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Published: January 15th 2005
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We checked out of Bangkok (Goodbye noisy polluted bangkok) and arrived in Pak Chong, by our 1st Class Executive Air Con Bus, which was slow, hot and the air con sort of petered out of the vent. Too bad no one had a nice big durian - the infamous smelly fruit of Asia. We arrived in Pak Chong (nearby Khao Yai National Park)
Upon arrival we stepped off the bus, we had expected the bus station but were greeted by an old lady carving chicken on the street. Too bad it wasn't lunch time yet! Yikes. We proceeded across the street to the 7-11 convenience store (yes even in Thailand) and Caroline hailed a taxi using a small crazy looking band of"taxi drivers". They proceeded to rip us off, though 100 baht, about 3 dollars is still probably fine for a ride in the back of a pickup truck (Saang theuw). Now thats riding in style. The place we stayed was called the Green Leaf Guest House (200 baht a night, nice bargain!). The people were very friendly, food was great, and the coconut husk/fiber bed was about as soft as the average concrete sidewalk. That night we went for
1/2 day tour to look in caves and see bats! Lots of fun, with a very nice guide. There are meditation places inside the cave with large buddhas and electricity to light the way in. The guano (bat poop) from the bats is apparently a very big industry with it going to fertilizer and fireworks. Our thai guide explained it by writing KNO3 in the guano on the ground, nothing like getting a chemistry lesson written out in poop, thats potassium nitrate for you non-geeks.
After the cave we went to a nice hillside area with a cave up on the side of the hill where after awhile (they estimate) 2 million bats started pouring out in a big huge stream. The hawks outside just fly around waiting for them so they can start air-to-air combat once they come out. It was at this point that our guide gave us some pineapple and a stick. Caroline decided "How Fun!" and held the stick up in the air, to which the guide said "Umm, that is for the bat-watcher, not the bat" Thats my Caroline. Especially since they only eat insects.
January 14th - Khao Yai I'm getting
razzed because Caroline is upset that she got to write about Bangkok, hey..if you can't write two pages about street sold meat on a stick thats not my fault.
We'll co-write: We got on our tour with only one other couple (from Holland) - Meno and Saskia at 8 AM (which was easily achieved after night one on the coconut fibre mattress). We went straight to the park where we stopped at an area with some fig trees (with figs - lots of wildlife). We spotted a bunch of hornbills (brown, oriental pied and great species). We also saw white-handed gibbons. We certainly got our exercise since our crazy guide (new one from previous day) would suddenly jump up and yell \"Come come!\" and run the other direction. After about 3 hours of that we all figured it was probably yet another hornbill and ignored him. He likes his hornbills. If was very neat to see the male great hornbill feeding the female as she was locked inside the nest for breeding. She closes the hole in with mud (very very large woodpecker hole). The hole is apparently around 2 m high.
We saw: Giant Black Squirrels, Macaque,
Sambar Deer, Barking Deer, 3 Metre long Water Monitor Lizard Martens (yellow asian version) Porcupine, lots of birds. While watching the hornbills we got snack time which was a small bag of sticky rice with coconut cream custard (yum).
I'll let Caroline tell the rest: On our trek we got to wear some tick and leech socks. I was very worried about ticks, but wasn't a problem. Doug/Vita - remember the crampon group on the Johnson Canyon walk? I'm sure that was what we looked like with white cotton socks up to our knees. After watching the hornbills (on which Kumar the tour guide burned half my battery camcorder - he would just grab it and film but I got great shots) it started a monsoon rain. Luckily we had our elephant leaf "umbrella" which did not help much but was fun.
We arrived at the wildlife lookout drenched. So much for the dry season. After lunch we went to a waterfall teeming with school children, the same waterfall that was in the movie the Beach but not too impressive in the dry season. The school kids were hilarious, they would all go by in a big bus
and wave, if we waved back they would yell and scream in approval. Easily entertained, just like North American children, I guess.
After running around a parking lot after our tour guide to see more hornbills, we went up to a radar station to see the view although with so much mist nothing to see. We did see some beautiful martens in the wild - eating the rice the soldiers left out in their back yard. After that we went elephant hunting, at every bend I would see some fresh poop and my hopes would get up, but we never saw any elephants in the wild (on the road usually). Saw some nightjars, one with a missing tail! Then we headed home, 12 hours later. Meno and Saskia were taking a 2hr bus to Bangkok then spending the night in the airport before flying to Ko Samui, so we couldn't complain.
We were pretty cold by then after spending the evening in the back of the pickup so couldn't bear to take a cold shower, so had some yummy food (I had fried tofu with vegetables and Ken had Red Chicken curry), did some reading then went to
bed. The food is great, Ken is really in his element. Had the cold shower in the morning (it was awful, we have both decided that we can spring for an extra 7 dollars a night or so if it gets us a hot shower).
Got on the "ordinary" train to Ayutthaya This morning for 75cents each. Was actually pleasant because it is cool here at the moment - sat on hard benches trying not to point our feet at the monks a few benches over (very un-cool here to point your feet at a monk).
Which brings us to Ayuthaya - a city of WATS (temples and ruins from the Khmer regime). We are going to see some, but no forced marching as Robert (my brother) likes to do to Amanda (his fiance). Some people spend days looking at wats - it's kind of like castles in Scotland, after a few it becomes much less interesting. Tonight we are going to take the night train (with sleepers) to Chiang Mai (second class air con this time) where we are going SHOPPING! (Insert Ken's groans here) Sorry it's so long.
Having a great time, write soon!
Love Caroline and Ken'
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anonymous
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holy time for a massage, batman!
o.k., so you peeps have been there a week, and thus far, no mention of massages! ken...you should get one, whilst caroline is being little miss shoppy shopperson! sounds like you're having a blast whilst we're freezing our arses off...good times...good times! enjoy the night market! - nickers