Camping is always fun and a great way to get away from it all. This post will go over the basic vocabulary for camping, and give you a few tips along the way.

Let’s start with how you’ll get to the campground, for example Khao Yai National Park (เขาใหญ่). If you have a car, you can just drive all the way up. Otherwise it’s a bit more tricky. You take a bus from Mor Chit Bus Terminal to Baak Chong (ปากช่อง) for ~3 hours, from there you hop onto a blue songtaew (สองแถว), the traditional Thai bus with two rows of seats in the back (song taew means ‘two rows’). Ride for another ~30 minutes then hop off at the front entrance of the park.

After that you’ll need to hitchhike (โบกรถ). It’s almost 30km to the campsite, mostly unshaded road, so don’t think about walking it.

And if you’re a fairly seasoned camper, consider yourself a beginner – camping over in Thailand isn’t like back home as there are dangers you wouldn’t even consider.

As you know, Thailand has three seasons (ฤดู), and that should definitely factor into your trip plans. During the cold season (ฤดูหนาว) it can get fairly cold at night when up in the mountains, despite it being 90F during the day. During the rainy season (ฤูดูฝน), there are flash floods that drown people while hiking caves, the waterfalls become dangerous, and generally camping/hiking in the rain sucks. For the dry season (ฤดูร้อน), that’s when the starving forest animals develop a taste for human. And guides tell me they won’t go without a rifle just in case.

Now for the dangerous animals . . . be careful of elephants (ช้าง). I’ve never seen a wild elephant while hiking in Thailand before, but I do see elephant tracks and dung quite often. I’ve seen water-buffalo (ควาย), and you should avoid them like you avoid elephants. You might also see the slightly dangerous porcupine (เม้น). I wouldn’t have believed Thailand had any until I ran into one myself – I’m just waiting to see a giraffe . . . There are snakes (งู), but that should be a danger you’re accustomed to from your own country. As for the mosquitoes (ยุง), a rare but still possible chance of catching dengue fever. Thailand no longer has crocodiles, but there are giant monitor lizards (ตัวเงินตัวทอง, ตัวเหี้ย) which can be almost as big and almost as dangerous. You wouldn’t want to swim with them, but otherwise they’ll mostly leave you alone. I’ve heard some places have tigers (เสือ), or at least tiger-like animals, but I’m betting they’ve mostly gone extinct in Thailand like the crocs.

vocabulary (คำศัพท์):

เขาใหญ่                Khao Yai National Park (literally, ‘big mountain’)

สองแถว               songtaew (the two สอง row แถว seat buses)

โบกรถ                  hitchhike

ฤดู                         season

ฤดูหนาว               cold season

ฤดูฝน                   rainy season

ฤดูร้อน                 hot (or dry) season

ฃ้าง                       elephant

ควาย                     water-buffalo

เม้น                       porcupine

งู                            snake

ยุง                          mosquito

ตัวเงินตัวทอง       malaysian monitor lizard (silver body, gold body)

ตัวเหี้ย                   malaysian monitor lizard (rude form)

เสือ                        tiger