26.03.2008 Khao Yai National Park

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26.03.2008 Khao Yai National Park

I hadn't planned to travel with Fabian. But since we had a really good time at our first meeting I had called him on Monday to find out if he was interested in joining me for the next trip. He was up for it and promised to call back as soon as he knew when he'd be off work. He returned my call last night and told me that he'd be off the following two days.

Because I didn't expect him to be off that soon I hadn't thought about what to do. I grabbed my guide book and had a look at the map. Since we only had two days for our trip I suggested we go to Khao Yai National Park which is only two hours north-eastern of Bangkok. He also got his book and we started to read about the park and how to get there. The decision was made quickly and we agreed to meet at the Mo Chit Sky Train station at 9am.

Traffic in Bangkok is unpredictable. Therefore I checked out on time, walked down to the river where I got on a boat towards the city centre. At the terminal I changed to the Sky Train and arrived at Mo Chit station at 9 am on the dot. Wow, I was so proud. I don't even manage to be on time in Switzerland (and most of the time I can’t blame public transport) but to manage punctuality in Bangkok is incredible :)

However, I was less happy after waiting in the heat for ages. Fabian showed up 45 minutes late and by the time he got there I was already sweaty all over. He was less lucky than me. I guess we were travelling during rush hour which is no problem on the river and the train tracks. But try to go somewhere in a bus on the road. Fabian was stuck in traffic for ages and at least as sweaty as me.

Ready to take off we tried to find the bus who'd take us to the Northern Bus Terminal where we had to book a long distance bus. We had to ask a few times and were led in different directions but made it eventually. When we entered the hall where we were supposed to buy the ticket I felt completely lost. There were so many counters with signs written in Thai. Mostly they only wrote the final destination in English. But fortunately a guy who worked there approached us, asked where we wanted to go and lead us to the right desk in no time. We bought our tickets and were lucky. Our bus would leave in about half an hour.

We had booked a VIP bus and the ride was very relaxing. We had comfortable chairs, were served drinks and snacks and there was a movie we didn't understand on TV. We spent most of the time talking and I was looking forward to our trip.

We had to get off at Pak Chang where we tried to find a Songthaew (kind of like a shared taxi) that would take us to the park. We got approached by a guide who works at Khao Yai Garden Lodge. He offered us a full package. Actually we had planned to do our own thing but in the end agreed to go with him. He offered us a really fair price including transport from Pak Chang to the lodge just next to the park, accommodation, a one day tour and transport back to Pak Chang. In both of our guide books the lodge got a really good review and we can really recommend it to anyone going there.

While the guide walked off to organise our transport it started to drip. In no time it turned into a monsoon rain. We found a spot to sit underneath a tent kind of thing. We were amazed just how fast the water line started to rise. There seemed to be a small river on the road in less than five minutes and it was fun to watch the cars pass by and splash as if it had been raining for days. It was our first rain in Thailand and it seemed to be as if we hadn't seen it for ages. It was refreshing after the hot morning and a welcome change.

We were picked up by a truck covered with a tarpaulin. Unfortunately it wasn't quite rainproof and by the time we made it to the lodge we were soaking wet.

Fortunately it had stopped raining just a few minutes before we got to the lodge. First of all we checked in and got changed at our rooms. Because it was already around 3 pm it was too late to go to the national park and we decided to have a look at the botanical garden that belonged to the lodge. We took photos and I admired Fabians new reflex camera which took much better pictures than mine *jealous*.

After our tour through the garden we walked through the "village", bought banana cakes at seven-eleven and went for dinner. The food was cheap but very delicious.

We seemed to talk forever before we paid, went back to the lodge and had an evening tea.

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