In the jungle, the might jungle, the leeches sleep tonight...

---

Headed to Khao Yai National Park this weekend, about 174km north-east of my home in Bangkok. Our weekender trip to Khao Yai was very much an unplanned affair. We decided at 10pm the night before to go and I rang to secure some spots at a recommended guesthouse at 8.30am on the morning we left. Our 2.5 hour bus ride headed to Pak Chong, the nearest town to the national park.

After we arrived, and ate, our guesthouse host took us in his sawngthaew (a ute modified into a trooper carrier) to a nearby bat cave. The bats were a species much smaller than those I remember as a kid growing up in Darwin. I remember back then they would eat all of our mangos and I'd occasionally stumble upon the lifeless body of one who'd made the fatal error of touching two power lines at once. Our wander through the bat caves took us passed a few shrines and buddha statues as the locals monks actually use the caves to meditate in. I can see how it would work quite well as a peaceful escape from the outside world. That said, the monks who meditate in the caves here are evidently not bothered by the thousands of spiders and arthropods that infest every corner of it.

During our cave-walk I got to use the ISO 3200 setting on my camera which until being in a dark cave, I'd struggled to find a use for, haha.

At sunset we headed to the foothills of another bat cave and waited for the mass exodus of bats that takes place every sunset. I'd never seen anything like it. After about 40 minutes of bored waiting, a neverending trail of bats appeared and headed towards the setting sun. There's more than 1 million bats living in the bat cave, and up to 200 bats will share the same square metre together. It was mesmerising watching them all fly together in a single trail. If you look at the video I've posted up, you can actually see how it looks like a mini tornado the way it swirls around.

The next morning, we went for our jungle trek. We all donned leech socks and tucked our shirts into our pants to prevent the suckers getting places. Our trekking guide's name was Mr. A, he was a top bloke and was able to spot a snake a mile away. The trek started out pretty cruisy, mostly taking photos of snakes and catapillars and strangle vines. After a few hours, it got a lot more exciting. The rainy season had loosened a lot of the path and a few of us, myself included, went arse up. After that, I found myself an awesome walking stick which made me feel very Gandalf-like. It ended up being a communal creek-crossing device not just for me but also two Dutch travellers I met, Morena and Michael.

The leeches in the park would not give up. I escaped unsucked but I saw a few people with blood-stained clothing. I made a new mate called Max on the trek and I was laughin' at how uber paranoid he is about leeches them after finding seven in his shoe in Laos, foot bleeding everywhere. I think you've gotta give credit to leeches for their pretty clever chemistry abilities in that they've evolved to develop their own anaesthetic which prevents you noticing them as they feed. As well as that, they use an anticoagulant to thin your blood as they suck, hence people bleeding so much after removing one.

The rainforest canopy blocks out a lot of light and after the clouds above us began to thicken and thunder, we put a bit of a gallop into our step. We exited into this beautiful open field which actually reminded me of parts of Australia, west of Brissy. I contemplated taking home my trusty Gandalf stick but the humidity of the rainforest had soaked it right through and I figured it would just rot after a few days.

After some food and practising my Thai with some Pak Chong locals, we hopped into Mr. A's sawngthaew and headed to a waterfall. The Haeo Suwat waterfall is a beautiful, really heavy waterfall that I would have taken more photos of if I wasn't so keen to go swimming in it. I got changed out of my leech socks and jungle pants and headed in. I had to block out all thoughts of possibly resurfacing covered in leech friends. The signs around the waterfall actually said "NO SWIMMING" but Mr. A assured us that the sign only applies at certain times, that we, conveniently, were not in. While I was chilling out at the Haeo Suwat waterfall, I also made friends with a butterfly. He kept flying around me and whenever I would stick me hand out, he would land on it. Hanna, my pasty-white Finnish mate, was teasing me by saying that he must have thought I was a tree ('cos of my skin-colour) haha. I ended up getting some awesome macro-shots of it on my hand.

All in all, our whole time in the jungle was awesome and as much as I love Bangkok, I'm itching for my next escape. All the sites we went to were tops and even getting around by sawngthaew was loads of fun. My new mate Max has also drawn me a map of special place he says to visit when I head to Koh Pha-ngan. I was umming and arghing about actually bothering with Koh Pha-ngan but he says it's the ultimate fun and a sweet place to make new mates, so I've decided I'm gonna head there for the next full moon party with the make-shift treasure map I obtained in the rainforest. Over and out, xBugs.

'cos I stood up on the back of the tray and talked to Max

---