Based on Dan and Pilar’s recommendation and the postacards on the wall of their loo, off we went to Khao Yai. They were right! It was beautiful.
We got the bus from Bangkok to Pak Chong (luckily someone spotted us looking aimless and pointed us in the right direction), then a taxi to a funny little guesthouse called Greenleaf (3 pound a night for a double room). We had read good things about the tours of the National park so gave them a go, we were rewarded that day with an evening of bat watching – 2 million bats in fact, pouring out of a cave on a hillside – AMAZING!
Next day up early and off to Khao Yai with the rest of the group (hello Pam and Marcel if you are reading this!). Even on the way there the guides were stopping the vehicle and jumping out with a telescope having spotted some bird or other.
Once in the park we saw lots of hornbills (see pics), monkeys, and best of all, white-faced gibbons. The calls of the gibbons were really haunting. Without a guide I don’t think we would have seen anything but the monkeys waiting to steal food by the side of the road. Their eye for the birds and gibbons high in the canopy was amazing.
check out www.greenleaftour.com