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After our early night we got up early and headed to the bus station in a taxi at the other side of Bangkok. We entered the Bus station and had a look around for where we would buy tickets to Pak Chong.. it wasnt hard as we had two ladies shouting at us 'Pak Chong... you go to Pak Chong.' We had 30 minutes until the bus left so we quickly got some breakfast and then headed to the bus. The journey was about 3hrs, its meant to only take 2 but we kept stopping to fill the bus with more people. We got dropped off in the middle of Pak Chong.. right sooo where's the phone box.. we had the number for our guesthouse GreenLeaf (this guesthouse also operated the tour we were going on) and we had to ring them to tell them we had arrived and wanted picking up... slight problem.. we couldnt figure out how to use the phone box.. after about 10 minutes of standing there and trying all different types of methods one of the locals came over and helped us.. he must of been watching and thinking stupid bloody tourist. As he was typing in the number Lucy noticed a van with Greenleaf guesthouse written on the front and sent Peter off to ask the driver if she was going back there.. thats when we got an answer on the phone.. Lucy was trying to explain where the heck we were and then just got told to get in the van.. sooo all in all it worked out very well.
Once arriving at the guesthouse we got shown straight to our rooms, we got a slightly cheaper room than expected but it was perfectly fine. RESULT.
So i bet your all wondering why we came to Pak Chong.. wellll it was just a base for Khao Yai National Park really..
The park is the second largest in Thailand. It covers an area of 2,168 square kilometers, including evergreen forests and grasslands. Its altitude mostly ranges from 400 to 1000 m above sea level. There are 3,000 species of plants, 320 species of birds and 67 species of mammals, including Asiatic black bear, Asian elephant, gibbon, Indian sambar deer and many more. Its waterfalls include the 80 metre Heo Narok, and Heo Suwat made famous from the film The Beach.
Anyways we had booked a 1 and a half day tour which started the same afternoon we arrived at 3pm.. walking boots on and let the fun begin..
20 minutes down the road we pulled over, our guide (joe) shouted everyone out.... we followed him to the trees!!! He was pointing.... what were we looking at??? we couldn't see anything but trees and grass!!! Only a bloody snake hanging from the branches about 2 meters infront of us all! It wasn't the biggest snake in the world, but it was a snake! Joe pulled Peter forward and made him hold the snake.... think he knew Peter didn't like snakes. The look on Peters face was priceless. (look at pics). Lucy followed the group in holding the snake alot more convincingly than Peter did. Joe then made it Peters job to put the snake back where we found it....
We then carried on our journey, he took us to some hot springs. We didn't go swimming there though as it was really busy with lots of locals swimming and bathing in them. Our guide Joe had a very good eye and kept pointing out different creatures he kept seeing. We then visited a cave where buddhists worshiped, this cave was very dark and we required our flashlights. We were very quiet as we walked around as Joe kept showing us bats, spiders, millipeeds etc... Was a very good experience, Peter had a massive millipeed on him and a spider on his head. We also got fairly close to the bats without disturbing them. (check out the pictures). After visiting this very cool cave we then drove abit further down the road for sunset.... we stood in a field at the bottom of a hill and witnessed millions of bats leave there cave!!! They poured out, its something we probably will never see again... quite breathtaking to be honest!
Our half day tour was complete and we headed back to the guesthouse where we enjoyed some very good food and beers. All the meals at greenleaf were very good (impressive.)
Wakey wakey... up nice and early the following day for a long day in Khao Yai national park. Quick breakfast and off we went, around a 30 minute drive to the park entrance. Within 10minutes of being inside the park we slowly drove past some monkeys at the side of the road. We then stopped further up the road at a view point with stunning views. They handed us some leech socks which we all had to put on, looked a little daft we did! While we were admiring the views and watching a couple of monkeys being rude, a big monkey jumped on the back of a pick-up and ran off with a bag of food.... lots of monkeys chased the big man trying to get abit of the food he had stolen. Was very funny to watch, just wished we had videoed it!
Getting back into the truck we drove a little further, stopping now and again to see gibbons and hornbills in the trees. The gibbons were fantastic to watch swinging from tree to tree. Sometimes we could have done with some binoculars of our own rather than everybody sharing one pair. The trek then began.. well we say trek, it wasnt really much of one. We walked for two hours in the jungle again stopping now and again to watch the gibbons. Dinnertime arrived and we all ate in the watch tower.. tofu and vegetables... wasnt the best dinner. The both of us were actually sat eating and keeping one eye out for wild elephants... no such luck though.
After lunch we visited Heo Suwat waterfall, this waterfall is featured in the film 'The Beach'. Its a fair spectacular waterfall to look at, but unfortunately no swimming is allowed (boooo!)
It was now mid afternoon.... Time to find those wild elephants!! Or try and find at least.... The guides drove down a road where they sometimes see the elephants, we drove for quite a few Kilometres with no luck, apart from lots of elephant poo now and then on the road.... Lucy was an expert at judging the different poo's as we drove past... 'Oh that looks a fresh one', 'thats an old one, its too hard!' and 'oh thats really recent' HAHAHA
But still no elephants....The driver then turned around in the road and we headed back in the direction we'd come from. Some of us were getting the feeling that we were going to be an unlucky group and not get to see any. Then suddenly we stopped.... none of us in the back could see or hear anything! The guide went running down the road, the driver told us to stay put.... Had we found elephants??
Our guide returned and we followed him quietly off the road side into the thick grass and trees. Around 30 metres away from us we could see tree branches swinging and getting pulled down. We could hardly see the elephants, but we gathered there were 2 of them. Because the terrain was so thick and unwalkable we couldn't really get any closer. We tried to get different view points of the elephants as they stomped through the thick forrest. We returned to the road side and went further up the hill, the elephants were slowly progressing towards the road. We really wanted them to come out so we could see them properly. Unfortunately lots of other vehicles had seen our group and cottoned onto we were close to elephants... maybe 3 or 4 elephants were there somewhere very close. Due to the higher volume of people and noise the elephants never came out of the thick jungle and weren't going to while lots of people were about. Our guide knew this and ordered us back in the truck. Hopefully we'll find more further up the road.... Me and Lucy were a little gutted the elephants hadn't shown themselves properly but it was still a good experience.
5 minutes up the road..... 10 metres from the side of the road at a salt lick. There stood all on his own in a wide open space, a big male elephant. He had tusks and we were all amazed and happy. Camera's were out and everyone was snapping at this brilliant creature. He seemed to like the attention and kind of did a little show for us, by walking up to the edge of the road and posing for us up against a tree, then he returned to the salt lick. (A mineral lick also known as salt lick or natural lick) is a natural mineral deposit where animals in nutrient-poor ecosystems can obtain essential mineral nutrients.)
Wow... we'd seen a wild elephant around 10 metres from us :-D
We then set off back, it was starting to go dark... this was apparently the best time to see snakes and maybe even scorpions! The driver slammed on his breaks and our guide ran back down the road. He grabbed something and was bringing it back to us, he kept dropping it though!! What was it??
SCORPION! Around a few inches long, our guide placed it on a mans leg in the truck and we all tried to get a quick picture of this creature we had never come across before in person. He didn't have it on his leg long, and our guide put it back at the side of the road.
Still no snakes though, and it was dark. We might get lucky on the way back our guide said. They apparently come to the road for warmth. We were both looking forward on the road where the headlights were beaming.... Lucy shouts 'There.... whats that??'
Everyone looks forward.... That would be a speed bump Lucy! HAHAHAHA
We didn't see any snakes on the way back to the guesthouse, just some deers and more speedbumps!! That evening we just chilled out with some more delicious food and beer. Whilst we were eating our guide from the first day (Joe) came round to our table and placed something in each persons hand. Making sure we held our hands closed so it couldn't escape.... at first we didn't know what is was! Lucy wouldn't hold her hand out as she didn't know what it was. Turns out it was a cricket. A while after Peter had held the cricket, he went to touch Lucy.... she jumped up.... she thought i still had the cricket!! HAHA
Really good couple of days :-D
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