My head jolted back against the glass as the motor cracked into motion. The change of gears made me wince as Tom got used to bashed up, sandy floored jeep.
The process of hiring was simple. Hand over your passport and you get the keys. No mileage check, pay per kilometre or fuel discussions. Here’s the key, and if you’re lucky there might just be enough fuel to last until the next village so you can fill her up. Maybe.
‘Oh my god, I just felt water on my feet!’
Laughing, ‘How?’
‘I dunno, but I think there’s a hole in the floor of the passenger seat.’
I looked around my cramped up knees in the back. My butt cheeks barely found a resting place. The ‘seat’ was at best a pineapple length wide (without the head). And it would be a wild wild fantasy to suggest that seatbelts existed back here. So I clutched the seat in front and smiled. So glad Tom is driving this thing!
We headed to some of the postcard pretty northern beaches before deciding to find ‘the biggest tree on the island’.
‘I didn’t bring a map, but I think it’s off this road from what I can remember.’
We drove through a sun sprinkled, palm tingling lusciousness to a peak of ragged rolling green.
‘Ok, so I saw a sign for the tree pointing this way.’
‘Great, it’s got to be along this path. I’ll keep looking at the signs facing the opposite direction, just incase.’
We commenced our decent and I spotted another sign pointing in our direction.
‘Ok, it’s got to be down here.’
We arrived at a T intersection. No sign of a sign. We drove right.
Michelle spots some locals chopping coconuts, and call out, ‘Do you know where the biggest tree is?’
The wrinkled man and woman look at each other, momentarily stopping from their bent over positions, grasping rusty blades to stare at the farangs in the jeep. Eventually the man points his hand down the road.
‘Kop Kune Ka’ we yell as Tom inches forward.
We pass several off shoots of roads. ‘I’m sure it’s off one of these little roads – that’s what it looked like on the map to me.’
‘But there’s no sign. There should be a sign.’
‘We are in Thailand guys.’
‘Lets try that road’ Michelle points to the street we just passed.
‘Thanks for letting me know.’ Tom’s sinewy arms pull the wheel around in a wide circle.
We follow a few more streets with small houses of bamboo and recycled wood, naked children laughing in big black tubs of water and a tattooed Thai guy.
‘Excuse me, do you know where the big tree is?’
Nodding and smiling, ‘Wait, wait.’
He disappears and brings back a warm eyed woman. ‘You need to go to main road and straight, straight down.’ Meanwhile he scribbles a few lines, without street names.
‘Kop kun mar mar Kaaaaaaaaa’ I yell as we drive off waving. ‘They just described the directions to the Big C Supermarket! Big tree, Big C… Same same!’
‘Gotta love cross cultural communication.’
‘Oh look – lets try that road’, Michelle pointed to one opposite, ‘that looks vaguely like what they described.’ Tom turned the jeep around for the fourth time.It was a bumpy dirt track. Locals stared at us from their tiny dusty abodes.
‘Look at those crazy farang, what are they doing here? This is not the way, but hang on, there are some tourist buses. It must be it!’
‘Yes, and there seems to be a big tree over there!’
Hobbling along a bit further, there didn’t seem to be an obvious path to a larger looking tree behind some shacks.
‘Excuse me, big tree?’
Confused expressions ensued.
‘Look, I reckon it must be the big tree. Ok, we’ve seen the big tree, lets go to this wave beach you were telling us about.’
‘Lets just try this one more street.’
‘Ok.’
We were led to a main road. ‘Ok, obviously that wasn’t it.’
We traverse the tall windy hills to the ‘full moon’ beach. Aka Haad Rin. I hadn’t been to this beach in four years, and never during the day, so I was curious.
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| The ‘waves’ at Haad Rin beach |
I smirk when I see when I see the ‘waves’ at Haad Rin beach. Waves are a generous word for what I saw as cocktail glass clinking movements. Extremely gentle, like little sips of a blue hawaii at sunset. Not the full body slaps of Australian waters. The ones that can knock the life out of you, and your togs.
‘Look here’s a big map! Let’s see whether the tree is marked on that!’
‘See it? I’m sure I know which 7/11 that is!’
‘So do I’ Tom laughs ‘7/11s are few and far between here!’
‘I really want to find the tree’ Michelle echos my inner enthusiasm. I have never seen three people so eager to find a tree.
‘That’s the 7/11, it’s got to be.’
‘Oh look, that’s a sign for a doubled headed coconut tree. Maybe we could find that!’ Tom and I stare at Michelle.
‘It seemed to be near that temple… oh look, oh look – there’s the sign!’
‘We’ve found it!!’
‘It doesn’t look as big as I thought it would be.’
‘No.’
‘It says biggest Yang Na tree.’
‘I guess we should walk around it.’
This biggest Yang Na tree is estimated to be 400 years old. The Yang Na is the queen of the forest because, as you can see in the photo – they shoot to the top of the canopy and can live to up to 700 years! ‘Yang’ means resin and ‘Na’ means ricefields. These trees
were found in and around ricefields, they cope with flooding and provide nutrients to the fields. The resin has been used by Thais in the past for a range of uses including torches and sealing of boats, but is being investigated for potential diesel and biofuel possibilities.
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| We found it! |
After all that hard work, we decided we needed a drink, from the prettiest of perches.
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