Heo Suwat and other adventures this week

Well, I've been a slacker. Literally on my to do list every day this week has been "write in blog" and every day I have failed. I'm going to blame some of it on the exceptionally slow internet we've had the last few days, today has been much better. I also get to blame some of it on more productive activities (which feels better than saying I napped or read instead). This week I was busy preparing an application for another field position that would start in November. I am still waiting for a reply from a professor about an academic reference, but I am ready to turn in the application as soon as she responds! I just hope that I am one of the first to turn in my stuff, because applications are being reviewed on a rolling basis. I have also been busy doing my best to stay on track with my "apply to graduate school" timeline. I told myself emails need to be sent out to professors in July, so that its what I am starting to work on. It is very scary and intimidating to think about making a first contact with someone you idolize and someone whose first impression of you could change your life for the next several years...so this is how I feel about that.

Anyway, last Wednesday was a good day because we were able to do the duet playback with W. Yay! Unfortunately that is where our luck ran out. The ranger didn't show up Thursday (because Yun is our only reliable ranger and he was busy). I wasn't too mad about this though, because we hadn't had a day off in a week, and it was the 4th of July! So I got my American holiday. We went to Tesco Lotus to celebrate, which meant I got to eat yummy, fresh food for dinner that night. Friday unfortunately we didn't have a ranger again, which I wasn't so pleased about. However, we made the best of it and decided to head out to see one of the park's waterfalls and to look for some pileated gibbons. Pileated gibbons are a different type of gibbon that live in a different area of the park, they have a drastically different duet, and a different coat pattern. They are also sexually dimorphic in coat color, so males are always black and females are always white. Something interesting is that there is a hybrid zone between the pileated and white-handed gibbons ranges, and the hybrid females apparently have a really weird sounding great call. It is also interesting that sometimes hybrid groups have multiple adult females, which never happens in normal groups, so they think it may be because they females do not recognize each other as competitors when their calls are so different from one another. Just some fun facts for you.

Before going to the waterfall we drove up a scary, pot-hole ridden road to a really high point in the park (>1100 m), and took some pictures from the view. The water fall, Heo Suwat, was pretty awesome in my opinion. Apparently it can be even bigger, later in the rainy season. We took pictures at the top, then I hiked down over 100 steps to the bottom to take some more photos before trudging back up. After that we took a little hike upstream from the falls in search of pileated gibbons or crocodiles. We found neither. We were lucky enough to find a big iguana, an huge monitor lizard, a troop of macaques crossing the river, and a TON of butterflies. So it was a successful day.

Some sort of weird display in the middle of the forest, that is a rack of clothes on the right, and the huge tree is wrapped in fabric. Probably something religious...

It was SO difficult to get butterfly pictures. Thank goodness for the "burst" setting that let me take 3 quick shots in a row (although this compromised quality).

 Heo Suwat

 upstream from the waterfall

Chinese water dragon

 big spider!

 upside down sign

 no crocodile sightings for us :(

Saturday we tested the barking deer alarm call recording we had on the W group. Unfortunately the recording had a log of background noise, The gibbons just stared in the direction of the speaker like "what the heck?" but didn't sing a predator song in response. there have been a lot of instances of them singing after hearing a barking deer alarm though, so we really want to test this with a playback. We are just going to have to get a better recording. Sunday, since we wouldn't have a ranger anyway, and the barking deer experiment wasn't ready yet, we decided to sleep in. This was fabulous because it had been over a week since we'd slept in, because even if we didn't go out some of those days, we still woke up at 5 only to find the ranger hadn't come.

Today we attempted a playback with R again, but we have come to the conclusion that the rainy season is a bad time for a playback with them. Evidently there are fruit trees on the other side of the river now, a part of their territory they barely used when I first arrived here. Now they cross every time we try to follow them, so we are going to work on a different group instead.

bats, birds and elephants

Well, despite some frustrations in the forest, including barking deer alarm calls stimulating predator songs from multiple groups and gibbons crossing deep, impassable rivers and leaving us behind, the last two days have still been a bit exciting. Monday morning Yun, our ranger assistant, told us that the night before there had been 30 elephants in the big field near the R territory. Monday night Julie asked if I wanted to join her on a drive to see if the newly repaired brakes on the truck were still burning (luckily they were not). I thought about it, it was 5:45, I wanted to run soon, but I also knew at dusk there are always opportunities to see interesting things, so I ran to get my camera and off we went. Sure enough, driving up the road we passed some of the rangers from the search and rescue unit along with the "elephant man" (what I call this guy who follows the elephants, Julie pointed out this isn't the most flattering nickname...). If you want to find elephants, you are usually in the right place if the elephant man is nearby. So we pulled over and looked, we saw two elephants but they were already making their way back into the forest and just looked like two giant, moving boulders. So we drove on. We stopped at the lookout point before turning back because we had never stopped there before, so I could get a picture of the view. Once again we were lucky, soon bats started coming out for the evening, in huge groups. One group after another flew by in every direction, it was really awesome. There were hundreds if not thousands. We were also lucky enough to see several groups of hornbills flying together to their sleeping trees. Seeing one hornbill flying is cool enough, they are so huge their wings make a loud swishing noise when they fly by. So needless to say seeing groups of up to eight of them was awesome.

We eventually got back in the car and drove back down towards home. Everywhere there was evidence of this group of 30 elephants we had heard about. Branches and poop were strewn across the road. Sure enough, after a few minutes we found ourselves in a long line of traffic. The elephants were back on the road. It was starting to get dark, and we were not very close to the front of the line, so I only got a few pictures, but it was amazing how many there were! They took their sweet time on the road, and we were stuck behind them for over an hour and a half. When the finally did move off the road and we drove by, they were still very near the edges of the road. It was awesome to be driving along, window down, and to suddenly see out of the corner of my eye and enormous bull elephant standing in some brush at the side of the road, probably 6 feet from me in the car. Before heading back home we drove further to a field that was very dark so we could see the stars. it was absolutely beautiful, but it didn't last long. Soon the lightning from the distance brought storm clouds and covered everything up. We finally got home at about 8:30, so I missed my run for the day, but I guess it was worth it.

Today was less exciting, but the elephants were still around. I ran in the direction we'd seen them last night because I was sick of my usual route. I got just over a half mile out and had to stop because apparently they were still nearby in the forest and the rangers suggested I turn around.

 Unfortunately it was really hazy, so the view isn't great

 BATS!

 BIRDS!

 ELEPHANTS!

Sunshine!

Well the sun finally came back! We've had barely any rain since Wednesday. So that means we've been in the field, which is wonderful. I missed the gibbons and the smell of the marshmallow trees! The impact of the rain was obvious when we went to the W territory on Friday, the pond that was dry when I arrived has filled about with a foot or two of water! The river has also risen significantly. The reservoir is coming back to more normal levels, but our water is still a disgusting, murky, yellow-brown color. I have been in much better spirits since we've been able to be back in the forest and I have started running again after taking a week off. Today on my run I went past two monks on the road. I am not sure if I have mentioned it before, but me running is quite the tourist attraction apparently. People wave excitedly and lean out their car windows to photograph me as they pass in their cars. I think maybe the blond girl running is more interesting than the wildlife, or maybe they just haven't seen much wildlife. Anyway, the two monks both had huge cameras and as I got closer the one switched the direction of his camera and pointed it right at me. He waited until I was only 3 or 4 feet away before snapping what I'm sure was an incredibly attractive close-up of me using that huge zoom lens. Anyway, I decided that after that I'm definitely not going to feel rude or like an obnoxious tourist if I should ever decide to snap a photo of a monk.

My first day back in the forest I got a nice leech bite on my butt. Okay, just above my butt. Anyway, as usual I had no idea it was there and he didn't drop off until I showered I guess. I still had no idea and I put on my clothes, made lunch, and it wasn't until I went to the bathroom and noticed blood all over my shorts and underwear that I realized it. I was really traumatized about why my butt was bleeding for a few seconds before realizing it was a leech. Yeah, imagine the thoughts running through my head...anyway, that makes leech bite number three. every time I am amazed at how much those suckers make you bleed. Leech bite number one from four weeks ago still itches once and a while so I really hope this one isn't the same.

Anyway, besides that, the last few days in the forest have been pretty uneventful, so I am just going to post a few photos.

 Chao groomed by Chinda

 Baby climbing on Chinda's head. "Mom play with meee!"

 C group infant hanging around by mom and dad

 Chinda and infant

 Chokdee, looking worried.

 Finally got a non-blurry photo of a barking deer or munjak.

 So pretty!

 The leech that attacked my butt Thursday and fell off while I showered.

I found him still creeping around in there Friday morning, so I sprayed him with 40% deet and he regurgitated my blood. Revenge.

 William :)

The river is raging now!

reasons I hate rain

You may recall a post from last month in which I praised the rain for coming and cooling me off. I did admit that I would probably end up regretting saying such nice things about rain, and that time has indeed come. The rainy season here at Khao Yai comes on gradually. It starts in about June. Normally, it starts off slowly, with a few little showers here and there and gradually increases to full blown rain all day by September or so. At least this is what I've been told. However, the last week has been anything but normal. It has rained every single day since last Monday afternoon, and not just little showers, but nearly constant rain. Though I admit the rain does have some benefits; namely, it makes it a heck of a lot cooler. This week the costs have considerably outweighed the benefits. When your research project is about vocalizations and requires a lot of expensive, non-waterproof equipment, then rain becomes synonymous with boredom. Last week after waking up three days in a row to rain, we decided to go to Bangkok hoping for better weather come Monday. That did not happen, nor on Tuesday, nor today. So it has been a REALLY boring and unproductive week. I haven't seen the gibbons in so long! The good news is that  tomorrow the weather is supposed to be excellent, so lets just hope that is true.

Although Monday was an especially painful day because the power was out all day, we did see elephants again! Today we went to Pak Chong to get some maintenance done on the truck. That took a long time, but we stopped at Tesco on the way home and I got some banana muffins! We also stopped at a restaurant for dinner which was pretty good. I accidentally ate an incredibly spicy yellow pepper from the green curry and coconut soup not realizing it would be so hot. I always think of sweet bell peppers when I see yellow peppers. So my mouth burned for about 15 minutes. So those are the highlights of this week so far, there aren't many. but tonight I am optimistic, hopefully we will be about to do a playback tomorrow!

 mom, son (with tusks) and daughter (baby)

 The big field and salt licks (teeny elephants on the right)

getting a little too close for comfort

Took a video because I thought it was cool to see them moving all together

Chatuchak Market

If you were only going to be in Bangkok for a single day, you should spend most of that day at Chatuchak Market. This is one of the world's largest weekend markets and it is seriously awesome. That statement means a lot coming from me, daughter of Nancy Jackson, who hates shopping and crowded places. This is why I recommend going in the morning. After we had lunch, by about 2:00 the crowd was starting to get seriously unreasonable.

The reason I decided this is the place to go if you only have a day in Bangkok is because it has EVERYTHING. It gives you a little peek into everything that is Bangkok. Food on food on food. Every kind you can imagine. There is also no shortage of souvenirs. You can find anything from the goofiest knick-knacks like a butt-shaped toilet paper dispenser to the most beautiful art including huge murals and sculptures. You can also find a ton of everyday useful stuff. There are vintage clothes, new clothes, shoes, jewelry, leather products, books, kitchenware, essential oils, spices, and soooooooo much more. There is even an entire section dedicated to "creatures," as it says on the map. This includes everything from roosters, to puppies and kittens, to snakes, to sugar gliders. It is ridiculous. To me really, beside a few temples, this is Bangkok: food and shopping. I dislike cities, so maybe this is just my perspective but to me Bangkok's most redeeming factor is that if you need something, you can buy it; if you are hungry, just look around you there will be food and lots of it.

So, today Julie and I went to the market. Sadly, I forgot to take any pictures due to the serious sensory overload I was experiencing. So I will need to go back and remember next time. The downside of visiting such a huge market is while you may be able to buy anything there, you probably won't be able to find anything. So you can't really go with any specific purchases in mind, or you will end up really frustrated. And if you find something you really like, and you haven't seen something similar in 10 other shops already, you should probably buy it right then, because if you decide to mull it over and come back later, you probably won't be able to figure out where you found it. Unfortunately Julie and I went to look for souvenirs but also to find knives. She had previously been to what seemed like the only knife shop in the whole market, but had lost the little business card indicating its location and thus we had to go off her vague memory of the location. Eventually we found it, thankfully. I bought myself a pretty knife and a small machete...to use in the forest of course! There were so many options for food that Julie and I had to walk around looking for 15 minutes until we finally just committed to splitting some quail eggs over easy and spring rolls with watermelon and mango for dessert! After we ate we sort of slowed down quite a bit and it was starting to get crowded so we called it a day and headed back to the hotel for a rest.

my new weapons!

We left the hotel at around 8pm to go to the Sky Bar. We stopped for dinner along the way at a place that sold only mysterious noodle dishes. the place we wanted to go (which had more choices) had no available tables. At this place you could have your noodles dry or with broth, you could have three different shapes/sizes of rice noodles or egg noodles, but your choices ended there. No matter what, your bowl of noodles came with a mysterious assortment of meat and/or fish products. I really don't know how else to classify these. I think I've described fish balls on this blog before, well there was one fish ball (like a meatball made with mystery fish parts), and various other shapes of similar things, compressed ground up something. There was also a few dumpling-looking things, but those weren't great either. I avoided most of this and ate the noodles, the bean sprouts and the few real slices of chicken and bits of ground pork. After that we headed to the State Tower (2nd tallest building in Thailand) and went up to the Sky Bar. There is a dress code; basically for women it is just "no ugly flip flops." Upon reaching the 63rd floor we  were ushered onto a terrace and ordered drinks. We paid an arm and a leg, but for just one drink and the view it is worth it, plus they give you free pistachios (yum) and olives (yuck) to snack on. After we finished our drinks we headed over to the other part of the bar, which had a better view. There were tons of foreigners and it was really odd to hear so many Americans speaking. Being in Bangkok has actually been sort of a (reverse) culture shock. Its weird seeing and hearing so many "farangs." I guess it is going to be REALLY weird to go back to the States and see them EVERYWHERE.

Today was the most exciting of our trip to Bangkok. We got here Thursday evening and I spent pretty much all of Friday at the immigration office extending my visa. When I got back to the hotel I ate dinner at Pizza Hut alone because Julie was still busy getting tattooed for over 5 hours. So she had a long day too. Tomorrow morning we are going to have a relaxing morning and leave here around 11am. It has been a good trip, but 3 days in Bangkok is enough, I am ready to go back to the park.

This was a cool ice cream thing I got the other night. They pour the liquid ice cream onto a really cold surface and then mix in two goodies of your choice (white chocolate chips and brownies for me). They spread it into a thin layer as it freezes and then they scrape it up in little rolls and put it in a bowl and decorate it for you. Yum!