OH MY Did we see wild Elephants at Khao yai???

---

Our first South East Asian train was late!!! At 1:20 pm we were on our way to a town called Pak Chong, which is close to the khao Yai national park.

The train journey was really nice if not long and uncomfortable, as this wasn't your usual intercity speed train. No this one had great big wooden seats. What it did have though was big slide down windows that gave us some much needed breeze as it was a hot day outside.

The scenery as we started to arrive in Pak Chong was really nice too, with rolling hills, temples and statues of Buddha in the distance. On the train there was a constant stream of people walking up and down the aisles selling everything from drinks, crisps to dried out fish and rice wrapped in palm leaves.

On a rare occasion we decided we were going to let ourselves get 'touted', as we had failed to find out much information, as regards to where to stay or which reputable company to do our intended tour with.
The last Guesthouse we stayed in at Ayuthaya phoned a guy up called Jay who had a guesthouse and did tours, so we decided that if he was there we would go with him or maybe a choice of 2 more guesthouses.
He was there! and waiting, so he drove us to his place, which was a couple of kms out of town, set in the countryside surounded by lush green hills. We booked on a day and a half tour for tomorrow.

That evening he kindly drove us and picked us up from town, so we could go and visit the interesting night market. As we walked around searching for food there were people constantly looking at us, pointing at us and nudging their friend/family etc so they could get a glimpse, as though they had never seen a white person before. Jay later told us that they were just intrigued and maybe would like to speak to us to practice their English.
All very strange!!! We could imagine it if we were in a little village in the middle of nowhere, but we were in a town in Thailand a country that must be one of the most travelled places in Asia.
Still the market was good, they sold everything from clothes to dead frogs to fried bugs and more.

The following morning after another lay in (we're dreading when we have to get up early for work and thats now coming fast!) we had breakie then got taken to town to get some money. Then at 3pm we set off on our tour, along with 2 very quiet English girls and 3 Italian guys.

Our first stop was a very refreshing natural spring that has been dammed off to provide a nice swimming pool. IT WAS LOVELY!! and much needed. But there were lots of litter about!. The locals don't seem to realise or care about just throwing rubbish on the floor ( on the train a woman allowed her children to throw out of the window all their left over rubbish from their lunch)

Next was ANOTHER TEMPLE on a hill that was very heavily decorated and really nice. Then we went underground to a cave temple, that housed a few statues of Buddha and hundreds of bats that gave us a little taster of the amazing thing that we were about to see!!

As we drove along the country lane in our truck we could see the shadow of the bats flying over the hill in the distance in a giant wave. We had come to see some of the millions of bats that make their nightly flight out of their cave in the hunt for insects an food. IT WAS AMAZING

We stood just feet below these little vampires, the noise of their wings sounding like the wind. There were thousands all coming out of the little black hole we could see in the hillside. It was an amazing sight. They all followed each other into the distance except the odd on that zigged instead of zagged and found himself all alone until rejoining the swarming batmen. All while the sun set below the hills.

HOWS ABOUT THIS THEN. For tea we had a couple of pot noodles!! Nothing wrong with that!!
Ok then. For afters down at the market we decided that maybe a little bit of the local cuisine was in order. So we went and bought ourselves a lovely bag of FRIED GRASSHOPPERS!!! Very cheap as well. Shame they didnt taste very nice but they were nice and crispy though. We only ate the bodies as we didn't like the look of eating their heads.

The next morning, Tuesday the 8th me, Melissa and the three Italians (Mario, Nickola and Fabrizio, very Italian sounding names) set off on our tour to the Khao Yai national park, home to wild Elephants, Tigers, Sunbears etc in the hope of maybe seeing some of these animals.

First we saw a couple of Gibbons swinging in the trees verbally fighting for territory, it was great! As well as these two screaming away, we could hear more in the background. They obviously knew we were there because in between their fighting, they would look at us looking at them. Very cute.
Just down the road as we drove along the tarmac road in the park we found a load of macaques, monkeys with faces like the have just put a load of make up on. Some were carrying babies.

Further down the road we saw a couple of giant squirrels way up in the trees, just lounging about. We got a close up view because Tar, our guide had a pair of Bine'os. Which he cleverly used to get s a couple of good photos.

Next stop was the Info centre, where we learnt that there could be anything between 6 and 15 tigers left in the park and that poachers are still a big problem. There was a large skeleton of a guar, a cow like animal (apperently where the normal cow descends from) and a couple of stuffed tigers that had been killed (in self defence) because they attacked and killed someone.
As we drove to our walking track we also saw a couple of Barking Deer, very small and timid. We also saw lots of giant poo's on the side of the road and big round footprints, indicating that something big had hust passed (could it be a wild Elephant?) You wouldn't have to be a wildlife expert to come up with the correct answer.

On our trek through the rainforest we didn't see much in the way of wildlife apart from a Millipede, some massive spiders (bigger than the ones in Oz), Termites, loads of nasy Leeches and some really cool Roly Poly Beetles. The walk itself was nice, very dense, hard to imagine that it was an elephant track. After a few hours we arrived at a watch tower where again we didn't see any animals, was our earlier luck running out? You will have to read on.

After our lunch we called at a waterfall that was used in the film 'The Beach'. As we have seen so many on our travels so far it was just another waterfall, but we still took the usual photos. We didn't go for a dip as the water was up in flood and it looked a little dangerous.

Back in the truck and it had started to rain. At this point our guide put the plastic sides up and our hope of seeing much more wildlife started to fade and my earlier statement of "I'm not too fussed at what I see I will still enjoy the scenery" began to sound untrue. As I did want to see an Elephant, or two!!

We drove miles to a lookout that had no view due to the amount of rain that was now falling. It took us back to the Blue Mountains in Oz. we were told that on a nice day it is a wicked view. Our trek back up the path was now like a river with masses of water floding down over our sodden trainers.

As we drove away still with our sides on the truck well and truly down, we were wondering what was going to happen next??

ELEPHANTS!!!! We heard our guide shout. We skidded to a halt then everyone in the back jumped out. Which was the wrong thing to do.
"Get back in, i'll lift the covers up" Tar said
As soon as he did and we pulled up to the tree eating beasts, the cameras started to flash.
Now as you may know, we are dead set at sticking a camera into an animals face and blinding it with the flash. But at this point all logic went out of the window. They must have felt like film stars with all the flashes. But one was about to let us know he wasn't happy at all. After a loud trumpet he headed straight for us!!! Our driver shouting something out in Thai to our driver. Probably "DRIVE, DRIVE"!!!
We sat and watched them for a good few minutes, then they slowly headed off into the dense rainforest and we drove off very much happier.
As we made our way out of the park we were lucky enough to see a Green Viper (Or wiper as our guide called it in his Thai accent). I said that if it there was one on our car windscreen that it would be called a 'windscreen Viper' HAHAHA. We also saw an another Elephant on the roadside, this one being much bigger than the others. Apparently the wildlife goes to the roadside for the warmth of the tarmac.

After a good day we bid farewell to the Italians who headed down to Bangkok then the dreaded journey to Cambodia and we went back to the guesthouse for a potnoodle and a nice hot shower!!!!

The next day we found ourselves back in Ayuthaya, unsure as to when we would make the long journey north to Chang mai.
We booked into the same guesthouse where we relaxed, went to the local night market.
At 10:30pm we decided we would get the 6:30 local bus for the supposedly 9 hour journey to the nations norths biggest city.

---

Photos

Our little walk to nowhere
It was nice to be in the middle of no where after the city life.

Another Gibbon
Taken through a pair of binoculars.