Thailand Safari

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Catching the train bound for Pak Chong from Ayutthaya should have been an easy task. However, misunderstandings between myself and several employees meant I would miss my planned train at 1:45 in the afternoon, and instead find myself on a train departing at 5:30. This delay would be the cause of a couple of scenarios. The first scenario being me going for a beer chang with an off duty tuk tuk driver, a couple of restraunts down from the train station. The second scenario was compounded by the two long train breakdowns, that resulted in me arriving in Pak Chong some time around 8. Lack of planning, as well as a lack of a map in my guidebook, led me to believe the guesthouse i had heard of, The Khao Yai International Hostel, would be somewhere close by. Nope. Apparently it was 40km out of town. It was around that time that i remembered the name of another guesthouse in the area, Greenleaf Guesthouse, and had the tuk tuk driver take me there for a reasonable price. The drive was not entirely uneventful, as about halfway to my destination, the driver pulled over, and proposed an alternative lodging option. I declined and we continued on to the Greenleaf. Although, I must say, this is a trend in Thailand. While people stick to their word on prices, and destinations, I find they often, mid-route, like to ask you about maybe going somewhere else, whether that be another guesthouse, or a tailor shop, or a brothel.

We pulled into the Greenleaf guesthouse, I paid the man his fare, and as I hoped out of the tuk tuk (Actually, it was a songtheaw), I was asked by the guesthouse operator if i had paid the driver already. Hmmm...I thought, thats an odd thing to ask. He then showed me an available room for 200 baht, oh, but wait, its actually not finished being cleaned yet. So, he showed me another, but this one was 300 baht. Well, by now having figured out that they typically pay for the tuk tuk ride, i bargened him down in room price, and we found something good for him, and good for me. All the tours for the day were finished, so I sat down with some people who had just finished the evening tour, and shared a few beers. I signed up with the guesthouse guy for the full day tour in the morning, as did the others. The little brochure showed an array of animals and I was looking forward to it, and with it starting at 8, I took ton my bed early in hopes of a good nights sleep. The others weren't so wise, and it showed the next morning.

I woke up the next morning and got all my gear ready. The tour guide had recommended long pants, long shirt, and good shoes. He failed to mention rain gear. Unfortunately, rain gear is something we would be needing. As we neared the park it began to pour.

Our songtheaw (covered bench sit pickup truck) had a tour group of 9. 6 of whom were dutch. While not really relevant to anything, I thought I'd mention that. So, we got into the park and our first step was to put on our leach socks. These socks come up to your calves, and cover your other socks to prevent any blood suckers getting in. We did this at one of the parks "lookout points". But, it was so foggy that we couldn't see anything. Our next stop was only about 20 feet into the forest, this was a little taste of things to come. Our guide spotted some macabre monkeys in the trees and focused his telescope on it. It was kinda hard to make out through all the tree, so after taking a quick look I kinda just puttered around on the nearby trails. I actually saw a cool looking squirrel and a few different types of birds. We then packed up our stuff and headed off to the next part of our tour, The Trek, but not without first making a little stop at the Park Museum.

The Museum was rather uneventful, aside from one of the best decisions I made all day. That decision? To buy a rain poncho. I actually bought two, just in case. With poncho equipped, we made our way into the jungle.

The 3 hour jungle sightseeing trek was a mess. It was raining heavy, and apparently with rain that heavy you don't really see any animals (at least that was what the one dutch guy kept repeatedly telling the group). Actually, the dutch guy, Tom, for me really made the trek bearable. For the tour guide I'm pretty sure his constant talking made his guiding unbearable. But, I do appreciate Tom making the best of miserable situation with jokes and some chatter. How miserable? Well, between being soaked, not seeing any animals, and having to walk through about 4 red clay mud puddles where you would be calf deep in mud, yeah it was pretty miserable. However, as the trek went on, right near the end, the rain began to subdue slightly. And, as we emerged from the jungle onto the plains, it had all but dissapeared, which made the sight all the more stunning. We walked along the grassy paths until we reached a lookout, where it would seem that there is occasionally elephants, but not on this afternoon. I took some pictures, and the guide informed us that the Songtheaw was waiting for us about 300 meters ahead. As we trekked, I was just happy to be out of the jungle, but just as we approached the Jeep, the guide spotted something in the jungle down below. What was it? A wild elephant.

Was seeing a wild elephant enough to make it all worth while? Yeah, definitely. But, that was really just the start. We ate lunch at the Songtheaw, and then began the part I was really looking forward to, the casual drive around animal search. And a productive search it was. we saw gibbons, we saw deer, we saw birds, and even a little scorpion. How our guide spotted a scorpion on the road as we traveled 50 km is beyond me, but you have to see the pictures that came out of it. Amazing.

With dusk upon us we made our way back to the guesthouse. All-in-all a very good tour. Back at the guesthouse I had a night of taking it easy, as well as a lingering issue to tackle. That issue? Laundry. At this point in time, I literally had not one piece of clean clothing. And not just not clean, I'll wear not clean clothes, I mean filthy. But, not a problem, the guesthouse has laundry service....right?

Well the next morning I would find out the answer. Yes, they do have laundry service, but it would be cheaper if I just did it myself. As well, there were washing machines, and I assume they were just going to use them anyway and charge me a whole lot more. However, as I go to use the machines I ask a crucial question. Where is the dryer? Dryer? There is no dryer. Oh. Well, this rainstorm isn't exactly gonna dry my clothes now is it? So, with this saddening fact in my, I went back to my room and slept, but not before signing up for the night tour.

The night tour started around 3. And at this point of me blogging, i'm actually in the city of Phi Mai, where I've found a horror show of bed bugs, and my only reason I'm still on here blogging is a fear of going to bed. My point being, I think the night tour is gonna get a condensed version.

Night tour = Bat Tour.

Okay, a bit more detail than that. First, we went to a "meditation cave" where the monks go to meditate "in quiet" when its not being bombarded by farand and thai tourists or locals trying to harvest bat guano for fertilizer (apparently quite lucrative). So we spent the first hour or two looking at bats. It was actually amazing. We got so close we could touch them, and I got a few really cool videos. After exploring the bat cave for a while, we took off in the jeep to see one of South East Asias coolest spectacles. The emergence of 2 million bats from a cave at dusk.

I'm not sure that photos or videos can really do what I saw justice, but it was the most amazing experience. As we waiting for the show to start, so did the circle birds of prey. As the first bats emerged, birds swooped down and snatched their dinners. The whole event continued on for more than a half an hour, with wavers and waves of bats coming out in a column. Finally their formation dispersed, and their leaving slowed. Our guide know so much about bats and how the process worked. He was a charm to be around. He was quite skilled with his telescope as well, and he got me some excellent video footage using it to zoom in on the cave with my camera.

The ride back was nice, and the evening was capped off with some beer Changs, some Sang Som (rum) and me providing some basic thai phrases for some of the other travellers just arriving. The next morning my plan was to leave, but to where I hadn't decided. To be honest, Laundry was still taking a toll on me and I was tempted to go back to Bangkok, as I knew I could get it done there. However, just before bed I discovered I did in fact have one clean shirt, and one clean pair of boxers. It would have to be enough, because I decided against Bangkok, and into the unknown. The unknown being Phi Mai, with a brief stopover in Khorat.

The next morning I woke up, confused, disoriented, and slightly hungover as seems to be the emerging pattern on days i need to travel, and I packed my bags in a rush (oh, and I had set my alarm to PM instead of AM). With minutes to spare I bought a lunch for the road, paid my tab, and took to the road.

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Comments

[Monique]

animals galore!
Tasha loved the photo of the elephant. It brought her back! So cool about the bat cave, can't wait to see the videos! I can just see you sopping around in the jungle, knee deep in mud. How happy you must have been. I probably would have paid money to see that. Don't be sad, need I remind you? You're in THAILAND!! Miss you! Loves :) Mo