Off on an Adventure to Khao Yai National Park inThailand

I checked out of my hotel and took a taxi to the Northern Bus Terminal where it seems like each bus route has it's own ticket booth. Fortunately the Thais are very helpful and I able to find the right one.

The bus from Bangkok to the town near Khao Yai National Park took 2 hours cost $5 for a comfortable air conditioned ride with a stewardess serving free cokes.

When I arrived I called the Greenleaf Guesthouse and in five minutes I was picked up be a Songthaew ( collective truck ): It is a pick up truck or a small truck converted as a kind of bus. The backside of the truck is covered with a plastic roof and two benches are placed on the 2 side of the truck. The Songthaew is the most used kind of transportation and can be found in every city of Thailand.

The Greenleaf Guesthouse looks like a total dump from the road, but my room was new clean and cheap at under $10. The food is simple, fresh, cheap and tastes good.
Around 3PM we took off on the Half Day Tour.

Seven of us piled into the back of a songthaew. I was the only American, the rest were young European and Canadian backpackers. After a while the pickup started driving slowly in the breakdown lane and I thought something must be wrong with the engine, but it turned out our guide was looking for wildlife along the roadside. Soon we stopped.

From Khao Yai Thailand

The Whip Snake comes in different colors and is not poisonous, but it can bite.

From Khao Yai Thailand

We also saw a pretty cool spider. He was big, about three inches across.

From Khao Yai Thailand

Even though I know better I am in Thailand at the end of the dry season when it is at it's hottest.

The swimming hole sure was a nice way to cool off from the heat of the dry season.

Then we went to a Buddhist Temple with it's own special cave.

The cave has several types of bats, a lot of Buddhas (the monks go down into the cave to meditate), and tarantulas and other insects that Harry Potter fans should recognize from the fourth movie.

There were also tarantulas.

From Khao Yai Thailand

I can't remember whether this was a millipede or a centipede, but whatever it was it was sort of scary having on the back of my hand.

From Khao Yai Thailand

Then we drove to a field beside a large hill. About an hour before sunset bats started streaming out of a cave near the top of the hill. There were literally millions of them and they formed fluttering black river in the sky that twisted and turned and moved in all three dimensions as it flowed out of the cave and over the horizon. It lasted over an hour and was very beautiful to watch as the sun slowly set. There were several hawks that came for a snack.

From Khao Yai Thailand