat believing the “captain” knew what he was doing.

This is the time when the most dreadful scene on our journey through Thailand happened. The empty, dark lake blended with the sky, we couldn’t even see those huge rocks any more. We were in a small boat moving suddenly with every tide, all wet, and arranged as per the instruction from the boatman. The rain was pouring, and just then we moved toward the dark clouds, while lightning was striking the lake underneath those clouds. We were quiet and stressed out every time we heard the thunder, even the black humor jokes we usually use to spice up every tense situation did not look appropriate at this moment. This lasted a full hour.
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Our uncertainty was gone when we arrived and disembarked at floating raft bungalows, located in the middle of nowhere. At around the same time it stopped raining and the lightning disappeared in the distance. We arrived just on time for dinner. We were the only foreigners and everyone else acted like there was no storm at all, they were probably used to it, or perhaps it wasn’t so bad over here by the coast. In any case the supper was relaxed, we all laughed while guessing what drugs the boat driver was on, because from the time we met his facial expression never flinched, nor did his dull eyes ever lose focus…
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Then we were allocated a raft house each and it was mentioned that they were going to shut down electrical power in less than an hour and that we were warned in case we needed the power… Of course, we didn’t manage to do anything on such short notice. We were sitting outside for a while, summarizing our experience and splashing our feet in the lake, until our guide, again with a smile, suggested that it wasn’t a good idea, unless we wanted some dangerous fish to bite our toes off. Anyhow, it was better to sleep because they were going to wake us at 4 am.

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They weren’t joking. It wasn’t even near dawn when we gathered on the central quay and boarded the boat again. This was when the most beautiful scene of our Thailand tour happened.

Fog was hovering over the glassy surface of the lake, the stars were fading into daylight, we were sailing and listening to birds. Totally idyllic.

– Do you have “leech socks”? – Sui remembered to ask, and to our shocked look he just shrug his shoulders and winked. He brought extra pairs of socks for us.

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They took us to breakfast in the jungle, and the “leech socks” gave a dose of danger to the excursion. As it turned out, those leeches looked like pink worms and could leave a mark on your skin, and the rangers who were leading the way through the forest were nonchalantly putting them on their palms, just to show that it was nothing really scary. At least, it wasn’t scary to them, because their bloody hands proved that those small creatures can be very hungry.

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We walked along a narrow river until we reached our picnic spot, while looking for elephant, deer, and buffalo tracks, who apparently already finished their morning rituals. We didn’t see them. Actually, we were forbidden from making detours into the forest, but from a safe zone we managed to see two monkeys and a lot of parrots on tall palm trees. Our Wilderness Survival 101 consisted of rolling up bamboo leaves and filling them with rice and roast chicken. We watched the rangers set up fire in wet conditions, cut bamboo so that they could cook rice in it, thread pieces of chicken meat on a stick, select nonpoisonous plant leaves for food serving… It’s not like we could repeat all that on our own, but the food was memorable, especially if the exotic surroundings are taken into account.

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author: Ana Kalaba
photo: Milica Protić / Ljuba Radojević
text.en: Dragan Dobožanović
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