There are certain times in Thailand when I am still really
surprised at what this country has to offer. One of those days was on the
weekend when I visited Khao Yai the National Park in the center of Thailand.
With a few days spare in my holidays I decided to make the
trip there on the bus and explore the national park on one of the organized day
and a half tours.
The first afternoon was the half day trip and somehow as we
were driving along our guide spotted a thin whip snake hidden in the trees. I
was standing right underneath it and still could not spot the snake. It was the
first of many creatures the guide was able to spot and teach us about, while
also letting us hold the animals and insects. We explored a bat cave with bats,
centipedes, millipedes, spiders, scorpions and a scorpion spider.
The main highlight of the afternoon trip was standing near
the exit of a bat cave as two million bats exited the cave to fly around for
the night. We were standing well away from the exit but the million insect bats
flew overhead floating in the sight wind.
The following morning we set off early to spend the day in
Khao Yai. Early in the morning we spotted
gibbons and hornbills two of the main drawcards to the park. Hornbills
are a toucan looking bird that sits high up in the trees. The gibbon is a
monkey looking creature which also lives at the tops of trees. Never walking on
the ground. An excellent telescope
helped us see the animals in a better view.
My group consisted of myself, two Dutch couples and a French
couple and together we followed the Thai guide through the jungle for a couple
of hours. The whole time we were under the canopy of the tall trees it was
raining then when we came into a large opening luckily the rain stopped.
Next stop after the walk was Nam Tok Haew Suwat the waterfall
used in the film The Beach. I was really excited to see this as I am a big fan
of the movie. It did resemble what I remembered from the movie although people
are no longer allowed to swim there. Our guide explained it was because too
many drunk Thai people were drowning there.
I would not have swam though because of all the rain the water was
really gushing down the waterfall.
Our last mission for the day was to go in search of a wild
elephant. It wasn’t hard to miss as the
elephant was standing right in the middle of the road. I have seen elephants in
Thailand but this was the first time I had seen a wild elephant. Wild elephants
are unpredictable and can be quite dangerous so we stayed in the bus which was
an open songthaew style bus and reversed slowly towards the elephant. Should
the elephant have decided to charge us we could drive off in a hurry. Luckily
it did not and we were safe. After spotting the elephant we headed back to the
guesthouse after an impressive day exploring a magnificent part of Thailand.
