Creatures of Thailand (part 3c)

After visiting the Khao Yai National Park's museum, we were driven off to another part of the park where our more exciting journey began. We were to trek a 4km trail which will end up at the forgot-the-Thai-name waterfall. While this is not the biggest waterfall at the park, it is famous for another reason - it was the location used to shoot the movie "The Beach" in 2000 which starred Leonardo Dicaprio.

The 4km trek was actually not very long, but the trekking required a bit of effort because it goes through some dense jungle trails made wet and muddy by the overnight rain. There were several fallen tree logs along the way and steep slopes which at one point required us to go down on all fours to climb down.

At the entrance to the trail (where the campsite is), we saw a sambar deer very near to civilisation


Sambar deers are one of the largest (if not the largest) deers found in Asia; this one is not quite the biggest, as I've seen one that was bigger and taller than an ostrich at Taman Negara Resort in Pahang

Here's the galfriend



There were lots of these monkeys at the campsite, and almost all of the mature ones have bright red backsides


Feeding the animals (by humans) is strictly not allowed at the park

Along the trek, we saw the swimming variety of monitor lizard (also common at our Sg Buloh nature reserve)

And a rapid



A very large dunno-what-name spider - this large one is the female as the male one is very tiny and red in colour (so the guide said)

Then we saw this across the river bank...

*Derng-derng, derng-derng, derng-derng... cue scary music*



Looks very menacing....


I scared...!!

Ahhh....this guy was quietly resting only a few feet away from where we stood, on a tree trunk at about shoulder level, and so well camouflaged that we nearly missed him. He has a beautiful coat.

Then, we heard noises that sounded like a model aeroplane flying overhead, followed by loud, scratchy, flapping noises...

The guide excitedly cued us and loudly whispered : ..... Hornbills!

It was exciting because these are the Great Hornbills which have wingspans of up to 2m long...no wonder they make so much noise from flapping their wings!


Amid our excitement, we tried to keep quiet and quickly followed the guide up a steep slope to see a couple of them. I didn't even dare to open my velcro-ed shoulder bag to take out my camera for fear that the ripping sound of velcro may scare the hornbills away, and then I would get blamed forever. :-~

Along the way, we saw several elephant trails (with big roundish footprints) and lots of elephant dung, but alas, we didn't see any wild elephants, unfortunately. :-(

Creatures of Thailand (part 3b)

The Khao Yai National Park is so big that there is no way we can cover many kilometres on foot. So we were very glad to have joined a group tour which took us around on the truck, plus it takes the sharp eye of a trained guide to spot the many wild animals living freely in the park.

The guide manged to spot a deer that was resting on a field many kilometres away; SO tried to approach the deer for a better shot, but the deer decided he'd had enough of rest.

On the same field, we saw these birds. The yellow one is supposed to be a migratory bird (according to the guide) and the blue one is a kingfisher.


The party was ooh-ing and aah-ing over both birds which we found to be quite common in Singapore, actually (but we didn't say anything lah)

A Thai breed of hornbill perched very high up on the branch of a very tall tree



As the driver drove along, he with the sharp eye spotted a scorpion on the road, by-passed it and stopped the truck for us to look at her - it's a female as she had pockets on the underside of its body (for carrying eggs)

Then we stopped by at the visitor centre and museum

There's a trail leading to the jungle across the river

Guess what these are?



A specimen of a real tiger at the museum; there are live tigers still freely roaming in the park!


This tiger had to be shot (with a gun!) after it attacked a park ranger at their lodge, or else the tiger will keep going back to the same spot where it found its prey before

A Golden Cat



(to be continued)

Creatures of Thailand (part 3a)

After visiting Phimai, we took a bus in the reverse direction back to Bus Terminus 2 at Korat where we met another backpacker, a Dutch guy named Richard who was going to Pak Chong as well. We then took another bus to Pak Chong (in the direction of Bangkok) so as to visit one of the highlights of our trip, i.e. the Khao Yai National Park - Thailand's 2nd largest national park which was awarded the title of ASEAN Heritage Park in 1984, and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 14 July 2005 (according to Wiki :p ).

Padi fields seen on the bus as we leave Phimai



The first kitty the SO met upon arrival at Pak Chong (1.5 hrs later)



Before leaving Sg, I had make prior contact with the guide(s) via email, and we had to call him at Pak Chong to come pick us up to his guest house (but we'd never confirmed the date or time). While wondering how to make calls using the public phone, a Thai man approached us - seeing that he had a folder with the name of Wildlife Safari, straightway I knew he was just the man we wanted to see - Mr J, the guide! Heng ah!

(Note: Public phone rates in Pak Chong was 1B / 3B per min for calls to fixed-line phone and HP respectively)

Everything was settled then, and we soon embarked on the first part of our tour together with Richard and 2 other Dutch nationals, Erik and Petra...just nice for Richard to finally have some 同乡 that he can yak with! I felt more secure knowing that Petra is a policewoman (at Amsterdam's red light district, no less!) and Erik works at the fire department. As for Richard...well, he's the baby among us. *grin*

First, we visited the spring water pool - it wasn't hot, nor was it cold...just at room temperature like our swimming pool bah



Ms Tuk the tour guide then took us to this temple and explained to us the salient points of Thai temples and the process of being a monk (whether for short- or long-term) that all Thai young men must go through, how food is given to the monks (化缘) and how many times they eat per day, etc.


See the free-roaming dog following us like nobody's business? I think these dogs have a nice life there.

Next, a visit to an underground Buddha cave (a bit like the M'sian Batu caves in Kuantan or something) where we saw some interesting creatures



Bats in the darkness!



A very unique scorpion spider (on the hand of another guide who spoke perfect American-accented English; the 3 dogs outside the cave adore him!)



It rained that evening so we had to have dinner at a riverside restaurant instead of going to the night market. The restaurant was built to look like a dark, old cowboy pub and there was even a Thai "cowboy" playing the guitar and singing oldies, which "baby" Richard found kind of disturbing. The cowboy sang very well, and we had fried rice with several yummy Thai dishes, but the ang mohs each ate a plate of rice with 1 dish only... very un-Asian way of eating and a waste of opportunity!

This sweet, friendly dog is one of the 2 doggies at the restaurant - he knows how to shake paws to get his treats!



The next morning, while having breakfast at the guest house, we met this shy, little kitten who was crying loudly, probably for his mummy


We discovered later that he is one of four ginger cats living at the guest house (in addition to 3 dogs)! :)

After breakfast, we soon embarked on our tour of the Khao Yao National Park which also included a 4km wet and slippery trek...very interesting!

It rained the whole night and was still raining in the morning, so everything was misty (a bit wasted)



Still, the Thai guide (James) managed to spot creatures lying about far away from our moving truck... that is why we need a good guide!

Here's the tree-climbing species of monitor lizard which we could see only through the guide's binoculars, and of course with the zooming power of the camera.

Everything was misty and blur, but Photoshop saves the pic. :)

(to be continued)

Creatures of Thailand (part 2)

Before this trip, we hadn't known about Nakhon Ratchasima (aka Korat) province. It's only when we were there that we realised they're going to hold the 24th SEA games at this town in Dec 2007.

Interestingly, the Games' mascot happens to be a cat!




Souvenirs of the SEA Games mascot were on sale in the main town, but we didn't buy any




A dog with the interesting brindle pattern, found near the shops opposite the Memorial




On the way to the pottery village of Dan Kwian, we met 2 lovely ginger cats which I'd forgotten to mention in Part 1. They were found at the small eatery near the small bus terminal with the infrequent bus service (we should have gone to the main terminal 2 instead!).

While waiting for almost an hour for the bus to leave for Dan Kwian, we entertained ourselves with this extremely friendly ginger kitty.




Seeing how the SO and I were fighting to carry the kitty, the friendly woman at the eatery took out her other ginger cat for us to play with! Heehee!



The ginger kitties' pet dog



Then we arrived at Dan Kwian.

Road scene at Dan Kwian; the Thais adore their royalty




The pottery kitty at a Dan Kwian shop



After Dan Kwian, we took a bus going in the reverse direction back to Korat main town.

Something about these guys in uniforms just made me take notice of them - can you guess what's different about them?



(Answer: I find it strange that their shirts are somehow super duper tight! :p )

Photos of their much-respected Thai King and Queen can be seen everywhere



The next day, we packed our backpacks and left for Phimai which is about 2 hours away by bus. Phimai is a town still within the Korat province.

Welcome to Phimai !



A small town, Phimai is known for its two main attractions:

#1 The ruins of an old Khmer temple (a la the style of Cambodia's Angkor Wat)


#2 Sai Ngam, the hundreds-of-years' old banyan tree forest that sprouted from one single tree



Free-roaming dogs playing at the entrance of the Khmer temple



Squirrel living in the banyan tree forest




Cute little girls playing with their 2 very adorable puppies at stalls outside the banyan tree park; these stalls sell live animals (fishes, birds, tortoises, etc.) which people can buy to 放生 at the park。




After visiting the banyan tree park, we had to walk the long way back, and along the way, we saw these strange-looking cattle (the male ones are really tall and huge)



The weather was hot, and we had walked at least 3km to see the banyan tree, and the thought of having to walk another 2.5 - 3km back to town wasn't appealing to me. I was thinking "how nice it would be if a vehicle would stop to give us a ride back to town", when suddenly, a shiny, black & sporty Mitsubishi truck stopped on the opposite side of the road. The driver (who looked a little like my previous pottery class teacher) winded(sp?) down his window and said something in Thai which we didn't understand, but mai peng-rai lah, I just assumed he'd offered to give us a ride, and immediately and happily climbed onto his truck...no need to think liao loh!

Ha ha ha! My thought came true, so the SO asked me to think about the winning 4D numbers for next week's lottery. :PP

A river dam near the banyan tree park



Phimai is a quiet, small town sort of place which is nicer than Korat for relaxing or renting a bike to ride around. The downside was that nice Thai restaurants seemed to be few and far between...or perhaps there was only one!? It took us quite a bit of effort and of walking in the dark before we managed to find the Bai-Teiy Thai restaurant that's listed in the guide book...all thanks to the two local teenage boys. The restaurant had moved further away from the main town and had gone more upmarket.

Now the really neat thing was that we finally found our Korat cat here...right outside the restaurant! If we hadn't looked closely in the semi-darkness, we might have missed the sweetie altogether.



The sweetie Korat or korat-mixed cat seemed to have been recently spayed, and she was purring in my arms



Sorry for the blurry pictures, KSN, as the lighting was no good (and we don't like to use the camera flash on animals).

:)