about Paul
TravelPod Badges
|
  | |  |
Khao Yai National Park
Entry 70 of 166 | show all | print this entry |
|
'TIBETANS OBJECT TO DRIED FISH. Kathmandu: A group of Tibetan women have saved hundreds of fish from perishing in a drying 17th century pond built by a Nepalese King to help his Queen ease the pain of their son's death , a newspaper reported yesterday. Officials had failed to fill up Rani Pokhar, or the Queen's pond, due to a water shortage in the capital, Kathmandu, where many citizens have to buy water from tankers operated by private contractors. After realizing the fish were going to die, the women - among thousands of Tibetans who have come to Nepal to escape Chinese rule in their homeland - raised money to buy water to fill the pond, The Himalayan Times newspaper reported. "It was heart-wrenching to see the pond getting so dry. We come here to feed the fish every day and we realised that there was hardly any water, only a layer of mud", Chhorten Lama, one of the women, was quoted as saying.'
An article in the Bangkok Post a little while ago.
Our access to Khao Yai National Park was through the Northern gate. As far as I know there are 2 gates that you can enter, one in the South and one in the North. As all the accommodation within the park was full we stayed in a Guest House just a few km from the gate, called Bann Kroo. Rooms in Bann Kroo cost us 300B per night and were small and simple but nice and exactly what we wanted. I thought it was a nice place and the owners were good people and I would recommend it for a simple, no fuss place to stay. There are many places to stay outside the park as well as accommodation within the park. However, within the park, the accommodation is often booked out on weekends and public holidays, so it is best to book in advance or be prepared to not stay in the park if you are there on a weekend / holiday.
Khao Yai is Thailand's oldest National Park and one of the largest. It is not far from Bangkok and contains tigers, elephants, deer, monkeys, gibbons, bears, leopards, buffalo,crocodiles and much more. Entry to the park cost 200B for me, 50B for the car, 20B each for Kanchana and her Mum and 10B for each of the kids. We drove the car through the park, looking for animals and stopping at a couple of lookouts. It was pretty nice scenery but nothing too exciting to start with except reasonably fresh looking elephant poo on the road. In many areas I could hear gibbons calling. I found a place where I could hear gibbons; there was room to stop the car and there was a track heading into the jungle. I headed into the jungle by myself to see if I could catch a glimpse of the gibbons. Kanchana and the kids were still quite unsure of walking in the jungle at this stage and wouldn't come with me. After a 5 - 10 minute walk, keeping my eyes out for tigers and snakes, of which I saw none, I found the gibbons. I could only see one although there was at least three that I could hear. Interestingly I also noticed a nest, similar to an orang-utan nest, which obviously belonged to the gibbons. I hadn't previously realised they made nests. I watched them for a while and took some poor quality photos and then headed back to the car.
During the rest of our drive we also saw deer. We then walked a little around the Park HQ an saw a small cream coloured squirrel and a giant squirrel and heard more gibbons. Oh, also saw a few small lizards. We had a chat to some of the park rangers also which was interesting. Khao Yai National Park is attached to some other National Parks and wilderness areas, making up a fairly large area of jungle. The ranger we were speaking to worked in an area that made up about a fifth of this jungle. Over the past 4 years he has had various cameras permanently set up in his area and in that time (4 years), they have taken 4 pictures of a tiger. I couldn't understand enough to be sure, but I think this was the same tiger each time. Hmmm, the chances of tigers surviving in the Khao Yai area seem pretty poor. Judging by this, there may only be 4 or 5 tigers in the Khao Yai jungle, if that. There are still poachers coming into the park to hunt for tigers and other animals as well as to take timber and other jungle products (largely for the Chinese market???). There is a considerable effort to stop this, but it has not yet been totally stopped. Just another one or two tigers killed by poachers would be enough to ensure that tigers would die out in this region. The ranger said about 180 elephants lived in Khao Yai National Park.
In the evening we went back to the park to do a night safari drive which cost 430B for 5 people and included a truck, driver and spotter with spot light. We saw a lot more deer and a civet. No elephants, which was a disappointment for Kanchana. Oh, at lunch Kanchana, her Mum and Alif saw a hornbill, but I didn't. The next morning we drove home via lunch at a waterfall. Khao Yai was good and we already plan to go back. Although I still am not getting far with convincing Kanchana to move to Chiang Rai, it seems she is more open to living somewhere near Khao Yai. More thumbnails ...
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by paul, from Thailand or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
Send a message
146 votes 
This is a top pick!
