Tan, the trekking guy, has been planning some
new routes for the next high season, to offer people who want to
take a trek some more variety and also to have something suitable to
offer people of different ages and fitness levels.
A couple of months ago, with the help of a 65
year old local who has been hunting in the hills since he was young,
he cut a route to the top of Khao Jom. You wont know the name but
everyone who has visited Koh Chang will have seen this peak. It is
the one that towers over White Sand Beach. There is already a
relatively simple route up from White Sand Beach, starting near the
International Clinic at the southern end of the beach.
However, there is far more sense of getting away from civilization
if you head up the hill from the opposite side where there is noting
but jungle. The downside is that in order to get to Khao Jom
you first have to trek up Khao Chedi a smaller peak.
So we all met up at around
8.40am, Me, my partner Mam, Nimit who flies the ultralight planes
and runs the small airstrip on the island, Tan and a young American
couple who had been looking at this website the day before and
who called Tan to see if they could go on a trek at this time of
year.
The weather had been quite
good for the previous few days. A lot of sunshine and only
short downpours at night, so we hoped that the trail wouldn't be too
muddy or slippery. (Read on and you'll see that by the end we were
walking barefoot in order to avoid slipping into a river.)
The starting point for the
trek is about 2km along the inland road leading up to the elephant
camp in Klong Son valley. At first it was an easy walk through
fruit fields, however that didn't last long and the flat land
ended after 15 minutes when we started to head uphill. At this time
we didn't realise that this was the last flat section we'd see for
about 7 hours.
The trek up Khao Chedi
takes you first through old rubber plantations on the hillside and
then into the jungle. The trail is used by locals who hunt
wild pigs in the area and so is pretty easy to follow. Three
quarters of the way up you come to one of the largest trees that you
will have ever seen and finally you reach the op, which is a bit o
an anti-climax as there aren't views that photograph well.
It's more a matter of peering through tree limbs to get a view of
the sea and valley below. The reason the peak is named Khao
Chedi is that on the top is a large rock formation that looks like a
very basic 'Chedi' or 'Stupa' (If you've been to any ancient
Buddhist cities in Thailand you'll have seen these bell shaped
towers that were built to house Buddha relics.)
From the top we then start
to head downhill into a small valley, the trail varies from mildly
slippery to 'easier to slide down than walk'. By now we have left
the main trail and are following one that Tan cut. Very few
people have walked this and so at a glance you don't know which
direction to go, but pretty soon you begin to notice the saplings
that have been cut about 1 metre above the ground and notches on
trunks of larger tees that serve as permanent route markers.
After a couple of hours in
the jungle you have no idea at all where you are or which direction
you are walking in. The sort of situation where a GPS could
come in handy. Of course none of us had one. It was a cloudy
day but I have a feeling that even if the sun was shining it'd be
hard to get a glimpse of it through the dense canopy.
The age old question "Are we nearly there yet?" got the reply
"Maybe only one hour. Or maybe more" from the ever optimistic
Tan. So after a brief rest at the stream in the valley floor it was
time to start going uphill again. We went up. And up
some more. And up a bit more until we eventually we got onto a
narrow ridge that runs across the shoulder on the hill. From here we
got the first glimpses of Whit Sand beach way down below. The
final 15-20 minutes are spent pulling yourself up the even steeper
final few hundred metres to the summit. Up her you notice a
lot of very small orchids growing on the trees and also varieties of
other palms and plants that only grow at this altitude.
And then we were at the
top. There was a small clearing and a few small trees had been
cut to provide a view south towards Chai Chet, Klong Prao and Kai
Bae beach. The cloud cover was low, as you'd expect at this
time of yea but we were above it most of the time, although
occasionally the clouds would blow across the summit and blank out
all views. The best views of White Sand Beach, Klong Son
and the mainland are from a rocky outcrop about 20 metres from the
clearing. It was from here that we got to se a couple o
Hornbills in flight, flying across the hills below. We had heard
them on the walk up Khao Chedi but there was no way to spot them in
the treetops. I knew that Hornbills had been seen in the south
east of Koh Chang but didn't think there were any in this area of
the island. This was one of those times I wish I had a fancy camera
with a 10x zoom lens. As it is I've got a couple of small
blurry yellow, white and black bird shapes against a green
background to remind me of the experience.
We ate lunch on the top.
Tan cooks a Thai food lunch for his customers and in addition to
carrying this plus water he also has room in his pack for bananas
and a 3 kilogram watermelon. And, being as we were in a
celebratory mood, I popped open the family size packet of M&Ms that
I'd carried up the hill. It was then time to begin the descent.
After about 20 minutes of having my mud covered feet sliding around
I began to realise that it would have been better to wear walking
shoes than sandals. But as I don't posses any proper walking
shoes, or any shoes at all come to think of it, sandals it was.
From Khao Chedi we then took an alternative
route back. This meandering route led us to a river where
there are several swimming pools. Progress was slower than
usual due to the slippery conditions underfoot and humidity which
were beginning to take it's toll. (Not
simply a matter of none of us having done much exercise in the past
month as low season lethargy had set in.)
The small river was in
flood and the normally dry rocks now covered in lichen and other
greasy green substances.
Consequently the walk down the river, across the boulders by the
riverside, ended up taking a bit more time than planned as staying
upright proved to be a bit of a problem. So off came the shoes
and walking barefoot over the rocks proved to be much easier.
The obvious downside was that this immediately made you a leech
magnet and the novelty of having to stop every minute or two to pull
off the blood suckers, hopefully before they had sunk their teeth
into you, wears off surprisingly quickly. As leeches
inject you with a chemical that prevents your blood from clotting
that means that if one does bite you you get a steady flow of blood
from the small puncture wound. The cure is to take a pinch of
tobacco and press that onto the wound. This stops the blood.
Of course this traditional remedy depends on one of the group being
either a pipe smoker or someone who rolls their own. None of
us were - but thankfully Tan was prepared and carried a small pouch
of the miracle cure known as tobacco for situations where even Tiger
Balm is useless.
Now that leeches held no fear for us we
slipped and slided our way to a water hole where we had a swim and
cleaned the mud and sweat off. From here it was an easy walk back to
the Klong Son road.
In all it took about 9 and
a half hours from start to finish. This is a bit long for a
trek and Tan is looking at ways to shorten it for the High Season,
which probably means cutting a more direct trail in
places. It's also not something that anyone who isn't used to
some form of pretty strenuous physical exercise should do.
It's not just a matter of walking up a hill, you have heat and
humidity to contend with as well. This isn't a fun trek, it's
something that you do which at the time leaves you feeling worn out
and aching all over. The sense of satisfaction comes later as
soon as you get back to road are driving along and the unmistakeable
silhouette of Khao Jom comes into view and you think to yourself, "Wow
we were up there." If you like to give yourself a bit of a
challenge and don't fancy spending all day on the beach then is well
worth the effort to do a trek like this. And for a couple of days
afterwards, you'll be more than happy to lie motionless by the pool
and not move a muscle.
Did I mention there were snakes? This is
a viper - it's poisonous.
