In Thailand, a bpai tiao is a trip of any length. I’ve written about some of my more significant bpai tiaos to tourist destinations here, to be used as travel ideas and tips.
Before going to Khon Kaen, one of my fellow PCVs put out a request for help with an English camp for Paw Aws in Surin. I decided to volunteer to give a hand and hopefully help make things less stressful than my own experience. It was also taking place the last week before school was supposed to start and she suggested going on a weekend bpai tiao after the camp was over, which I was all about. One last big trip before buckling down to get to work.
Five of us consensed on going to Khao Yai National Park in the southern part of Nakhon Ratchasima. Khao Yai was Thailand’s first national park and being relatively close to Bangkok is the most visited. After some research, we booked two nights and a full day tour with Greenleaf Guesthouse. I would definitely recommend this to anyone going to Thailand.
So after skedaddling out of Surin on Friday, we got picked up for free and taken to the guesthouse. Now, the rooms were not luxurious by any stretch, but I almost never have air conditioning or a plush bed anyway, so I was perfectly content. We were given a run down of what to expect during the full day tour the next day and because we are volunteers we were able to get the help of the guides to get the local park entrance fee (40 baht versus 400 baht for foreigners) which knocked our tour price down as well. They told us about the half day tour as well, which two of my cohorts ended up doing as well, but I was not able to manage.
Guided Walk through the Jungle
The next morning, we got up and ate a delicious breakfast and prepared to head out at 8 am. First we stopped at a beautiful viewpoint of the hills and landscape. We were given leech gaiters to protect ourselves while trekking around in the jungle. As we headed back to the song tiaw (a pick-up with two benches in the bed) we spotted a macaque just hanging out along the edge of the trees and parking area. He graciously sat for a photoshoot before moseying back into the jungle.
Not long after our short stop, we suddenly pulled to the side of the road and quickly headed into the jungle following the guides as they made their way closer to the source of some yelping and hooting. We were suddenly instructed to look up, and we were below a family of white handed gibbons!
We then headed to the visitor center where there is a great exhibit and some trailheads. I was not a fan of the taxidermied animals there, though. We only spent twenty minutes there exploring the gift shops, quickly reading the exhibits and utilizing the restrooms before heading back to the spot we went trekking before and headed into the jungle again. We went to a spot where our guide teased out a scorpion, that he said was his pet, and then put it on some of us for some fun photos. Then We saw a huge millipede and a gorgeous orchid. Then we made our way back in the direction of the gibbons and found a family of black gibbons. Our guide explained the even though the black gibbons and white-handed gibbons live so close to each other they respect each others’ territory and don’t bother each other.
Waterfall Walk and Elephant Search
After getting our fill of the gibbons, we headed back to the vehicles for some lunch, with a quick stop to climb a giant fig tree and eat some kanoms. After lunch we made our way to a waterfall. We were told that people have died swimming there in the past and that now swimming was prohibited. Because it is coming up on the rainy season in the next couple months, the waterfall was pretty small, especially compared to the pictures on the signs. But it was still nice to sit and admire and put our feet in the water for a bit.
After the waterfall we were told we were going to try and see some elephants. We drove around another part of the park for about an hour and a half and saw lots of places on the side of the road that were littered with elephant poop, but we were not lucky enough to see the wild elephants. But, just as we were on our way out of the park, the driver stopped and pointed out the window to a Sun Bear in a tree being swarmed by bees as it attacked their hive for honey about 50 feet up a tree! That was really cool to see and I’ll gladly trade seeing that for wild elephants.
