Forest Life

I am starting to think like a Gibbon; thoughts of only food and sleep fill my head. We study the White-handed Gibbon, which is an ape. There are many species of Gibbon which live in SE Asia and three of them live in the national park. The national park that I live in was the first one to be established in Thailand by the King in 1962. It is as least 5,000 acres. There are Tigers in the park but they believe there are only 10 or so individuals left in the entire park, which unfortunately is not a viable number genetically long term. It is a tough balance between humans who live in or near the park and the wildlife. The animals are killed or displaced if humans are killed or injured. At the campground by my house this past week they have been capturing a few of the big male Macaque Monkey's. The monkey's know to come to the campground at certain times of the day to steal food but unfortunately that is because visitors feed them so some of the monkey's have become more aggressive. Instead of enforcing the law to not feed them though they are displacing the monkey's from their home ranges to other parts of the park. It's tough to see a wild monkey in a cage screaming and banging on the cage and the sound is even worse.

I hitchhiked for the first time ever. Hitchhiking in the park is common especially for tourists who don't have cars since there isn't public transportation in the park.

My neighbors last week were making their own charcoal in front of our houses. My neighbor JB is great. She brings us homemade desserts and food. She brooms cobwebs of the outside of our house (I forgot to mention that there are spiders everywhere, in every corner of the house!). I feel lucky to have such a nice neighbor.

Jamie and I can get a bit silly in the forest sometimes when we reach the six hour mark, and it becomes balmy and warm with a breeze moving high up in the tree tops and the Gibbons stop to eat some fruit, so we find a nice rock to sit on and wait. I like these times.

We saw two green Pope's Pit Vipers in one day. They arn't big and seem just as cautious of us as we are of them. I finally saw a few frogs - love frogs! I am hoping to see some forest elephants and an Asian Sun Bear but I have plenty of time still and patience. Next post - Bangkok!