#11 Khao Yai National Park Thailand

Khao Yai National Park

This 2168 km² park is home to one of the most beautiful natural sightings in Thailand. It's about 180 km Northeast of Bangkok. The Park's vegetation consists mostly of grasslands and tropical seasonal rainforest. There are 66 mammals present in the park, including the Asian black bear, Indian elephant, gaur, gibbon, Indian sambar deer, pig-tailed macaque, Indian muntjac and wild pig. The waterfalls in the park are also stunningly beautiful but more about that and our own experiences later. First I want to tell you guys something about Lopburi.

Lopburi

After our stay in Ayutthaya we went north to visit the monkey city Lopburi, known for its infestation by short-tail Macaque monkeys, the second most common primates in the world. The town isn't big enough to get a mention on it's own, so I thought it was a good idea to give you a short story about our experiences here. We stayed for one night to see the monkeys terrorize the town which is quite funny for tourists but a huge pain in the ass for residents.

All of the windows, doors, holes and cracks have to be blocked and secured with iron bars to obstruct these little monsters from stealing their possessions. When we first arrived in the town we thought the monkey story was just a myth and there would only be like a couple of dozen around. But after walking for 5 minutes we had already seen around 30 of them. Even at our hostel the monkey were outside our window screaming and jumping up and down, playing in the halls and climbing the outside walls. The town itself wasn't that impressive a few small and old temples here and there but that's about it.

From here we took a minivan to Pak Chong (70 baht) which is the closest city to the Northern entrance to the park.

Khao Yai National Park

We arrived at Pak Chong and took a local bus which dropped us off at the entrance of the park. Which was really stupid of us because we stayed at the lovely Green Lodge hostel about 16 km back. So we had to hitch back the other way, which was really easy because there are a lot af pick up trucks driving by, so we just hopped in the back. But we coudn't find the hostel. After driving back and forwards, jumping in and off of several different cars, trying to explain what we were looking for to the non-English speaking locals by waving our arms and using handgestures, we finally decided to look for some wifi and look it up ourselves. After 3 hours of searching we finally found the hostel (we drove past it for like 5 times) and decided to get some night's rest before heading into the jungle. The next day we took the 2-day private tour for 2 people with a driver and a guide:

First day:

• 3 hour hike: absolutely stunnig! From the beginning when we started walking I already loved it. You instantly got the feeling that you were actually walking through a dense and dangerous rainforest, with scary insects and big animals all around you. The sounds that reveal the rich biodiversity of the rainforest was like a natural orchestra which strokes the auditory cortex of each individual who walks in. Be careful for the leeches though, walking for 10 minutes and my whole shoes and lower legs were covered in leeches. No wonder every tour provides leech socks.

We encountered huge spiders, centipedes, monkeys, racoons, hornbills, all types of squirrels, monitor lizzards, crazy dragonflies and butterflies, bats, deer, fungi, crazy plants that move when you touch them, immense trees and so on...

• Haeo Suwat Falls: This beautiful waterfall is the number one attraction to the park. It's so famous because of the worldknown movie 'The Beach' starring Leonardo DiCaprio in which this waterfall is used. The waterfall is really pretty and has a nice chill and peaceful current. Which emits one hell of a sighting.

• The Bat Cave: (No not the one from the Batman franchise) The cave itself is not that impressive, just a small stinky cave with a lot of scary flapping noises, but when the sun sets around 6-7 pm all of the dark flapping creatures, the bats, come out to hunt in the park. The number of bats living in this cave is HUGE: around 2 to 3 million! When it's time to hunt the bats wake up and start flying out of the openings of the cave one by one. This is a once in a lifetime experience. The beautiful sunset creates a romantic scenery and the flapping of the millions of bats flying by creates a crazy and astonishing sight. The flow of the bats looks like the mountain is being drained and sends out a swarm of bees flying only meters above you. Awesome!

it was hard to capture, because the bats don't fly out in one whole group but one by one, but this picture might give you an idea of what a stunning view we had

• Dinner and sleeping: After dinner we got back to the campsite on which they arranged a nice litte tent for us. During the night you could hear the animal sounds come to life, the call of the gibbon, the overwhelming chirping sound of millions of crickets, and much more which I didn't recognize. But in short, prepare for a noisy night!

me watching the sunset

Second Day:

• Breakfast: Amazing breakfast, full on american breakfast with eggs, toast, coffee, fruit and everything. Delicious!
• Another 3 hour hike similar to the first. With even more amazing views and animal encounters.
• Haew Narok waterfall: this waterfal was really really astonishing. A 15 minute walk from the parking lot down to the waterfall was definitely worth it. Once you arrive at this waterfall you can see tons of water fall down a 80 meter drop crashing down on the surface below.

• Swimming

That was our Khao Yai experience, after the swimming we got back home and enjoyed some well deserved rest. Thanks for reading and follow for more! Feel free to comment and share.