After arriving back in Thailand Fai had surprised me by booking a couple of nights in a luxury cottage near the Khao Yai National Park, she had mentioned about going but I didn't know she had booked it so I was happy. Her friends family own 'Khao Yai Cottage' so we got a slightly cheaper rate. Khao Yai is around 3 hours drive from Ayutthaya so not far at all, I was impressed with the very big room in a delightful garden setting.
We had arrived in the late afternoon so set off off right away on the very short drive to the National Park. Now as any of you who have been to Thailand know there are two tiers of pricing when it comes to any type of entrance fee, one for Thais and one for Farang (foreigners) and Khao Yai National Parks had to be the most brazen attempt I had ever seen. The price for Thai's was 40 baht (80p) and the price for farang cost a 1000%, yes, that's one thousand percent more at 400 baht (£8). Now I don't normally mind this, after all westerners do have more money than (most) Thais but this was the biggest difference I had come across before. In any case we were warned of this before by the lady at reception and she told me if I produced something to say I was either a student or working here I might be able to blag it, I ended up print screening a confirmation email from my TEFL course (which he couldn't read) to say I would be studying here and showed him a student rail card from Bangkok, (which was Fai's) and it worked so I was very chuffed, this was especially good because we would be needing to pay the entrance fee twice as we were visiting over two days.
Khao Yai National park is huge, so there is significant driving around to get to the various places. Within 10 minutes of driving we encountered monkeys on the road which was pretty cool, they were different to the monkeys I had seen elsewhere in Thailand, a different species but I'm not sure of the name. Our first stop was at a great view point where we again encountered many monkeys roaming. We then just went for a drive in a random direction where we arrived at 'Pa Deo-Die Cliffs' which was breathtaking! After taking this in, we headed up a little further to the end of the way, there was military guarding a gate which led I believe to some sort of Air Force base, what we did find though was a small place selling beer, we were sure this was for the benefit of the soldiers as alcohol is not sold anywhere else in the park. we took two cans of Leo and took a seat but it was absolutely freezing, there was also a breeze coming through which amplified the cold. The only times I had ever been cold in Thailand was when riding a motorbike in the cool season, so this was a first for me to be cold just sat there. It was kind of nice as it gave me a Christmassy feeling.
After our cold beverage stop it was starting to get dark, so we headed off (albeit the wrong way) to find the place that offer a night safari tour, after we realised the direction we finally found it and managed to get there just in time to share one of the pick ups with a small group of Thai's, the cost for the whole car was 500 baht and Fai and I offered them 100 each and off we went. What I was really hoping to see was some Elephants, all the Elephants I have seen have been in captivity so it would have been amazing to see them in the wild but unfortunately there wernt any around, we did see a number of deer though which was great. When the truck returned to the base the other Thai people said a phrase which is heavily embedded into Thai culture and that is 'mai pen lai' (basically translates to never mind) about paying them for our share of the safari so this was another result. We were feeling pretty hungry now so headed to a restaurant before heading back to the cottage.
The following morning/early afternoon we set off again to the National Park, I once again got the local price to enter so of course was happy about that. We didn't have a real plan of where to go so picked one of the waterfalls "Haew Suwat" and set off for that. I normally like to swim if I ever visit a waterfall but there were signs strictly forbidding it. The weather was pretty chilly too and the water was absolutely freezing so I wasn't so inclined this time. After the waterfall we drove around for a bit in search of some cool wildlife where we came across the campsite areas. Now when I come back to Khao Yai National I will for sure be camping, in the campsite there are again monkeys roaming and deer grazing right next to tents, at night who knows what else may wonder by. It would be better with a big group to do the camping, so when I return (not sure when but I will) my plan is to round some people up and do it. It was damn cheap too at just 30 baht (60p) and the tents are already pitched for you.
It was fairly late in the afternoon when we came across a nature trail, the information sign at the start stated it would take around 45 minutes and we had just under an hour we thought before the sun would be gone, we decided to do it anyway only thinking after that with the dark brings all sorts of animals, namely snakes, king cobras in fact, that we for sure did not want to be coming across. About 10 minutes in we decided to turn back, it was a shame that we didn't get there earlier as there had clearly been elephants close by due to droppings on the path and that many trees and bushes had been cleared which was unmistakeably the work of elephants. Once darkness had set we headed off in search of a good steak restaurant, we picked one at random and I ordered the Australian Filet Mignon which was the most expensive meal I had ever ordered in Thailand at 650 baht (£13) when it came out it was tiny but still absolutely delicious. Fai and I then grabbed a bottle of Hong Thong and headed back to guesthouse where I played some guitar in the garden with the company of not only Fai but two adorable dogs which belonged to the cottage.
We checked out the following morning and had planned on visiting one of the many adventure activity centres that are in abundance in Khao Yai, a lot of the resorts in Khao Yai offer many activities on site ranging from ATV to zorbs. We checked online for one which wasnt too expensive and decided on the Fountain Tree Resort. We spent a good hour or two here and ended up doing: ATV'ing, go karts, archery, paintball (not a team game just shooting at a target) and zorbing. the price ranged from 100 baht (£2) to 250 baht (£5) per person per activity. The most expensive was the zorb and Fai went first (I was feeling a little hungover to attempt it) it was funny to watch that was for sure. What was also good is that the guy didn't take her ticket from her so I did it in the end as we essentially had a free ticket. It wasn't a huge hill like some of them can be but it was still definitely fun, I had never done it before. After trying everything we wanted to do we then headed back to Ayutthaya, where I planned to just chill until Christmas.
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