Khao Yai NP - as good as it gets

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When I was introduced to my personal guide for the next day's tour in the lodge the night before I thought he seemed a bit young! He wasn't much over 5 foot, had shoulder length hair and spent much of the evening playing computer games. His name was Anon (short for Anonymous I assumed).

We entered the Khao Yai National Park at 8 the next morning - just me Anon and the driver because there are so few tourists about at the moment. I was interested to see how good the two Thais would be at spotting wildlife. The most important thing one expects from a guide is that he sees wildlife that you simply wouldn't have known was there on your own.

Within minutes he had pointed out elephant dung. Come on Anon, we've all spotted that. Similarly the hooting of gibbons - Anon claimed it but everyone in the vicinity had heard it. Was this little pony tailed chap really going to protect me from snakes, bears, spiders and tigers once we left the safety of the truck and went yomping through the jungle? I wasn't convinced.

However my concerns were soon laid to rest when Anon leapt out of the vehicle, set up his telescope before I realised he had a telescope and beckoned me to look at the wreathed hornbill in its sights. It was impressive. The hornbill was only a dot in a tree in the distance that I wouldn't have dreamt was there until Anon got to work. The Great Hornbill also put in an appearance later on. Having glimpsed one in Kerala in India I can now confim that these are my number one favourite bird. Not only are they large with deformed yet couourful beaks but they make a noise that reverberates through the jungle - much more dogs bark than birds tweet.

Throughout the 10 hours that Anon, the driver and I were in the park he didn't miss anything... he couldn't have. From the moment he picked out the tiny bamboo pit viper from what was for all the world nothing but a green leaf I knew I was in the hands of an expert. On the subject of this particular poisonous snake, I was glad we spotte it AFTER the trekking part of the day as I had been frantically checking for browns and blacks before I took each step - I had wrongly assumed that green was the friendly colour of vegetation.

Between majestic waterfalls the driver alerted us to a Serpent Eagle that swooped just above us whilst Anon had weighed in with Samber and Barking Deers. When we rounded a corner to be confronted by 10 marching elephants though there was no issue as to who saw them first. They were there. They were huge apart from the 2 babies and they looked so much less friendly than the ones I had ridden in Chiang Mai. It was an incredibly lucky moment and it lasted several minutes as we retreated at the same pace they advanced. Occasionally the ears would flap and one of the elephants would begin to trot but although I desperately wanted the footage of a charge, it didn't come. But it was spectacular all the same.

The photos show that we had some pretty special moments particularly elephants a the gibbon gymnastic show. People spend a day in the park and see perhaps a monkey and some deer. We got very lucky. Whichever god it was that Anon insisted we pray to for good wildlife spotting just inside the park gate was clealy listening!

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