Lions (not here), Tigers (not likely), Bears (oh Yes!)

Hello, sa-wat-dee. Enough time has passed that I have fallen into a well-set routine. And, I'll even admit that being hot and sweaty and trudging up and down and around hills all day makes me look forward to a cold shower. The days are getting hotter (the rainy season is expected to begin in late April with a peak in June). It's usually around 70F by seven in the morning and must reach mid-nineties by mid-afternoon. I'm happy to report that the motorbike driving is getting better although I am still not comfortable driving with a passenger. So, what do I see hiking all day in the forest? I have to admit that the majority of my time is not spent hiking, but sitting on the ground. We often see no visible monkeys, not even visible movement, but we just know which tree they are in and stick to it until they move. I've logged enough hours in the forest now to come across a few cool critters. I have seen one guar (a large water-buffalo looking animal), but no elephants yet. We do see plenty of their plant destruction and footprints. Of course, the highest percentage of everything I run into, so they can't be overlooked, (ticks I mentioned before), but now I am quite familiar with LEECHES. It isn't the rainy season yet, however, we've had a week of uncharacteristic daily rains. The bad news: this means I pull at least thirty leeches off my clothes during the day. If you stand in one spot in the forest you can literally watch them inch forward - "smelling" to locate you - the target of an invasion from a bad horror flick. We wear leech socks, tubes of material that go over your regular socks and tie tight at the knee, keeping out intruders. But, when I remove my boots I also remove balls of ten to twenty leeches from my heel area and under my arch or packed around the shoe edges. The good news: It doesn't hurt when they bite (they inject something to numb the area which makes them difficult to detect); you just deal with an annoying amount of blood because they also inject something to prevent clotting. 

But, enough about that fun subject, how about snakes? Yep, just four days ago I was almost bitten by a snake - a viper (potentially venomous) judging by the triangular shape of the head. It was small, about 25-30cm, with a dark red stripe down the center back with yellow and black specks along the sides, and a beautiful rust color that was perfect camouflage for the wet leaf litter. I was just about to step over it when I spotted it, and as I withdrew my foot it struck at and hit the inside of my hiking boot. Luckily the second aggressive attempt at a strike hit air. Lek, the ranger I was with for the day, was ahead of me on the trail and must have stepped right over the thing. I wasn't able to identify it from the small reptile field guide we have here. A stunning sight, but it did get my heart pumping :)

More than the snake story, our encounter with an Asiatic Black Bear was the story that spread throughout the sanctuary in a couple of hours. Carola and I were out walking the transect (a 4000 meter trail running at a set angle - meaning it goes down into valleys, through rivers, and up slopes). We take three minutes to walk 50 meters. This is slow. At all times you are scanning looking for any monkey sightings and at the trail ahead to avoid obstacles and be as quiet as possible. In total, the transect takes about four hours to walk (if there are no interruptions) and this does not count the half-hour hike in (in the dark before sunrise) and one and a half hour hike out. Did I mention it is slow and exhausting? Anyway, so you get the idea that we were walking slow and quiet, which meant we were within 30 feet of the bear when we saw it and before it saw us. Carola was startled and started to back away/ half push me down the trail. The only time I felt my heart beat faster was when I thought she was going to run. As Carola turned her back on the bear it turned to stare at us. He then took a step toward us. For a split second I thought he was going to continue advancing. I was thinking to myself, "um, where would be the best place to go if he decides to charge," but other than that I was much more fascinated to get a clear view of his face than I was scared. The big story that everyone got a kick out of was that I stood there trying to get a better look with my binoculars (even though we were much too close to need binoculars), while Carola was ready to hit it with bear spray or her machete. But there was no incident, it turned and ploughed off in the opposite direction. 

The week of 23rd of March Carola and Andreas ran a five-day lecture/lab workshop, Primate Ecology and Conservation in Thailand - A Teaching Workshop at Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary. Officially fifteen employees of the Royal Forestry Department and three university students were asked to attend. Unofficially, we had about thirty people. After every power-point slide presented we sat through a full Thai translation, making the lecture pace slow for everyone. My role in the workshop was to help out during the daily labs. I had the most fun teaching a group of chiefs (high-ranking managers of various sanctuaries) how to use a range-finder and compass. At one point I gestured to one of the flagged trees for them to estimate distance saying, "blue blue." Apparently, I also pointed toward one of the gentlemen and the group thought I was saying "luung luung" (or uncle in Thai). It's one of those things where you had to be there, but they got a huge laugh out of it and every time they saw me afterward they called out "blue uncle." The lab was cut short because it turned noon and noon means lunch for Thais - no ifs, ands, or buts about it. So, they said, "ah, enough of this, we go lunch." The end. Traditionally Thais are afraid of the forest and you would never see them hiking/camping. For example, when school groups come to Phu Khieo we only see them bird watching, scanning the trees from the road. 

My favorite lunch during the workshop was the result of being called over to a group of Thais sitting around bowls of fish, chicken, beans, pineapple, and sticky rice. We ate with our fingers and masses of rice and shared laughs (about what I do not know). I was the only farang (foreigner) and it felt good (even if I was a little self conscious about eating fruit - they kept watching what I ate and warned me not to each so much pineapple or I would get fat). At the end of the workshop we finished off with a typical Thai party-starting early at five pm. The custom is to drink beer before dinner, eat, then bring out the sound system for karaoke and hard liquor. Basically by dinner people are on their way to being drunk. I ate dinner with Guillaume and in the second it took him to step out to grab more beer I was surrounded by older guys - including the boss of the chief of our sanctuary. They tried to question me to the extent of their English. The big joke was that I was surrounded by a Laotian, Thai, and Cambodian man, I could have my pick. Right. Luckily I was "rescued" by some female students who would intercept and dance between the guys and me. I looked like a fool dancing (in Thai it consists of swaying/hopping and moving your hands "mixing" the air), but so did everyone else. I was actually relieved to dance because it meant I wasn't doing karaoke. (Every ten minutes I was asked if I would get up to sing). By the end of the night everyone was drunk and this seems to be typical and accepted. I got (too close) hugs on the way out and passed others who could barely stand. 

Despite a party every once in a while, our usual nighttime entertainment is far more basic and unique. I mean, you have to be creative when you have no TV. We have watched Guillaume and Stephan shake mentholated talcum powder down their pants (think icy/hot sensation), analyzed tarot cards (I pulled the "strength" card), and laughed as Kitty (one of the sanctuary workers) and Andreas cheered on an old senile pelican carefully climbing the steps to our porch to get out of the rain). If we happen to have two days off in a row sometimes we go to the town of Khon Kaen where we can get a hot shower. Actually, last time in Khon Kaen I tried a traditional Thai massage (300baht or about $7 for two hours). They come right to your hotel room. The massage started with the lady cracking all of my toes and progressed to nice kneading of the muscles in my legs and back with some hip stretching thrown in. Ended with her stretching my back over her knees. Overall, very relaxing body-wise. Not mentally so, however. At the beginning she wanted to ask me questions all in Thai and I caught only about 5% of the conversation which takes a lot of mental concentration. But, going to Khon Kaen is a luxury because it means driving the motorbike 1 hour from the sanctuary to Loui Lai (a small village). Next, taking a slow moving, small open-air bus 1 hour to Cham Phae (a larger town where we usually buy groceries and do email). And finally, being ushered to a "ceiling fan" two-hour bus ride to Khon Kaen (keep in mind all the buses are packed to the gills with people sitting/standing in the aisles). By the time you arrive you are battered by wind and sun and questions in Thai and utterly exhausted. But, you get pizza for lunch. We maybe maybe see a handful of foreigners in Khon Kaen and usually none in Cham Phae. Yeah, so that's what we do for fun. Contrasted with the long days in the forest it all sums up what I'm up to these days.