Khao Yai

Friday, July 10 I thought we had a class at 1:30. However, the class was rescheduled (as is often the case in Thailand, which can be good or bad) for this Tuesday. Without class or plans, Ricker, Christina, and I decided that we would finally fulfill our goal of going to Khao Yai National Park this weekend. Ever since we arrived in Bangkok, Khao Yai was one of the first places we all wanted to go, however, something kept preventing us from going. Once it was our friend Wit, who called the night before inviting us to come with him around Bangkok, once our teacher suggested we go to Ko Samet instead, once I got sick...

From Khao Yai

So anyway we already knew how to get there and had most of the plans already contrived. We found our way to Mo Chit Bus Station and took a bus to Pak Chong, the closest resemblance to an urban area near Khao Yai National Park. Judging from the map, Khao Yai is about 3 hours from Bangkok. We arrived at sunset in Pak Chong, ate some dinner (I had some really weird food actually it was soup with the consistency of a runny nose--it may have been Chinese and some resemblance to egg drop soup), and hired a taxi to take us to a guesthouse/hostel that was closer to the park, but an unwalkable distance. Unfortunately for us, the guesthouse had been booked up, which was a possibility nobody considered because currently in Thailand it is the "rainy season" when few people travel. The irony was that we could have called and reserved a room ahead of time, but we didn't realize that the owners would speak perfect English. Retrospectively, their non-vacancy helped us out a lot, because instead of merely saying we're full, the owners talked to us for about 10 minutes giving us some valuable advice about the park. The taxi driver drove us back to the bus station where we originated, so we chartered a joy ride around the area.

At night in the hotel I watched television for the second time over the trip, and there were some notable channels. Of them, the best included Australian Rugby, Michael Jackson tributes (in Thai), and the Thai Extreme Sports Competition (this consisted of really bad skaters falling every ten seconds.

We woke up fairly early, bought some snacks for the day, and then rode a songthaew to the park entrance. The rangers convinced us, and as we learned from our last experience at a national park, having transportation is pretty essential. We hired a guide between all of us, while Matt and Megan joined also by getting to the park around 11 am. The guide drove us to various areas of the park and we had a really good day checking out some of the waterfalls, doing a bit of hiking (although there aren't too many trails--or at least long ones), and meeting some random travelers from around the world. Among them include an Israeli woman traveling, some Thais who spoke nit noi (little) English, and some other folks. We ended up making pretty good friends with some of the rangers too, because one of them for some reason had five beers at 9 am, when we arrived and Ricker made a comment in Thai that they found particularly funny. He called him drunk or something to that effect and then they gave us some thai dessert, basically eggs and coconut paste and some sugar (I'm not sure). It was great though, because we kept running into the rangers and they were really nice and helpful and generous.

From Khao Yai

The next day we got up early for the sunrise actually, because there was nothing to do at night so we just all fell asleep at 9:30. The day was full of surprises, but mostly leeches. Leeches are common in the rainy season, while they aren't harmful, they can become a nuisance. I would describe leeches as a slushier, lingering type of mosquito, but unlike mosquitos you can't always feel them. We were warned ahead of time by many signs about leeches, but for some reason we didn't encounter any the first day. The next day we started walking and then looked down on our shoes and these leeches are extremely quick, you wouldn't think so, but they move with purpose. Our socks and shoes were covered in leeches and we left the trail and re-assessed the leech situation, bought some "leech guards" for about $1 at the visitor's center and resumed the day. Matt had one he didn't realize stuck in his shoe for quite awhile and it looked like someone tried to drill a hole in his toe. There was a lot of bloodshed, but not much pain or severity to his injury. The bites are like mosquito bites. After practicing flicking for awhile, we completed a longer trail in the afternoon, ate lunch, and headed back to Bangkok. The bus ride was fairly normal and not too eventful. Although we took a bus from the bus station back to our apartment that for some reason the attendant didn't make us pay, which was a nice oversight.

From Khao Yai 2

We came back and ate dinner, and it was already around 10 pm. I had a short assignment due for one of my classes at 9 am, so I spent a couple hours working on it. Yesterday, not too much happened, but I did realize that next week I have a chemistry test sometime, so I will need to do some studying over the next couple of days.