I have been neglecting our website more than a little bit lately, although have enjoyed communicating with many of our customers through email. The last few months have been hectic and full of surprises...both good and less so. 

The Good In April we found out that we were expecting our first child, which is due in November. Being no spring chicken, this is a huge, although welcome surprise. As my Thai only extends to ordering curries and asking where a bus is headed, I have opted to have the baby in the UK, so that I can pester doctors, midwives etc. in my own language. This means this summer's trip will be for rather longer than usual.
However, with the benefits of internet, Skype and other technologies, I will still be communicating with customers and helping to arrange their treks and tours. Unfortunately I won't be able to greet those of you who stay in our guest hut in person, but I have full confidence that Deaw will make you most welcome in my absence. 


and now to less happy news. 


The Bad As great as new technologies are for being able to keep an eye on things from a distance, sadly you cannot always control circumstances. A week ago, Deaw was in a car accident and was hospitalised with a punctured lung. Having been dismissed from the first hospital after 1 night with a herbal gobstopper given as medicine, he went for a second opinion elsewhere. He is now fortunately on the mend but sadly we've had to cancel our tours for July and the beginning of August. We feel terrible for having to do this and thank those of you who were affected for being so understanding. If next year you are back in Thailand, please get on touch...we'll give you 'special price' :) and I will personally wrap Deaw in bubble wrap and not allow him near any vehicles or machinery for the month preceding your tour.


If you are looking to do a tour later with us this summer then please carry on and make enquiries. On the 6th August he visits the hospital for a check up and will hopefully be given the all clear to resume trekking.

and now the ....hmmm.

For anyone planning to have a child or currently pregnant....a vanity warning. Do not be tempted to use 'babymorph' web based apps in moments of boredom or curiosity, to see what your 'little bean' may look like. I did and even selected the best photos I could find of us and the result was.....hmmm.

This was the most promising of 3 attempts. By all accounts my baby will have an enormous head (c-section please) and emerge from the womb with ears ready pierced and a look of disdain for it's parents befitting of a teen.

"Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels". When Josie set off into the jungle with her partner Arj to join Deaw on a 3 day jungle trek, she wasn't wearing heels (to my knowledge) ..but she was carrying the additional weight of a rather large watermelon. Does that remind you of another film?

Josie and Arj had been having a relaxing holiday in Ko Samui and before returning to Australia, wanted to do something a little different in Thailand. They opted for the remote 3 day/ 2 night jungle trek, testing at the best of times but add to that the crushing heat that comes with April in Thailand, which leeches all energy from your body,  they had the challenge they were seeking. Being vegetarian, Arj is a great lover of eating fruit- and with Klang Dong's abundant fruit markets he was well placed on the night before to stock up for the trip. They returned to the hut that first evening laden with mango, bananas and of course, the watermelon. They wouldn't go hungry.

Three days later, they returned, bags noticeably lighter and still smiling. They had been accompanied on the trip by three rangers, who as well as ensuring their safety, showed them several tracks of wild animals (elephant, bear, tiger (?) and also picked edible weeds  to supplement dinner. It is the rangers that add to the experience of the remote jungle, for not only are you getting the jungle 'to yourself' as it were, well yourself and a few thousand other critters, but you get to see these men whose lives are intertwined with the jungle. They spend their days, and nights, surveying it, maintaining it and protecting the animals within it, from those who see not beauty in wildlife, but merely a price tag. Their pay is often low and, in some of the smaller national parks, the pay is infrequent. Yet, these rangers are essential to the future of Thailand's wildlife. We hope that, by giving them opportunities to supplement their income,they will continue to do the work they do and not be tempted to 'look the other way' when poachers infringe on the park.

As well as the 3 day tour, we have also had the pleasure this month, of taking American teachers Anne and Reid for a one day trip into the jungle. The day before they were due to go, a big rain- the first in several months - had descended upon the national park, clearing the dust, alleviating the heat and leaving the air in the jungle fresh and invigorating. Living in the heart of Bangkok- this fresh air was appreciated by our guests, who were amazed that such a difference in climate and atmosphere can be found such a short distance  from the capital. 

The day was spent at a relaxed pace and the animals didn't disappoint. Before even reaching the park headquarters we were given 'demonstrations' by gibbons swinging through the tree tops- calling out to mark their territory- and by a male great hornbill, returning to the nest to feed it's young. 

On the trek itself we saw plenty of evidence of elephants, whilst broken honeycomb at the base of a tree gave testament to a recent visit of the sweet toothed sun-bear.

At one point on the trek Deaw came to an abrupt halt, holding his hand out to stop us going any further. He quietly pointed at a small tree. Yeah, it's a tree I thought. It took a while for my eyes to adjust and see what he had seen. Wrapped around a branch, surely only just big enough to support it's body weight, was a bright green snake- the highly venomous, white-lipped pit viper. In the daytime, these snakes are usually just sleeping or are very lazy to move in the heat. It is at night when they come to life. However, following the previous day's rain, the sky was overcast and so Deaw feared that it may be a little more active than usual. Hence, we cautiously viewed it form a distance.

Reid is interested in biology and throughout the trek could be found stooping over a small leaf or piece of wood, inspecting some insect. There are a wealth of them to be found here in the jungle, in all shapes and sizes but perhaps the most interesting one of the day, were the tank spider- the crab of spiders and a strange caterpillar that could easily be mistaken for a prop from the Avatar scenery,

And what better way to finish off a day in the jungle, but a swim in the waterfalls? As it is the end of dry season, the waterfalls are at their least impressive. The famous Heaw Sewatt waterfalls usually a white torrent has reduced to a small trickle. I would fancy Leo DiCaprio's chances if he jumped of it now. Fortunately for us, Deaw knew of this watering hole, where after 1km of hacking through the overgrowth we were able to cool off and relax in our own personal spa. Very nice indeed.

I said in the title that this hot, dry month can be surprisingly wet. Well by that I meant the Thai Buddhist new year- or songkran as it is known over here. From the 13th-15th April every year a madness descends on Thailand, where to stay dry you must stay inside. Venture outside and you accept the inevitability of a good soaking. It doesn't matter that you're on a bicycle, wearing your best clothes or even carrying a mobile phone- you are fair game. 

This year I stayed relatively dry, but was also visited by some of the students I tutor as part of a more restrained custom of the water festival. A white chalk paste is put on your face and scented water is poured on your hands. There are many parts to the Songkran festival- the one most seen is the waterfights in the street, so it was interesting to get a different perspective this year. 

Since moving to Thailand 4 years ago I have been trying to get members of my family to visit. Any members, I'm not particularly fussy. And for each member of my family, I know that there is something about Thailand that will appeal; my brother -the birding, my father- the old Thai farming ways, my sister- the diving and the wilderness. However, they consistently come up with one excuse or another and leave me with a promise of .."next year". After four years of excuses, my brother and his wife, finally came up with a plan to get me off their backs...Ros (my sister in law) would send her sister, Liz. Liz would have very little opportunity to turn this offer down as they bought her a guide book to Thailand for her birthday...and you wouldn't want to waste that!

So last Thursday I traveled to Bangkok to meet her. Now as far as I  know, Liz has never expressed any desire to live in a hut for a week or to scramble through the jungle, but this is exactly what was in store for her.....and she did it marvellously.

 Having flown to Thailand, she then caught the skytrain to the centre of Bangkok where we took a boat upriver, followed by a taxi to the bus station and finally a bus to Klang Dong. Five forms of transport in as many hours...not bad going. 

Liz's first full day in Thailand entailed two more forms of transport- our Land Rover followed by the santheaw. The sangtheaw is basically a pick up that has a tin roof on the back portion and two rows of seats. The sangteaws that ply the route through Pakchong also come with innumerable school children in identical uniforms dangling off the back, as standard. We eventually reached my school, where Liz was going to spend the day with me. The students were sitting end of year exams, but in the gaps in between, they were fascinated by Liz's 'quilling'- a form of papercraft that she had brought to show them. The day flew by with the kids nipping out to sit an exam, before heading back to the quilling. 

Saturday was spent with the bicycles, taking it easy around Klang Dong and visiting some of the local sights such as the floating market, fruit market and the white Buddha. The locals of Klang Dong enjoyed having a second western resident of the village and the word 'suay' (beautiful) could be heard following Liz where ever she went. 

A short road trip west saw us head to Kanchanaburi...a province of Thailand that I love. I wanted to show Liz the Thai-Burma Railway and take her to one of the best museums I know- the 'Hellfire Pass Museum'. Here on a 4km walk through woodland, along the old railway, you are accompanied (with the benefit of a headset), by some of the Australian PoWs who built the railway- informing you of the history of the place and recounting their memories. However, the landscape of Kanchanaburi at this time of year is very brown and dry and it is only seeing this, that makes me appreciated how green and lush our own corner of Thailand is- even at the end of a long dry season.

Liz's final day with us was spent in the jungle with a wonderful guide I know called Deaw! It has been some time since I have been in the Khao Yai National Park myself and I must say, it made me appreciate once again what a fantastic job the guides do. In the past couple of weeks I have been grumbling how much of his spare time Deaw has spent focussing on piles of rust (he calls them cars), but yesterday I was in awe of his abilities in the jungle. 

We arrived in the park around 9 and whilst I was busy fending off a none too friendly macaque, Deaw was finding a hornbill for us to admire. It flew picture perfect across the viewpoint - the swish of it's enormous wings making the spectacle more awe inspiring. Flyby over, it disappeared into the trees and we got back into the Land Rover. One kilometer further along, Deaw pulled to a halt. "Get out here and look at that tree" he instructed. "There's a hornbill's nest there and I think the one we just saw was headed this way". We did as told and sure enough, within a few minutes, the loud swish once again heralded the arrival of the Great hornbill. For ten minutes we watched as the male hornbill regurgitated it's morning's collection and fed the female and baby that were holed up inside the tree, completely dependent on the male's arrival.

Shortly afterwards, we entered the jungle. I was happily tramping along when Deaw came to an abrupt halt. He had heard something. As we listened carefully he pointed out a 'pok' sound, that happened every 30 seconds or so. "That's an elephant" we were told. How did he know? "It sounds like it is breaking branches", he said, but also commented that this was strange, as there  was no bamboo in that area of the jungle. Another guide and is group came a long and, after a few minutes of conferring, they headed off the track and into the jungle overgrowth. Deaw had been right- it was an elephant- he was also right in that the sound wasn't from bamboo. The source of the'pok' sound was the elephant's ear - flapping intermittently against it's head as it wallowed happily  in an area of mud, unaware of the humans that watched. 

I saw Liz off this morning from the bus stop, as she begins her long journey home. I am very grateful that an almost member of my family has been to experience what life is like here, in this small spot of land that is so very Thailand. She coped with the hut, the roosters, the roofless shower and even the millipede remarkably well and I don't think I'd be lying if I said that she enjoyed it too. It was certainly different from any other holiday she has had before.

Come back soon Liz- there's plenty more to see :)

Valentine's Day here in Thailand is quite a nice affair. Yes it's commercial, yes they want you to spend money, but it's a lot more inclusive than the ones I remember from my school days in the UK..."What? It got lost in the post again?"
Here students plaster each other with heart shaped stickers and give roses...and not just to someone they secretly admire. Friends, classmates and even 40 something English teachers are included in the fun. 

Meanwhile, back on the ranch and early morning I had waved off my own Valentine as he went to spend 3 days in remote jungle with two very lovely ladies.

Angie and Margie are sisters who are originally from the UK, but have lived in various continents. Now Angie lives back in the UK, whilst Margie has spent the last 40 years in Australia. Both grandmothers, both in their sixties and both could put most 20 and 30 years olds to shame with their adventurous and intrepid spirit. 
When they first inquired about doing a tour with Khao Yai and Beyond, I offered them a range of options. Would you like to stay in a nice resort the night before you trek? No- we'd love to try out the guest hut. How about the on the trek itself- would you like to stay in a campsite? No- we'd like the jungle...the real jungle. With hammocks? Yes. Cooking on a fire?- Yes. Bathing in a river?-Yes...... Perfect. 

As we sat enjoying a G&T on the night before they left,I knew they would make great trekking companions and  was desperate to tag along too.  But I had a date with 60 odd students and a packet of heart stickers.

Three days later, I awaited their return. What had it been like? Had they enjoyed themselves? Had we delivered to their expectations? The waiting is the worst part for me. I hate being left out of anything and as they travel into such remote areas, where there is no phone signal, I can never check what's going on. A blessing for Deaw! 

Finally in early afternoon, they returned. Tired, with sore muscles but with big smiles and tales to tell. In spite of having to get to Bangkok to catch a plane to the south, they found time for another well earned G&T, a shower and a bit of a giggle, before packing their aching limbs into the minivan that would take them towards their next destination- the beach. 

Margie and Angie- it was fantastic having you visit. Thank you! :) 

One thing I love about Thailand is that it's so very seasonal. Living here in the hut, and buying from the local market, keeps us in touch with what season it is. "What?... 8 baht for a lime?..they can't be in season right now!" 

When I lived back in the UK, a slight reduction in the price of strawberries may indicate that you were somewhere close to the month of June but, other than that, it was very different to know the seasons from the supermarket. 
In this area of Thailand you can't help but know what fruit is in season. The big clue...if it's in the market, its in season. Currently the markets are teeming with tamarinds and rambutans. Tamarinds are an ugly fruit, all things said and done. They're long and brown. They don't improve much when you break them open either- inside they're long, brown and sticky with a kind of string running the length of each side. Am I selling them to you? But, don't judge a fruit by it's cover- just pop one in your mouth you'll see. And rambutans...well, they look like they've had a bad hair day.

As well as being tamarind season..and cowboy festival season..it's also wedding season...and monk making season.

 We recently had a wedding here right outside the hut which was super convenient, for Thai weddings extend pretty much over two days. 
There's the preparation party- which is where the family hosting the wedding make things even harder on themselves, by opening up the preparations to anyone who wants to pop along for an impromptu visit. This may not sound to onerous, until you realise that these impromptu visitors are to be fed and watered. So, in addition to preparing the wedding room where the monks will chant, the wedding flower wall, where the guests will have their photo taken with the happy couple and the wedding seats, where the newlyweds will be blessed by the community....they must also prepare enough food for anyone who happens to drop by. The dropping by can be done anytime between lunchtime and late evening.

For this wedding I was joined by friend/colleague, Sinead. Sinead has been living and working in Pakchong since November, but was getting frustrated with not seeing much of 'the real Thailand'. In order to rectify things, I invited her for a stay in the hut. 

It was a tiring but fun filled couple of days. We began with a visit to the local waterfalls in Muak Lek- where she nearly took an unplanned dip. The Thai kids make tripsing atop the waterfalls look so easy! Following that we had the preparation wedding party for a couple of hours, before heading off to take in a cowboy festival.

 Of all the cowboy festivals, the cow's milk festival of Muak Lek is my favourite. Here you are treated to stalls of all kinds as well as cowboys. Indians and Jack Sparrows. It's like a who's who of all the last things you'd expect to see in Thailand. Sinead took the festival like a duck to water and was soon seen being photographed with all the key characters.

At 2 a.m. with no sign of the festival abating, we dragged ourselves away. We had an early start the next morning if we were to see the wedding in it's full.

An earlier start than even I expected. At approximately 4 a.m the music started. The monks arrived at 6 a.m and the traditional part of the wedding began.

What is good about a Thai wedding is the tradition that combines with informality. You can go in and watch the monks chant...or not, take photos...or not. So, you only want to watch half the ceremony?...up to you!
We ended up staying for the monk ceremony and part of the traditional community ceremony too. At about 9 a.m with two hours sleep and two ceremonies under our belts we headed outside for "lunch". Was it really only 9 o'clock?  

There was one more ceremony to go- the evening one. I wasn't sure that I'd make it that far through the day, but I was determined to try.

The second Saturday of January each year is Children's Day in Thailand. It's a great day which is entirely devoted to children and something that we don't have in the UK, although some would argue that Christmas is for children ( I entirely disagree by the way). 

Unlike Christmas, Children's Day is not a home based festival but one that takes place in the communities around Thailand. It's not so much about gifts but about activities for children, although there are a good number of freebies to be had if you're a kid. Each village/town will put on a morning of games, food and festivities for any children to attend and the activities are free. Last year I was hob-knobbing with  three Jack Sparrows  in Klang Dong's community hall, but this year was to see me further afield. 

Just as Christmas can be enjoyed by children and adults alike, so can Children's Day. Deaw's cousin is a secret plane spotter and, being a recovering one myself, I was unable to resist the invitation to tag along to the Royal Thai Air force's air show in Nakhon Ratchisima. It was an amazing morning, not only for the airshow itself, but for the atmosphere too. The airshow was perfectly planned and had short displays beginning with paragliders, moving through a range of aircraft and culminating with F16s. The displays were short but perfect for the attention span of your average 3 year old. There was little waiting around either, no sooner had one aircraft disappeared out of the sky (hopefully landing safely somewhere) than a different one had appeared. Deaw's nieces aged 13, 5 and 2 were all enthralled, as were his 40 year old cousin and 60 year old father....and of course ..moi! 

If you got neck ache from looking up then you could take a break and go and meet pilots, have your photo taken with them (no, that wasn't me you saw in the queue..honestly) or get yourself an F16 tattoo...a temporary one that is.

If for a moment you forgot you were in Thailand, you only had to look around at the mass of stalls selling cheap, delicious food or see the darts bouncing off the 'burst a balloon stall' and hitting passers by, to know you weren't in the West.

And where was Deaw during all this? Well, he was with guests in the jungle doing jungly things...which you can be doing too if you come and visit us :0)

I was greeted by Deaw's family when I got home from school today who gave me fruit. This was accompanied by the question "Where's Yuri?"....aaah! so the fruit isn't for me...

 Today we said goodbye to our latest guest Yuri, from San Francisco. It was a quick visit at a busy time of year, but (cowboy)hats off to him as, like our other guests this season, he fully threw himself into local Thai life and all that it has to offer. He became quite a hit in the process. In the last 3 days Yuri could be found Thai dancing at a New Year's Day party with some of the more mature ladies of Klang Dong...I include myself in that, attending a cowboy festival, visiting the waterfalls and bat caves and joining me for a day at school.

Watching the bats exit on their nightly hunt for food is always an awe-inspiring sight to me, but yesterday they were particularly spectacular. Because of a barely detectable change in wind direction, last night they exited over a different route and seemed to fly lower than usual. The result was a massive expanse of sky where you could see the bats stream off and disappear into the horizon. The bats of the Khao Yai are wrinkle-lipped bats and are the same species as the ones shown in the Planet Earth documentary. Every evening, at dusk an estimated 3 million bats exit the cave embarking on their nightly search for food. Much of the reasons for their behaviour are speculation, for example- which bat decides when it's a good time to exit the cave? For they don't exit in dribs and drabs- but in a sudden constant stream that will continue for over an hour. Some guides think the decision is based on a  change of temperature, others by the possibility that the bats are just hungry! I favour the latter and am pretty sure if I were a bat, I'd be first out of that cave. Another interesting behaviour of the bats is that the strongest, youngest bats leave the cave first, and the older or weaker bats come out last. The motives for this behaviour are thought to be quite chivalrous ones. The stronger bats leave first, as they will fly further to find their food, leaving the closer feeding grounds for the bats not able to make it so far. 

So if you have time on your visit to Thailand to witness this spectacle- we'd love to take you. If you want to see a video clip of them then check out the link in our guestbook.

And, speaking of the guestbook. Yuri, our most recent guest, not  only turned out to be immensely fun to have around, but useful too. He has shown me how to install a guest book on our website, so hitherto any guests will be able to write a note or review of their experience and post photographs.
If you have visited us within the last 12 months I would be very grateful if you could test this new addition with a review of your own and a few photos if you have them.

Thank you!

Living in and near cowboy city, the purchase of cowboy attire is a must. Having resisted any such purchases for 4 years, I was finally issued with my own cowboy shirt by my department at school...which is the same as the other 40 members, but hey ho, I will wear it with pride to any number of the cowboy events that I happen to attend in this busy season.

The Thais love to party and December is the season of festivals- the biggest being New Year. Every local town, worth it's salt will have a cowboy festival to celebrate- and no matter how many, there always seem to be enough cowboys to go around. For anyone visiting the Khao Yai at this time of year, I recommend that you seek one out. They're free to attend- just turn up, find a table or hay bale to sit on, buy a tower of beer and some food and enjoy the show- both on and off the stage. If you are a westerner and appropriately dressed (cowboy shirt at the least), then you are certain to get a lot of attention, all positive, and often in the form of offers to join another table or to accept a glass of beer or two. 

Even though the Buddhist Thais do not celebrate Christmas, they are happy to get into the spirit of things if there is a foreigner around who does celebrate it. The Christmas celebrations include dressing up as Santa Claus, or a cowboy of course, and then having the best Santa Claus competition and best Santee competition (not pictured here). I had not come across Santee until I came to Thailand...she's not your traditional Mama Claus, but more of a young, pole-dancing wayward niece of Father Christmas. 
A true indication of the lengths Thais in this area will go to, to make you feel welcome came this Christmas. Having gone around to the relatives of Deaw to give them cookies and chocolates for Christmas, I had a complete surprise on Boxing Day when his entire family tuned up at the hut to wish me a Merry Christmas. They were armed with Christmas gifts and handmade cards from the children and it really did make this festival for me.

So, if you are in Thailand in the next month or two and fancy combining a jungle trip with a taste of real Thailand, then get in touch and come and visit. At this time of year, the days are lear, dry and bright and Pakchong provides a welcome break from the heat and humidity of the rest of Thailand....the 7th best ozone in the world didn't you know?

There are also some great festivals left in the pipeline, the next one being the Muak Lek Cow's Milk (and therefore cowboy) festival in January. So saddle up and come join us :) 

Happy New Year to Everyone...and may 2013 be a great one for you.

A poor excuse I know- but almost the truth! November has been a very busy month with lots of welcome visitors and guests.
The month started with some visitors from the  'old country', and Polly, Richard and Hannah all qualify as true hut-dwellers now having spent 4 nights with us. Poor Richard was relegated to a tent, with the huts being full- but he managed admirably and we promise a proper room next time in our new guest hut. 

I can honestly say that they got to experience the 'real Thailand' and, whilst not quite as glamorous as their resort in Phuket,  gave them a balance to what Thailand is about. In addition to heading out into the National Park and jungle for the day , they headed into a different jungle altogether- the local school. Here they were taught a few Thai phrases by my Mathayom 1 students before gamely being interviewed by them. The students were very excited to be talking to some 'real foreigners' (I somehow don't count anymore and am as interesting to them as an old shoe) and when Hannah admitted to not being able to speak Thai or Thai dance, was signed up for some lessons by the students, whether she wanted to learn or not. "Ok- I teach you" being the phrase of the morning. The morning ended with a photo shoot befitting  rock stars.

Our Dutch guests visiting a welcoming party for the new director of Pakchong School. They got a taste of Thai life in all of it's glory, making for a nice contrast to the day they had spent with the wildlife in the jungle.