I found myself nearly lost in the jungle, dehydrated and without water, in flip flops, having hiked four or five hours to arrive at this cove on Koh Yao Noi. Four or five hours prior, I had parked my motorbike at the end of the road on the north west corner of the island, and decided to walk into the jungle and see how far I could get. In flip flops. With one bottle of water.
I knew there was a resort on the northeast corner, Paradise Resort, with a beautiful beach and I figured I would try and hike into it. The path didn't turn out to be a path. Parts of it were more of an animal trail heavily covered over with bush and logs, parts of it were rubber tree forests and coconut plantations. Some of it was full blown jungle. And at a certain point, I figured walking back to the start would be just as difficult as plugging along.
What's worse, and I realized this while I was hiking, was that if I were to slip and injure myself in any way, help would have been kilometers and kilometers away, well outside of earshot. And there I was slipping around jungle vines on sweaty, muddy flip flops climbing down trees onto beaches. I remember telling my mom what I had done and knowing full well that this entire thing wasn't the best idea I had ever had.
I came to three or four completely deserted coves lined with beautiful limestone cliffs, some with sand but most with mangrove swamps. Exactly three times I ran into local people, and exactly three times I was met with a look that said, "I know you're lost, there's no point in saying it. Do you need some water?"
A couple days prior I had met an American living on the island for six months on and off. He happened to be a broadcasting big shot for sports in the States, the kind of guy that drives a dirt bike like it's a normal motorbike and goes base jumping in Bangkok. When I ran into after the jungle hike and told him what I had done, he looked at me in disbelief and laughed.
Here's to getting lost. Why spend 1000 Baht on a jungle trek when you can do it yourself?
Along the way I saw two Tucan-looking birds and the biggest tree I have literally ever seen.
