The river slithered out of the mountains with such speed that it seemed the forest must have been on fire. This should have been our first clue, but we pressed on, past rice paddies and the Death Railway, past water monitors and banana trees, past lotus fields and check points. We curved around roads unable to watch where we were going because we were mesmerized by the sun setting through the jagged dragon’s teeth jutting out of the landscape. Even as night began to fall, we did not stop, further into the heart of a jungle so dark that the moon and stars could not be seen, as if we were no longer in a world surrounded by other planets and galaxies. The fauna grew more massive and the flora grew more crowded until we were shouldering our way into a deafening density. Frogs croaked wood against wood, geckos sounded like birds, and cicadas imitated longtail boats.
Beetles and dragon flies landed on us as if we were sticks. Park rangers told us to turn back. Kitti bats stayed in their caves. Street signs shaped like royal crabs scuttled away from roads. And yet we persisted, driven on by an incurable bug for adventure, a sickness that pushed to see more and more unseen, a fever that made our hearts restless and drove us from our homes.
The mountains became billowy the higher we went, as if this far from the city even they were not fixed. Mist gathered round, blurring the edges. Bamboo plumed off cliffs, looking like giant feathery ferns from a distance. Animals jumped off limestone bluffs, floating into elephants and crocodiles and gibbons of cloud. Forests sank into reservoirs, as if the earth did not know where it stood. The road twisted, uncertain of the ground beneath it. On motorbikes and bicycles and boats, we pressed, closer toward forbidden lands where borders were blurry, into frontiers decorated with coconuts and cow skulls, where cowboys wore rice paddy hats. Into a west so wild that centuries and continents fell on top of each other. And we, naturally, lost our bearings, too.
Ficus roots floated in midair so that we wondered briefly if we were underground. Strangler figs wound around trees so tightly that the buttressed giants choked and fell, leaving exoskeleton trunks of vine, hollow ghost trees that still sprouted leaves and fruit. We climbed inside and nestled there, daring the vines to squeeze us, too. They were slow to respond to our taunts, as careful foliage often is. Hidden inside that creeping constrictor, we were not so cautious.
Deprived of the embraces of elkhorns and newts, we clasped each other. As tigers turned to clouds and mountains gaped into open dragon’s maws, we held hand to hip, mouth to mound, cheek to cheeks. Arms flattened into banana leaves. Hair transformed into mountain fog. Feet flew into branches. Eyes grew into papaya. Bellies became karst formations and breasts danced into spinning seed pods. Fingers split into ferns. Orchids turned and cooed at the rustling, lizards clucked, birds whistled, mangoes dropped like dumbfounded jaws, and gibbons whooped.
We were no longer sure if we were astronauts or crickets, dinosaurs or gods. But the knowledge no longer mattered. I did not return from that heart of darkness, and nor did you. But we came home, as frangipani and limestone, passion fruit and snakes, tree frogs and jasmine, the earth and the sky.
Creative Commons  love to purplekarma, axelsaffron, and beakatude (in that order) for the photos! Thank you!
Brilliant! Love, Love, Loved the imagery! 😀
Nice visions through words.
Beautiful!
Beautiful!!
Wow! Love love love.
Such a beautiful painting of words. Loved this!
This post is like a fairy tale.
I’m finally catching up again on blog posts. Thanks for your patience! 🙂
Great imagination!
I felt like I was there. Well done.
That was beautiful!!!! So talented!
amazing imagery! i don’t have time to finish reading, but I’ll be back 🙂
amazing imagery! I can’t read it all now, but I’ll be back 🙂
Wow, that was inspiring and amazing! I love how you give such life to all the various forms (street signs, for instance). What a unique eye you have. Bravo!
great post here.
Love that place. Thanks for he memories
You have a beautiful and capturing writing style! I’ve read a few of your short stories and I’ve had no problem sharing in the vision you were writing about!
What a wonderful dream trip…thanks for taking me along.
That was really, really well written. I forgot where I was for a minute there.
Such unusual word and idea choices – very unique style. I have to say I am intrigued…
Very nice. I’ve been to Khao Yai and Kaeng Krachan National Parks, and Chiang Dao up north innThailand. Seeing great hornbills fly over the canopy, and hearing the gibbons sing. Pretty magical.
You paint brilliant pictures with your words. I wish you luck. Keep writing! PS–thank you for looking at my blog.
the forest and snake photo is NICE….i just LOVE LOVE LOVE green. you on with your bad self. 🙂
I love how you were able to describe all of these with such magnificent creativity.
Wow! You are an excellent writer. IMHO 🙂
unspeakably beautiful.
Awesome. Love it!
There’s something about the tone of your voice – in addition to your riveting descriptions – that’s just so… right. Your ideas seem to live on the fringes of believability… and yet they always seem ‘at home’ in this story. Really great stuff. Thanks for liking the post on my blog, by the way. And thanks for sharing this. Inspiring.
Lovely story. Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope you stop by again soon.
Hi there, I know you’ve probably received such awards before, but I’m sending this one on as a token of my appreciation of your work. It is of course entirely up to you as to whether you wish to pass the award on, no pressure … just want to acknowledge you – see your award at http://journalread.wordpress.com/awards/kreativ-blogger-award/
You so easily, beautifully, tread the border between fantasy and reality.