Day 4 (November 28, 2010)   Khao Yai

Before   

Khao Yai National Park



   This is a simple day as we’re going to sleep in the place where the tour to Khao Yai National Park leaves from. It is a photographic safari in the rainforest since 8 AM to 7:30 PM. Lunch is included and we spend the night there too.


 0- Greenleaf

After

   
Anti-leeches socks   At 8 AM we’re taking our breakfast at Greenleaf with the people are going to be in the tour. My wife’s got a problem with the contact lens and must come back to our room. In the meantime a sangtaew with 8 persons leaves to the National Park, which is almost the whole group, and me, two young French men who came out late from their room and Puma, the one we spend the nice last evening, keep waiting her. While waiting we’re delivered the anti-leech socks. They must be put over our current socks and tied upon our trousers. The idea is nothing can climb up inside our clothes from the end of our trousers. They’re thinking for leeches but anything wanting to follow that way is not welcome. When Eva arrives we leave in another sangtaew to Khao Yai. She must put her anti-leeches socks on route.

   Soon we’re talking with our tourmates and Eva will try to teach them Spanish. Our first stop has wonderful views and shameless macaques.

Khao YaiMacaques in Khao Yai














 
Giant squirrel
   Then, we’re taken in front a big fig tree where come to eat a lot of animals during the day. On this first visit we take a picture of a giant squirrel.

   When we arrive at the observation spots, Puma sets the telescope he is always carrying over the tripod very quickly so we can see better the animals. It allows even taking good photos through it like the ones here.

   On the Visitors Center we find a varano and a couple of turtles. Then, looking the exhibition they have there we find a Spanish boy from close where we’re from, who lives in Bangkok and ends offering me a job in case we want to come to live here or help if needed during our travel. He is very nice and we won’t be able to stop thinking about the benefits of living in Thailand he explained.

Turtle and VaranoVarano












   Once again in the fig tree, we can get incredible sights of a black gibbon eating hanging on the branches, which is their typical way considering they never go down to ground.

Strangler tree which has eeaten the tree was in the middleGibbon




























   Then we go for a trekking through the rainforest. We see a lot of amazing vegetation and Puma, our guide, who has been joking with Eva all the time, stops in a hole in the ground and try to get a scorpion out. We know he always uses to put the scorpion over someone and we know too Eva is the chosen person for this time, so she runs but the scorpion is not at home today.

   During this tour in the jungle we can see spectacular trees, as the one in the picture below, with lianas and even pass by an elephant track. Although we don’t manage to see animals, except for some spider or butterfly, we really enjoy this time inside the rainforest.

Road through Khao Yai

   We eat under one of these amazing trees and go out to the road after a couple of hours of a quiet walking. We come back to the fig tree as Puma has got the notice there is a tucano (he’s been after it the whole day). The hornbill is really big and we get fantastic pictures of it.

Rubber tree in Khao YaiHornbill




























   We then visit the falls famous because they pay a role in the Leonardo Di Caprio’s movie “The beach”: Heaw Suwat and we’re delivered a snack: a pack of rice with something sweet evolved in a leaf. Delicious!

Dancing monkey   We go into the vehicles and start a search of wild elephants but, after a couple of hours, have not been found. It is dark, but Puma keeps looking for animals. Finally we all agree on we’re tired and it’s time to rest. We haven’t been so lucky with the animals – that’s impossible to control – but we’ve got a great time today. Puma has been charming and joking with my wife all day long and the people in the group has been funny and nice so all together makes an unforgettable day.

   We come back to our hotel at 7:30 PM but we don’t take our dinner there, we do it with our safari mates, Puma and one man from Barcelona has just arrived to do the same tour tomorrow. We talk for long exchanging advices.

   Once back at hotel we know tomorrow we’re going to breakfast at Greenleaf too. We must confess, on despite of the ho0t water, we would change our allocation from this resort to the basic rooms of Greenleaf’s guesthouse just because the people.

   At least, there is no TV show tonight. Actually, hotel looks empty. I assume it must work for local people and yesterday was a weekend, but today it is not, so all the customers are back at their homes now, except for us. This assumption is supported by the voucher in our room, completely written in thai. We can only read the name: Ruenmai Ngam Resort. Today we can sleep well in the quietness only broken by the sound of the frogs outside.

Heaw Suwat FallsHeaw Suwat Falls