The next few days are set aside for exploring the jungle of Thailand at Khao Yai National Park. We are two hours northeast of Bangkok just outside the small town of Pak Chong. Our home base for this leg is Greenleaf Guesthouse. We have a rather large fan bedroom and an enormous private bathroom. The primary reason for staying here is to do their tours of the jungle, which are pricey for our budget, but highly reviewed among the best of the tours. Our plan is to rent a moped or bicycle, and grab a map of the park from the ranger before exploring a few trails on our own for a day.
First, the night tour. At only 300 baht each, it's a great introduction to the area. We depart at 3pm from Greenleaf, with a large group of people from our guesthouse. We stop at a natural spring for a swim. There are many locals jumping off a bridge into the spring, and many tourists in the upper portion as well. Jumping in it's the perfect temperature and surrounded by peaceful trees and fallen leaves blanketing the forest floor. A welcome snack is waiting for us after we dry ourselves off and jump into the truck. Next stop: cave.
The trick pulls into a gravel drive just short of the hill to a beautiful temple in Thai style with three roofs and little brass bells all around. We walk through the courtyard and approach a staircase into an abyss. Vines and jungle trees with large roots line the opening to a large cave. Down the hatch!
The cave smells dank and is uncomfortably humid. Sticky, damp and stinky is not a good combination. Nonetheless we are learning about bats. Our guide also points out a yellow python slithering along the cave wall above our heads looking for the perfect bat to be his dinner. We are fed all sorts of interesting facts about bats, bugs, and Thailand and our guide is absolutely thrilled with his job. Next we proceed to the garden outside where I am shown prize orchids.
This is the Garden of Living Things - little bean pods that explode in your mouth, ferns that close upon touch.
Our last stop is the bat cave - over 2 million bats live in this cave and, in order not to disturb them, we watch them supper from the bottom of the cliff. At sunset every night these bats make the risky journey from their safe cave into the hawk-infested skies outside in search of bugs to eat. The bats move in a beautiful undulating rythum like thousands of small birds flying close together. As the sun sets over the tapioca farm, we are contemplating the full day tour for tomorrow. And thinking how amazing this jungle will be, considering all the wildlife we saw in one medium sized cave.
No comments:
Post a Comment