After a lovely little breakfast in Krabi town, we took a long van ride north to the park and after securing accommodations in jungle huts (with special monkey-proof doors and windows) we arranged a guide to take us to see the flowers. Unless you know where you are going, finding the flowers by yourself can be tough (even if you do have a knack for sniffing out carrion on your own) because the park is so big, there are not many flowers, and they only stay in bloom for about a week (read: you're going to be lucky if you can see a flower in bloom at all). When we reached the trailhead, we encountered a group of three men who had just come from seeing the flowers. They were drenched in sweat and carrying several empty two-litre water bottles. They warned that it was a long, intense and straight-uphill climb. My sore muscles from climbing the day before were not jumping up and down upon hearing this, but we were up to the challenge.
About 3 hours later of straight uphill climbing, after my heart rate had reached levels that I had never dreamed possible, sweat was pouring off of me and I was inhaling mosquitoes by the mouthful, we reached the flowers. They were so neat to look at! They were huge, red and cartoonish-looking; they looked like something out of the Flintsones or the Land Before Time. We got to see many other flowers in different stages of their life cycle including dead ones and those about to bloom.
But after about 10 minutes of looking at the flowers and taking pictures of them, our guide, who I swear is part gazelle, urged us back as it was getting dark and there had apparently been some large cat and bear sightings as of late. Whether this is true or if the guide just wanted to get back quickly for dinner, I will never know, but our returning pace was brutal in comparison to the climb up which was already fast enough for me. Combined with the oncoming darkness, the steep cliffs, and the perceived noises of tigers loping right behind me, I was ready to be out of the jungle. We only stopped to rest when our guide pointed out some gibbons, smallish apes, swinging around the trees at dusk. When we finished the hike, I was really glad to be done but also really happy that we were able to see the flowers in bloom. I was only a little disappointed that we didn't get to see the park's other rare animal, barking deer.
This last picture shows some flowers about to bloom (brown balls) and the aftermath of a flower that just bloomed (gray mass upper right corner)
You better get yourself back to Cambodia. You missed a very important site I remember mentioning you needed to visit!! :) Or maybe you're waiting to go with me, because we all know I couldn't talk anyone else into going with me!