Khao Yai was Wow!
1 May 2011….Khao Yai National Park is the jewel in the crown for Thailand’s outdoor natural playground. It doesn’t get the beaches, resorts, tourist brochures or airports of more well-known attractions but if you want mountains, jungles, wildlife and the natural beauty of inland Thailand, this is the place. It’s also Thailand’s first national park, and a World Heritage site since 2005.
We’d briefly been to Khao Yai before but we knew it deserved greater scrutiny. So after we dropped off our daughter Anna and Carl at the airport following their fantastic trip to Myanmar we headed to this famous jungle preserve.
But not so fast. When we have a car, a map and no fixed plans we love to tootle. To tootle is to explore an area by whim and curiosity, making a sudden turn down a road, maybe stopping at a roadside stall, following our nose, looking for interesting things to explore and learn. And in the area of Prachin Buri south of the national park there are numerous remains of 13th to 15th century Khmer ruins. We saw a sign, followed it eventually down a one lane rural road to one of these sites, now nothing more than laterite blocks left as a foundation to ancient buildings, all surrounded by dense growth and jungle. It was a peaceful and forgotten setting for what must have been a significant settlement in the Angkor era.
Khao Yai National Park is only 200 km north of Bangkok, amazingly accessible, yet the Thai city folk really leave this place alone. From the southern entrance we wound our way up the mountain through the thick overhanging foliage, stopping at Nam Tok Haew Narok waterfall, a spectacular triple drop with some seriously steep steps down to the observation platform. This is the dry season so all the waterfalls need some seasonal imagination but this one was still first class.
On another nearby side road we surprised a two and a half metre long snake, thicker than my arm, probably a cobra, crossing the road. This thing was zoo star material, an absolute monster, surprising us much more than the other way around. I’ve never seen – or imagined seeing – such a huge snake in the wild and by the time I bumbled around with my camera the thing was gone.
We drove to the Non Phak Chi observation tower, positioned above a watering hole and salt like and an ideal spot to see wildlife at sunset. It was an eerie walk 2km through open meadows, knowing that we were alone in a wild setting (and seeing what Julie was convinced was tiger scat on our trail) just before dusk. We arrived at the tall wooden tower and climbed the stairs, having it all to ourselves, enjoying the peace and quiet. After only a short while a lone elephant came out into open meadow on the other side of this little dam; we watched him forage for food, not a care in the world. And yes, we’ve seen wild elephants in Africa and ridden too many in Thailand but to see one in the wild so close to where we lived was very cool.
On the walk back to our car (past the tiger scat again) we came across a huge barking deer, significantly bigger than a California deer, who let out almighty bark when he saw us and scatted away. We had been a bit skeptical of this concept of a barking deer but after that close encounter we are now true believers. They bark loud and clear like a….well, like a big deer.
After spending the night in a cozy little hotel nestled amongst gardens and jungles we returned to the Visitor Centre to pick up our guide for an 8 km walk through the deep jungle, our goal being the Haew Suwat waterfall we had so easily driven to yesterday. Our guide was a man of few words, or at least words we could understand. He carried no water but he had a long scary machete tucked into his belt. Due to language constraints we were left unsure of its purpose.
We started on a five hour walk through dense forest and jungle, sometimes barely a trail, over logs, under vines, around new obstructions, across creeks, up and down the hills in muggy heat. We were rarely in the sun due to the green canopy above us and most of the time there was little difference between the trail and the ground cover around us. But there were endless strange sounds, birds we couldn’t identify, gibbons (the word gibbon turned out to be half the English vocabulary of our guide) and other such things but we never saw much due to the thick jungle and the uncertain direction of the sounds.
At one point there was a rustle in the jungle and our trusty guide picked up a large stick as he advanced more cautiously. Then there were more vague noises from the thick foliage ahead of us, most distinct and because of our guide’s actions, more scary. He quickly dropped the stick and pulled out the knife, slowly walking forward. So that’s what the big knife was for, to protect us!
Suddenly there was the unmistakable grunting of the wild boar, thrashing in the dense jungle, very close, very tense (us, not the boar), then with a snort and squeal he took off in the other direction. Perhaps he saw the knife, we don’t know, but the mystery of what our guide would have done with the big knife and a big charging boar is left unanswered.
After a fantastic walk that left us in awe of the jungle and the daily life of all things in the jungle we finally made the Haew Suwat waterfall. From there our fearless guide flagged down a local ute, quick word to the driver, we jumped in the back and hitched a ride back to civilization.
Khao Yai National Park showed off its best to us, beautiful mountain and jungle scenery, a wide range of wildlife, fantastic waterfalls and a great little adventure walk. We’ve still got more to do here but next time we’ll bring our camping gear and a big knife.