Pak Chong & Khao Yai National Park

Something a little different today! We spent two nights as guests of Greenleaf Guesthouse and Tour – http://www.greenleaftour.com/index.html. For one price you get picked up at Pak Chong train station, two nights stay in the guesthouse, a half day tour of a natural water spring and a bat cave then a full day tour of the Khao Yai National Park searching for the wild elephants and watching the local wildlife – both splendid treats with fantastic guides – our first guide, on the half day tour, was laughing and joking around, giving us funny stories and tidbits of information about the area and getting people involved, the second guide, on the day tour, was full of enthusiasm and ability to spot a tiny creature from the cab of a moving truck was incredible. He would regularly dart off with his telescope, find something and beckon us over to see some fabulous animal. We highly recommend these guys as the trip was well worth it.

The accommodation was pretty basic, but they are quite clear about this when you book. It worked well for us though as it’s winter at the moment so only 30 degrees, and Jo had developed a minor cold with all the air con we had been in the last week. There is also no hot water in the shower, which was an experience but not so bad considering I had spent each day sweating constantly.

They have partnered with a hotel close by so any customers who cannot deal with the room have the option to upgrade to aircon and hot water, but honestly the restaurant attached to our place by far made up for the room – it was some of the best Phanaeng curry I’ve had on the trip, by far.

So, without further ado – and because there isn’t much more to say as we mainly bounced around in the back of a converted pickup truck, photos!

By the way – there are a bunch of videos below the gallery because I haven’t figured out how to mix them together yet – check them out! It’s worth it for Jo’s reaction to a Whip Spider and Scorpion!

Off we go in our converted Pickup Truck

The Guesthouse Restaurant – not much else around town but fantastic curry

The guesthouse got us in the mood for the jungle ahead

Our home for the next 2 nights

A break from the ice cold A/C from Bangkok. Fortunately it’s winter here so only 30 degrees, apparently when it’s hotter a lot of people go to their partner hotel with A/C. Oh, and the ice cold shower too.

Jo finally found her hammock!

Pak Chong – Starting with a relatively benign stick insect to start us off with

I even managed to hold this one!

Cleverly disguised as a stick (it is there!)

Getting creepier

Flower Pretty

Bug Weird

White Squirrel

(Really) Big Snake

The Descent!

Jimmy the Bat – there are millions of bats here, but apparently Jimmy is always here hanging out.

“Pick up some of the sand on the ground. Smell it. Rub it in your fingers, this is important soil, you know what this is?” “What is it oh tour guide?” “Bat Poo” “Ewww”

Few more bats

Whip Spider – on Jo’s hand. Check the video below for the reaction

She’s braver than I

Cute little claws!

He got us to turn all of our torches off so we could hear the bats flying in the cave, it was pretty amazing.

Creepy Staircase

Pretty sure I’ve seen this in a computer game somewhere

The cave also used to be a Buddhist meditation place, which must be cool.

Back into the light!

Creepy hole

Back to outside

A monk, in the temple just outside of the cave

The temple just outside of the cave

Sugar cane fields with a nice sunset

2 Million bats leaving a cave – they created a gigantic wave as they flew

Stopping for a snack of Snake Fruit and Longan Berry, nom.

We had a pleasant walk around afterwards

Fresh water spring, perfect for an evening swim

Lizard!

We met a couple of Poles on the trip, they were doing 3 countries in 3 weeks. Crazy.

We didn’t really speak to Mac the Murderer on the trip, and he didn’t really look like a murder at the time, but now I see this picture…..

Two Poles on a Truck

Khaoi Yai National Park

A Hornbill

After a while our Hornbill was joined by her mate (females have white eyes, males have red eyes)

A Hornbill couple, they mate for life (aww)

Alex from California, cool guy, even in leech socks

Me showing off my fashionable leech socks. Much good they did me, I got a leech on my ankle on the way home :/

Khao Yai is a World Heritage UNESCO site

Quick break for a Banana and some sweet sticky rice

In the back of our pickup truck!

We managed to get a great shot of the Hornbill through the telescope

Turtle chillin in the sun – apparently he is here every day, just chillin.

DO NOT DANCE WITH DEER – THEY GET OVER-EXCITED

Now THIS is a travel hammock

Chillin before the treck

Monkey! Too cool to even react to our truck

Monkey!

We didn’t see any. The tour behind us did though, 3 times. Dammit.

Water Dragon. The guide had a telescope with him and was a master of spotting wildlife from miles away and getting great shots through the ‘scope.

Water Dragon

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with T….It’s Trees, before you spend too much time looking for the animal which isn’t there.

We trekked down a river to find a couple of waterfalls

Picking our way through the trees and foliage

Tarzan the musical

Lizard!

These vines were everywhere, winding through all of the trees

Waterfall number 1

Taking a break from taking pictures

The jungle views were awesome

Us, and a waterfall

Jungle

Cure little mushrooms which collected rainfall

Let’s go for a swim!

Uh, let’s not go for a swim!

Jungle Trekking

This was the only sign we saw in French, apparently because it was put up after a French girl decided to have a selfie with an alligator. It did not end well.

Water Dragon

Squirrel!

Water Dragon

More Jungle

The closest we got to an alligator, on the other side of the lake

He was a bit camera shy, bless him.

Really, really poisonous snake. Quick photo of him before quickly moving on.

Jungle River

We walked out onto the river here, there were hundreds of butterfly which would dance all around us as we walked through

Lunch – another guide turned up with a huge rucksack full of curry. Nom.

Tadpoles

Jungle River

A bridge, fortunately we didn’t need to cross here.

Ever get the feeling you’re being watched?

Self-captioning picture 🙂

This is the waterfall as seen in ‘The Beach’ – the one DiCaprio jumps off of. Pretty damn amazing waterfall.

We screeched to a stop in the middle of the road, our guide jumps out, and picks something up off of the road.

It’s a Blue Scorpion – the smaller scorpions are the really deadly ones. Our guide has been stung by both.

This is our wonderful guide Lek. Lek is fearless. He’s been doing this for 11 years and sat telling us all about scorpions and the park, all the while stroking his new friend.

Apparently scorpions hiss when they want to attack – what you don’t see here is us all crammed up on the opposite side of the truck not really wanting to find out.