Tag Archives: Khao Yai

Kaho Yai national park

Trek starts at 8 am. After a short breakfast we went by car to the national park, a Short ride about 15 mins. We were 5 guys on the pick-up jeep and two guides what is pretty nice. First stop was an overview platform where we put on special socks to avoid from leeches. And the guides showed us the first small animals , so-called flying geckos. Very small but we saw them through the binoculars very close, one of them was eating ants :). We went deeper into the park by a very slow driving while the guides were watching out for animals. They showed us the first Gibbon family in the top of a group of trees. Playing around and making a lot of noise. Difficult to take pictures because the lenses of my camera not really made for this. Anyway it was amazing to see the monkeys gliding between the leafes. Next group of monkeys was sitting on the street a whole family of makaks. They were doing socialising without facebook by playing and kidding eachother. A guide tried to feed one of them with an apple but the monkey was to shy or scared. We had a short stopover for a break at the central place just getting a coffee. After that we jumped on the jeep and stopped on a small place where we left the car and started our 3hours walk. The guide shows us a hole on the groundand with a little wooden stick he stirred inside
and catched… a scorpion! And he placed that poison animal on Mandys back. She was screaming but after a couple of seconds she recognized that there’s no danger for her. Sabine took the beast into her hands and was faszinated about the creature. While we were walking our guide explained us a lot about the forest and it’s animals. While we were waiting for hornbills (you can hear them coming because of thenoise the make during their flight) a giant black suqirrel was climbing upa tree. Seems same size like a small rabbit. And than we saw hornbills. A couple, male and female. Beautiful to see. After a while we reached the place where other Greenleaf guys had always a lunch prepared. And than back to the car and a short ride to see a waterfall. What is special with that waterfall ? It’s the one you may have seen in the movie “the beach” and the waterfall isn’t located near the famous Maya bay no it’s right here at Khao Yai. I saw that already so I took a power nap. Meanwhile it was 4 pm and now we were ready for elephant hunting. By camera for sure. We drove slow and saw a lot of elephant signs like small broken trees and others :) Another car comes up and the guys on it were yelling “elephants! elephants” So we drove back and stood still on the rood. And the noise they made comes closer and closer. Wow. 3 meters infront of us an elephant appears from the wood. And the next and than the whole family. Six of them. Amazing. Breathtaking. Wild elephants always a special event for normal europeans like us. We were silent while we watched them eating and as soon as the started to cross the road we left our place as well. To dangerous to stay because of two babies in the group. We were lucky at this day we saw all the animals we missed years ago. And it was a great experience for Sabine as well. And to make this day really perfect we got a very delicious dinner for free when we arrived at the Greenleaf resort. Tom yam gung and fried fish with vegetables and rice. The guides offered this because we came back. Amazing and now you may imagin a little bit about thai hospitality. A fantastic day.Thanks to Greenleaf and we will recommend you to everybody who wants to go to Khao Yai.

Bangkok – Pak Chong – Khao Yai

Bus to Pak Chong which is the entrance to KhaoYai Nationalpark was cheap as we remembered. 10 km before Pak Chong the clutch was broken so we hqd to wait for another bus but we were lucky and reached Pak Chong in-time. While we were ordering a coffee the Greenleaf car comes around and picked us up. And we were surprise about the bunch of people here. New rooms and everything bigger, better, more. The afternoon tour started at 3:30 pm and we joined it. Spectecular to see was the flight-out of the bats, 3 millions of them flxing out every day at dask for hunting. Back at the guesthouse I was talking to the guys about former times and after having a beer we went bedwards. Next day to full trip…..

Bangkok

We spent two days in Bangkok. Why city of angels ? Bangkok is the city with longest name all over the world and the name contains the term city of angels as well. You may ask wikipedia for the full name. We stayed at Ballys Studio Suites a nice and clean hotel at Sukhumvit Soi 20. First day we started relaxed with a walk through Siam Square area, we were at the Jim Thompson House ( the guy who has reestablished thai silk weaving..) and had our lunch at MBK 6th floor where you can find whole asian kitchen for less money. Afternoon we found a new tailor for me and Sabine decided to go for a nice dress as well. Enough for first day. Not really. We took another cab to famous Khaosarn Road and we were looking for a japanese sushi restaurant we were in years ago. Unable to find (moved to next street…) we had local food to an reasonable price. Next day we sleept a little bit longer so our plan to be the first at Grand Palace failed. took BTS to Saphan Taksin and Mandy and me were surprised that there were no longer public boats available. Instead of the cheap boats we had in mind we must take a tourist boat to go to Wat Phra Keo. Anyway 25 bath for each is not a big deal. And during the week it is definetely better to take public transportation instead of taxi. The Wat was amazing but overcrowded. Lots of russian tourist and I thought by myself that for them the only thing what counts is to take pictures to prove that they were here. Afterwards we went to Grand Palace and it happend again that an official-looking persons told us thatthe palace is closed today because of a buddhist holiday. We walked on and entered the Grand Palace. Sabine was impressed but i am on the same page, it was like a kind of overloaded impression. The room of the jade buddah image was full (as always…) and after 2 hours we had enough and took a taxi to Hua Lampong where we jumped into MRT. Back at the hotel we treated ourself with a massage, bought some beer at 7/11 and had one more hour on the roof top.