Eight people, two local guides and six tourists of mixed nationality were just drowned in the famous Namtaloo cave in Khao Sok National Park in Southern Thailand due to a flash flood. I have had the pleasure of visiting Namtaloo, so here is the scoop. Khao Sok is a magnificent rainforest covered wilderness with some of the tallest karst pinnacles in the world. Some are almost 3000 feet tall! There are exquisite little bungalows for visitors near the Park headquarters, and every pleasure is near at hand. Best of all, there are no bugs! (Just leeches!) This paradise was ostensibly set aside in honor of a small group of leftist students who fled into the jungle to escape military persecution in the late 70s. They joined a few hard core Viet Cong types and defended what is now Khao Sok until 1982 when they were pardoned. During that time they successfully prevented incursions by the Thai military, loggers, hunters, and farmers, and in doing so proved to be far more effective than any conservation group could ever hope to be. The result was that there are tigers and elephants there today! The dedication of the Park was a wonderful conservation coup, but the Thai military was ashamed that a group of college kids armed with spitwads could use the natural karst terrain to keep the army at bay, so they used the need for hydroelectric power to justify the building of a dam that flooded the lowland rainforest. In reality the purpose was to provide them access, and deny future insurgents any place to hide. An unintended side consequence was a beautiful blue lake that was disastrous to the ecosystem but perfect for ecotourism, so the authorities allowed the few previous inhabitants to build floating raft houses for the tourists. At the far southwestern corner of the lake are the Tone Tuey raft houses. These wonderful little floating huts are only accessible by means of a lengthy boat ride through unbelievably spectacular karst terrain. I got there the hard way by walking through the jungle for five days tracking tigers, but nobody else ever does that. Once there you are in paradise. The main attraction at Tone Tuey is the famous Namtaloo cave which is accessed by another short boat ride then a one hour walk through the jungle to the cave. The trail is magnificent, passing “stone forests”, blue pools, and enormous trees along the way. The Thai guides make sure that the trail and cave are kept spotlessly clean. It is easy for average Euroweenie tourists being shepherded along to forget how far back in the jungle they really are. The guides themselves are terrified of the jungle and never step off the trail. The assumption being that you are completely safe while on the trail. Tell that to the tiger! Another consideration is that the terrain is extremely rugged and so complex that the average person would become lost immediately. The jungle dwelling students used this to their advantage. Namtaloo cave was said to be their hospital. The trail leads to the upstream entrance, so if attacked by soldiers they could post snipers above the entrance while the other retreated through the cave to the downstream entrance. That’s the story anyway, but I don’t think I believe it since it is a big river cave that, as events have shown, can become deadly. Think typical TAG borehole like Sinking cove with a small river pouring through it. The cave is beautiful, well decorated, and full of trogs such as spiders, crabs, frogs, and bats. I went there by myself wearing nothing but speedos, river shoes, and a Petzl Myo XP. I putzed around inside for a while, going about 800 feet back, then returned to the upstream entrance to discover a group of mostly English young men and women being led by two guides with two Coleman lanterns. Nobody else had anything other than a couple of flashlights. They were much amused to see an almost naked man middle aged emerge from the cave. The guides had never heard of such a thing before as all tourists are invariably led by guides. We made a jolly crew as we went back into the cave. Shortly after the point where I had previously turned back the river plunges down a stairstep slot into a deep fast water canyon. A rope has been fixed to allow the tourists to simply pull themselves along through the water, which is not a problem since they generally have no flashlights in their hands! I chose to chimney above the water and hardly even got wet, but it is clear to me that this is where the people died. It is a fun challenge under dry conditions and a deathtrap in a flood. Not far downstream is the lower entrance. The Thais are generally much more sensible than we are, so there is hope that they will simply write this off as what it is, a tragedy based on bad judgement, a thinning of the herd as it were. In my opinion is would be a further tragedy if steps were taken to regulate access to Namtaloo or to make it somehow “safe”. Thousands of people from around the world have visited Namtaloo without incident. The combination of long boat ride, raft houses, Thai culture, walk through virgin rainforest, and then a trip through the cave is the epitome of a real ecotourism experience. The Thai guides take their responsibilities seriously. They study nature and try to show hidden jungle secrets to their paying guests. They maintain the trail and pick up each and every cigarette butt. No snakes are killed, no trees are cut, and no damnably stupid signs are posted. It is a chance for an average ecotourist to have a real caving adventure in a real jungle wilderness. It is a safe as it could possibly be for a cave deep in the jungle, but it’s still a cave and it is still in a jungle where an elephant could squash you like a bug or where a king cobra could plant it’s fangs into your nose (they really are that big!) You could even become a tiger turd! It is an experience that has enriched the lives of many, including the guides whose livelihood it is. May Namtaloo long remain wild! Sleazeweazel
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