Today was full of surprises. It all started when I took out my toothbrush and discovered it had grown pink mold overnight. So I pulled out the spare toothbrush. It was new, but I had taken it out of the original packaging and popped a travel case on top. As a pulled the toothbrush out of the case, a little cockroach scurried out. Don’t ask—I have no idea how it got there, much less what country the cockroach calls home. Matt and I walked to a nearby mini-market to buy breakfast…and some new toothbrushes. We had a fun day planned ahead of us: a visit to the nearby Khao Sok National Park where we were going on a 16km, 6hr hike to a waterfall/swimming hole (3 there, 3 back). Things seemed to be going well and we enjoyed the coolness of the canopy as we observed interesting plants, bugs, and even a few snakes.

Blue Fern

Fungus

As most of the trail was covered by a thick canopy, it was somewhat damp. Just a kilometer or so from the waterfalls Matt stopped ahead of me because he thought he has an earthworm stuck on his toe. Matt hates earthworms and generally anything slimy—snails, slugs…you get the idea. I noticed a leech on his ankle. It turned out the “earthworm” was actually a leech to. He had more on his toes and a couple hiding under his sandal straps. I’m thinking that I probably don’t have any since I hadn’t felt anything crawling on my legs—plus I was wearing shoes and long pants (Matt was wearing sandals and shorts). But I decided to check anyways, just to be safe. To my horror, there were almost a dozen leeches sucking on my ankles above my now blood-soaked socks.
It was so gross. There are two ways we knew of to get the leeches off—fire or salt. Preparing for the unlikely event we happened to get a leech or two, we figured a lighter would be easier to carry around than salt. So all we had was a lighter. Unfortunately, we neglected to consider that burning a leech of your body can also burn you. So there we stood, on this narrow ledge of trail while Matt tried to get the leeches off me and him. It went something like this: hold lighter to leech, keep flame on as long as possible before it starts to hurt; at which point the leech has hopefully unattached and started to squirm; kick leg to flick off leech before it re-attaches; try to keep your balance; shriek at the blood now oozing out of the wound and onto the trail; use stash of emergency TP to try to stop bleeding; move on to the next leech. We were both in a bit of a panic. There was no where to sit, and no where close to go. I had blood dripping off my feet, Matt kept singeing the hair on his feet, and we both kept letting out yelps and shouts each time the lighter got too close. To make matters worse, Matt swung his backpack around to take something out of it as he was bent over trying to help me. Not realizing that it was open, a brand new water bottle and a box of food went flying down the hillside. A few minutes later as I bent to flick more leeches out of my shoe, my prescription sunglasses slipped off the collar of my shirt and fell 20 or 30 feet down the hill as well. Luckily, the items were retrievable.
If I was watching the scene unfold on film, I think I would have been laughing and squirming at the same time. We must have looked ridiculous with all the leech flicking, freaking out, and our belongings flying down the hill. But still, it was pretty awful. I bleed all over my socks, pants, and shoes. Since we had no Band-Aids or anything, and I was totally freaked out by the whole thing (Matt was pretty grossed out too, he made some faces and noises of disgust and horror I’ve never seen before), we decided the wisest option would be to turn back the way we came, foregoing our destination even though it was so close. I’ve never gone on a trail so fast in my life. Those of you who know me know that I am not a runner. But I even ran on part of it, dodging roots and branches along the way. Even Matt had never seen me move so fast before.
After a while, we arrived at the main trail and we took a break to eat some cookies before finishing the last few kilometers back to our bungalow. Matt noticed an article on leeches posted on the signboard. Too bad we hadn’t seen it the first time we passed the signboard. Turns out those leeches are pretty high-tech. They can sense you coming from ground vibrations and heat. Once they get on you they use their heat sensing ability to “leech on” to a suitable spot—a place with thin skin and blood. It generally takes 20-30 minutes for them to fill up, after which they can go without eating for 6 months. How long do these guys live anyways?

Finally, after a brief stop to buy some salt (in case of more leeches), we arrived back at our bungalow. I untucked the blood soaked hems of my pants from my shoes and peeled off equally gross socks before making a quick dash to the shower so I could wash my feet and ankles. But when I turned on the water, nothing happened. The electricity was out meaning the water pump wasn’t working to fill the tank. Sigh. I was tired of surprises by this point. Thankfully, one of the guys at the hotel gave us a couple of bottles of water so we were able to rinse off our feet before a much needed lunch. After lunch, the electricity came back on and we were able to shower. That’s when I got my final surprise of the day. One last leech had made its way all the way up my thigh where it had eaten, undetected, until falling off. What a day.

Leech Bites—the next day they looked like normal bug bites with a scab on top and itched A LOT. One week later they were still itching. I read online that the best way to get a leech off isn’t fire (obviously) or even salt as they can cause a leech to regurgitate the contents of its stomach (gross). The recommended way is to break the suction by gently pushing on the leech with your fingernail until the seal breaks and it can be flicked off. Sounds easy, but I don’t know if I could do it. With my luck the leech would probably reattach itself to my finger. Maybe I could use a credit card to break the seal…or maybe I just won’t get anymore leeches.