Khao Yai National Park

Trip Start Jan 15, 2006
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Trip End Feb 12, 2006


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Wednesday, January 18, 2006

We awoke quite early and left for the tour of Khao Yai National Park...during the day we rode around in the back of an open-air pick-up truck with seats. The truck stopped frequently to point out wildlife far off in the distance. It amazed all of us how the guides could notice the animals while driving at fast speeds in the truck ... when we often spent minutes trying to spot them with and without the binoculars while standing still. They certainly have trained eyes. We were lucky enough to spot a large monitor lizard, Great Hornbills (large birds), gibbons, many macaques (monkeys), barking deer, a civet (cat-like animal) etc.

On the trip we took two treks. Just ten minutes into the first of these Liz unfortunately sprained her ankle. The guide and Jennifer helped walked Liz back to the truck while the guide to us to remain where we were. As we stood in the middle of the forest (with no marked trail) for the next 25 minutes we began to feel a little like tiger bait and thoughts of the Blair Witch Project were running through our minds Group at Khao Yai
Group at Khao Yai
 . It was eerie, but to our relief the guide and Jennifer eventually returned. The first trek included seeing many amazing trees like the giant fig tree displayed above.

The next trek took us to two waterfalls including one made famous by its appearance in the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio. Moving onto the second waterfall...we were lucky to be the only visitors at that time. We were encouraged by the guide to take a swim. It was quite a highlight for me, though slightly innerving at the time because during the trekking we had to where these ridiculous socks that prevent leeches from getting at your feet. Leeches are prevalent throughout the park, even away from water, yet there we were hopping directly into a pool of water. No leeches attacked us however, and the adventure was definitely worth it! Our last stop was to an overlook where we took some awesome sunset pictures before making our way back to the guesthouse for showers before catching a night bus to our next destination.
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