We traveled by bus from Bangkok to the city of Pak Chong. We could see the last day of Songkran was still going strong even though we had left behind the big city. In Pak Chong though the cool thing to do was cram at least 8-10 people into the back of a pickup truck and drive around town finding some poor soul to spray water at, although usually it was at other pickup trucks loaded with children. When we got off the bus we were approched by a lady who asked us to come to her lodge. The place was one of two listed in our guide book, so we went with her. Once we got there though we realized most of the prices were too high, but after some negotation we were offered a room for $12 a night. It had a fan but no AC, no hot water (which was just fine) but what it lacked it made up for with bonuses as the place had a great pool and beautiful gardens.
That evening we sat outside our room enjoying the scenery while eating some interesting food that we had bought out of the back of a minivan. The stuff looked like hair, but tasted like cotton candy, and came with 10 crepe looking things that were made fresh right in the back of this minivan. We washed down this sweet desert like local fad with a bottle of Pepsi, it was a sugar addicts dream come true. lol At our "lodge" we met a nice lady from France, she introduced us to a little restaurant down the road that had much more reasonable prices than the lodge we were staying at. The family that ran the restaurant, which was also their home were so sweet. We also met 2 couples from the Netherlands who joined us escaping the evil lodges prices, we enjoyed chating with them about all sorts of topics, including their homeland which we never had the opportunity to visit while in Europe.
As we were in save money mode, we decided to forgoe paying a crazy price for a tour of the nearby Khao Yai National park. So on our first full day we walked around attemtping to find a deal, we had asked at two other places that were within walking distance, only to find that all the tour companies were charging the same rate, bummer. So the next day we went to the guesthouse accross from our lodge to rent a motor bike and met Eric the owner of the property, and funny enough, the gardener. He was a nice guy and after talking to Jes about motorcycles, as Jes had been wearing his Orange County Chopper t-shirt, he suggested we rent his personal bike which he referred to as his "true love". lol We were nervous that the smaller bike, 110cc Jes tells me, may not be powerful enough to carry both of us up some of the large hills in the park.
Besides that, Jes was drooling at the look of this guys bike, it was much more powerful then the one Jes owned, a 1200cc Sukuzki something. It didn't take long before Jes had made up our minds and we took the stronger bike. We then drove ourselves into Kaho Yai National Park for the day. We spent the day inside the park driving around and doing a few short hikes. We saw many birds, beautiful landscape, small monkeys jumping into the river, a monitor lizard crossing the road, a monkey sitting in the middle of another road, and two beautiful waterfalls. It was a great day. We did have a scare though, when we were driving and noticed we had just missed our turn off Jes slowed the bike quickly, but there was a car bearing down on us from behind, so Jes pulled the bike over onto the side of the road. Bad idea, we were still moving and the bike skidded on gravel, after coming to a stop we almost dropped the bike on its side.
In what felt like slow motion with the bike leaning over, but we both held it up and only the muffler touched down, luckily it came away without any scratches. Unfourtunatly though in our attempt to save the bike Jes was leaning his leg on the engine and got a nice grill shaped burn on the inside of his knee. We had a bottle of water with us that had gone warm, but we poured it on the burn anyway. Of course, being a man, I did hear him wince in pain once and awhile, but whenever I brought up the topic he would comment on how cool of a scar it was going to be once it healed. lol
We miss-judged how far away our guest house was away from the park, and subsequently found ourselves driving back in the dark. Despite the powerful engine between our legs Jes took it easy and kept the speedo at about 60-70km the whole way back. Still, in the dark, it felt like we would never get home. We returned the bike to a very worried Eric, and it felt good to be back safe and sound. We went back to the same restaurant as the day before, and met both Dutch couples again, chatting with them until a late hour.
Besides that, Jes was drooling at the look of this guys bike, it was much more powerful then the one Jes owned, a 1200cc Sukuzki something. It didn't take long before Jes had made up our minds and we took the stronger bike. We then drove ourselves into Kaho Yai National Park for the day. We spent the day inside the park driving around and doing a few short hikes. We saw many birds, beautiful landscape, small monkeys jumping into the river, a monitor lizard crossing the road, a monkey sitting in the middle of another road, and two beautiful waterfalls. It was a great day. We did have a scare though, when we were driving and noticed we had just missed our turn off Jes slowed the bike quickly, but there was a car bearing down on us from behind, so Jes pulled the bike over onto the side of the road. Bad idea, we were still moving and the bike skidded on gravel, after coming to a stop we almost dropped the bike on its side.
In what felt like slow motion with the bike leaning over, but we both held it up and only the muffler touched down, luckily it came away without any scratches. Unfourtunatly though in our attempt to save the bike Jes was leaning his leg on the engine and got a nice grill shaped burn on the inside of his knee. We had a bottle of water with us that had gone warm, but we poured it on the burn anyway. Of course, being a man, I did hear him wince in pain once and awhile, but whenever I brought up the topic he would comment on how cool of a scar it was going to be once it healed. lol
We miss-judged how far away our guest house was away from the park, and subsequently found ourselves driving back in the dark. Despite the powerful engine between our legs Jes took it easy and kept the speedo at about 60-70km the whole way back. Still, in the dark, it felt like we would never get home. We returned the bike to a very worried Eric, and it felt good to be back safe and sound. We went back to the same restaurant as the day before, and met both Dutch couples again, chatting with them until a late hour.
Despite the fact we had a fan in our room only, and unless you were in direct line of it you baked in the heat.. we decided to stay an extra day at the lodge, as the pool had just been cleaned and it was calling to us. The place was really beautiful, we could understand why they were asking over $30 for a double A/C room, but for a measley $13 we opted to keep our fan, after all free pool! The pool was extremely well done, a small shallow area for kiddies, and after that nice and deep, with a bridge that extended out to the huge 8 foot waterfall. We spent most of the day in and out of the pool, reading some novels we had with us, then using the free internet onsite, oh and we visited a place next door called Cafe Amazon which had this amazing blueberry smoothie.
Late in the afternoon we walked back to our friends at the restaraunt, the Thai guy who ran the place was so happy to see us again. We couldn't believe our luck as the food was great and even with drinks and sometimes 3 entrees we couldn't break the 300 baht mark, or $10. After lunch we said goodbye though. So it was a wonderful day of relaxing. The place certainly riveled our time at Koh Phangan, although the bugs were worse. We both had many mosquito bites on our legs, making them look like we had a sort of polka dot type disease.
Finally the next day in the a.m. we said goodbye to the "Khao Yai Lodge", and jumped on a train from Pak Chong to Surin. The train was a neat experience. It was an extremely hot day, and there was no AC, although there were fans and the windows were wide open the entire time. The ride was to supposed to take 4 hours, but ended up taking 5. Once in Surin we realized we were far from tourist country. Not only was there no other tourists in sight, but many people spoke little to no English. We finally got a tuk-tuk driver who knew the word "hotel", and he took us to a decently priced one. We made plans for the next day then took it easy walking around the town, talking to a travel agent, finding the bus depo, and finally having dinner. The place we went to had a rootbeer float on the menu that Jes was keen on having, but it took some explaination as the waitersses had apparantly never had to make one before. lol
The next day were were up bright and early to catch the 6:30 a.m. bus to the border of Cambodia.
Our pictures for this post should be accessable by clicking on the image below. Enjoy.
The next day were were up bright and early to catch the 6:30 a.m. bus to the border of Cambodia.
Our pictures for this post should be accessable by clicking on the image below. Enjoy.
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| Khao Yai National Park, Thailand |
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