The Land of Smiles. It’s certainly very different to Myanmar! We spent our first days in the national parks to the south west of Bangkok, looking for elephants, monkeys and birds, and doing quite a bit of caving too.
Day 92 – Onwards to Thailand
Sleep was a little better, but still not good. So after our rather lack lustre breakfast we hung around the common room before catching a taxi at 12. We ended up with a whole heap of time at the airport, but we needed to get some lunch and the hostel was depressing – we needed to get out of there!
After sleeping a little Chris was feeling a bit more human and had an appetite so when he asked for KFC I couldn’t really say no. Also, there weren’t many other options in the exterior part of the airport and we were there too early to check in our bags and go through. We all had KFC burgers which was novel.
Security was a piece of cake, so after ditching the bigger bags and passing into departures we headed down an escalator and found a nearly empty café. In fact, the whole area was deserted and very few people passed us. Which was odd!
The flight was easy and we were a little more prepared for what we needed to do on arrival this time. We still couldn’t get any cash out on a card, so we had to use the cash machines again, which charge you about £6 each time!!! Buying a SIM card was also simple, although the ones valid for 30 days seem to assume that you need 200GB of data. We wanted about 2GB but that wasn’t an option here.
It was 1.5km to our hostel, and our first mission was to find the bridge which crosses the road outside. It took a while and I had to ask for directions after we couldn’t find it by exploring all exits and escalators, but we found it. Luckily it was evening so the Bangkok streets were not too hot, but it was still warm to be carrying all the bags.
Our hostel street was certainly in a poor area, with many hostels and lots of street food options. Luckily our hostel offered us free pot noodles and fruit when we arrived, so we didn’t have to go anywhere for dinner 😊. The kids loved their first ever pot noodle!
Day 93 – Kaeng Krachan National Park
We’d arranged breakfast at 8 and when we came down at 8.01 rice and eggs were on the table, with another massive plate of fruit.
The plan was to get on the road ASAP as it’s a 4 hour drive down the coast to the Sam Roi Yot National Park and we were keen to get into our nice accommodation with its pool 😊. Although it would have been quicker for us to all walk together to the airport with the bags and get the car, it was hot and the bags weren’t yet totally repacked so Chris went alone. The first time he forgot his passport, so had to come back (!). Second time lucky; but then he was relying on Google Maps lady telling him where to go. She was way off the mark and kept trying to get him to get off a flyover where it wasn’t possible! After the 13 minute drive to the hostel had taken over 45 minutes Chris was getting pretty wound up! He managed to find another route by driving away a bit and pulling up some back roads. So we finally got underway well over an hour later than we’d planned. Ah well. At least the car was nice. Our cheap Yaris turned out to be a saloon version so pretty spacious.
We headed off through Bangkok, which is a large, modern looking city from all the skyscrapers and flyovers that we could see. We’d been worried about the driving, and almost avoided getting a car after reading reports about how bad the roads are and the Thai drivers. No issues for us though. There is slightly less adherence to general road rules than in England, but we saw very little bad driving. It was a piece of cake!
We did feel a bit left out through as everyone else seemed to be in a ute or pick up truck. Mostly pretty new looking cars; very few old bangers.
After our late departure, there was no way we were going to make it to Pretchaburi before getting hungry. Where to stop and eat on the Thailand motorways? It seems they have normal service stations with a range of restaurants, including KFC, McDonald’s and Burger King! These are often in very modern buildings on the side. The hardest part was getting to them; as there is a side road running either side of the motorway, and you can only switch between the two every couple of km. We missed the first couple as we couldn’t get over into the side road in time!
The side road is also pretty fast, so we concluded that if you’re thinking of getting off at all, you use the side road, and the main road is for when you know you’re on for a while. So that was it – McDonald’s for lunch. Hmmm. A bit of a lack of options again though and I was outvoted 3-1! Still, I actually quite enjoyed my breaded chicken, which was served on a plate (!) whilst the others enjoyed standard double cheeseburgers.
As we moved on out of Bangkok and its suburbs, the land was flat. Different to Myanmar though. The pagodas are tall and elegant, more like chapels, but with many small pillars on the outside and very ornate roofs. Much prettier than the gold stupas of Myanmar in my opinion.
There are also no people living in huts on the street edge, with much fewer signs of poverty. In fact, many of the houses seemed to be pretty new and large, especially as we moved further down the coast.
There are also standard things like supermarkets, Tesco and Makro to be exact! There are much fewer scooters and the cars are pretty new. The style of building is different, and things are a little less ‘tidy’ than the UK, but it’s not as much of a culture shock here as Myanmar that’s for sure! We realised just how un-Westernised Myanmar is after being shut off until so recently.
Finally, some rocky outcrops appeared on the horizon; a change to the unrelenting flatness for the last few hours. We left the highway to head into the Kaeng Krachen National Park, where there’s meant to be an excellent bird watching spot and places where animals can be seen at the café at night. We arrived at the visitor centre on the lake and stopped to look for birds and ask about the road on to the Ban Chaeng campsite. From what we could gather, there are only certain times of the day which you can use the road in either direction. We could go up there now, but it would take 45 minutes so we’d arrive after 4pm, and then we had to leave by 6pm. So our plan to hang out at the campsite after dark and see the animals which come out at night was a no go. We were also going to be charged the park entrance fee of 1000 bhat for the pleasure (£27)
Instead we stayed at the lake for free. It was a beautiful place and there were plenty of birds to be spied here. A birding group turned up with massive telescopes and cameras and one of the nicer ones showed me a cinnamon bittern hiding in the reeds which I would never have found alone 😊. They also put the scope on a nestbuilding Olive Backed Sunbird so that Aiden could get a good look at it which was nice.
We were offered a boat tour by one of the rangers for 600 bhat each (approx. £19). I thought Thailand was meant to be cheap!? We declined.
After an hour or so here we headed on to our place, our recuperation place after Yangon and the stomach and energy problems of Myanmar (although these seemed to have miraculously lifted now that we were out of that hostel..). It was a really nice place, easily the poshest we’ve stayed in here, and possibly on any holiday! It was actually not that expensive though with a good deal on Hotels.com 😊
We checked in and walked out down the road to the coastal restaurant ‘strip’ for dinner. We opted for the Thai Thai for our first taste of Thai cooking including a Massaman curry and Pad Thai. Yummy – much better than Myanmar food 😊.
Day 94 – Elephant Safari in Kui Buri National Park
The kids were desperate to try the pool, so we chilled out in the morning and the others went for a swim whilst I caught up with some admin.
We sought out some lunch down at the bottom end of the beach, ending up with some Indian food on the very breezy beach. Possibly the water normally looks more inviting, but the wind driven waves were stirring up all the sand, making it appear a murky brown. What is it with us and windy beaches!? We seem to bring freak winds with us on this trip!
After eating our fill, we drove on to the Kui Buri National Park around an hour away, passing through much of the Sam Roi Yot National Park with its many water lagoons and forested limestone outcrops and Long Tailed Macaques on the roadside. We’ll explore them soon!
Our destination today was the ranger station of the Kui Buri, where you can go on an elephant safari! There were few cars in the car park when we arrived. We paid in the office, walking past a couple who asked if we could share a truck and split costs. Perfect 😊.
Then it was straight to the waiting car, a pick up with seats and rails in the back so you can get a full 360 degree view, and headed off down the 7km trail to the watching areas. Amazingly enough, another car had stopped no more than 5 minutes down the road and everyone was staring into the bush. Elephants! They were no more than 25m away, at least three partially hidden in the trees. After a few minutes they melted away into the bush, it’s amazing how something so big can do that!
Our companions were a Thai and Aussie couple, and she could translate what our guide was saying for us which was very helpful!
We stopped at a lookout tower where the driver thought they had seen a Gaur (a rare cattle), we didn’t see it but others thought they did. We continued onwards, there were a few birds by the side but our guides ignored these – they were on a mission to get us elephants.
Up to the hill top where there were lots of people looking – there was something here! A couple of elephants in the distance having a dust bath. We’d already seen some much closer though. We enjoyed the view over this wild forest before moving on.
On the way back Chris spotted some more in the forest to the left. We stopped but again, it was hard to see them clearly through all the trees. Soon after there was a road to the left, and people clearly down it – we needed to go down there in to try to get closer to the elephants. Our driver seemed to be heading home though ☹. We all asked to be taken left though, and with our Thai speaking friend able to ask clearly, they had to take us in. There were a lot of cars here on the edge of a grassy area, and everyone was looking left. There they were, with an uninterrupted view, a family of 7 elephants grazing in the field paying no attention to the twenty or so people watching them. What was really lovely was watching how they all crowded around the tiny baby, keeping it safe. It meant we hardly got to see the little one though ☹.
We also found some lovely evidence of elephants passing…
After 10 minutes or so the guides wanted us to leave, but the elephants were coming closer! So we dawdled and watched. Just as we were climbing back in the car a Gaur was spotted (a rare wild cattle).
The drive back was speedy – they were on a mission! At the view tower there were definitely a whole load of Gaur with young in the fields, but, despite us all pointing and shouting, they didn’t stop ☹.
We did get a final stop when the car in front was stopped looking down a track – a bull elephant walking away!
I’m not sure why we were in such a rush to get back, as there were no other people waiting to go out when we got back, and none of us tipped, which we possibly would have done had they made sure we saw lots. Never mind. We could have paid about five times more for an English speaking guide and more time out there, but we weren’t willing to pay that so we got this trip instead. Whilst the speedy ending slightly soured the trip, it was still an amazing experience getting to share a field with a whole family of elephants 😊. Magical day – and both kids said that they wanted to keep travelling so they could do things like this.
We drove back with an amazing sunset sky behind us and stopped in the 7-11 (mini supermarket) to see what we could cook for ourselves in the kitchen in our apartment. Not a lot apparently! We ended up with pot noodles and some bread. Not the best but at least it was cheap!
Day 95 – Enjoying some down time in Sam Roi Yot
Today was my turn to not feel too good, so we decided today would be our chill out day and tomorrow we’d do the park. Plenty of pool time for the kids and the chance to use the massive TV, sofa (how I’ve missed sofas!) and Netflix. Basically, having a version of our traditional Friday family film night (except it wasn’t Friday!).
The only time we left the resort was to go out for dinner as we managed to use some leftovers from breakfast and last night’s dinner to keep us going at lunch (plus I wasn’t really eating). Back to Thai Thai as it was close, reasonably priced and nice.
Day 96 – Sam Roi Yot National Park
A super busy day today; it’s a good job we’d rested the day before. The weather started off very cloudy though, with a few raindrops. This was sort of a mixed blessing, the clouds would keep us cool during our hikes, but there’s a temple in the caves we were visiting and it is lit up by the sun’s rays at around 10am (when we planned to be there).
We decided we were pleased; a trade off of not suffering in the heat at the sacrifice of our Instagram photo opportunity seemed like a good one!
The car park for the Phraya Nakhon cave was only a few minutes down the road. This place is clearly set up for tourists, with many restaurants and shops, and boats to take you around the headland if you’re not up to the walk. It was too windy for the colourful boats today though so everyone had to walk around the headland with us.
It was a steep up and over of around a km before we emerged on the Laem Sala beach, where we immediately saw a large monitor lizard and a troop of Dusky Languars (monkeys with lovely white eye rings and lips making them look very expressive).
The trail follows the beach under the trees before heading up around half a km of steps to the crest of the ridge. It was hot work, even with minimal direct sun.
The final part is downhill, and then you descend down steps into a lost world. The roof of the cavern has fallen in and there are full grown trees reaching up towards the light.
In a second, much larger, cavern there is a small temple inside another large collapsed cave.
There are cave formations like these pillars and rock waterfalls…
… and many, many spiders! Each white blob is a massive funnel web!
It was a hot walk back out as the sun was coming out now, but much quicker. Back at the beach we enjoyed the strong breeze and paddled in the waves; not quite hot enough to want to go in any more!
Sadly, the beach was not particularly clean. We had a compostable bin bag on us (which we’d bought in NZ when our house had none!) so we put our spare time to good use. We collected a whole bag of plastic bottles, which we emptied into the recycling bins on the beach and then went back for general rubbish. The kids bored quickly and resorted to playing, whilst Chris and I wandered the beach picking litter. There were so many plastic bags here, but on the plus side some were undamaged and enabled us to carry even more rubbish off the beach – some form of reusing!
We only managed to clear about 100 metres before we could carry no more litter, this was our haul (plus the bag of plastic bottles).
We ate lunch at the restaurant here before walking back over the headland. Luckily the path was largely shaded.
The next cave was only five minutes up the road and was empty. There’s a ticket checkpoint and someone who loans torches as there’s no lighting inside the cave.
It’s a couple of hundred metres uphill to the cave, on a steep and not very clear path, but there are ropes for the steeper bits and signs over the rocky areas so it was totally doable and quite fun with all the scrambling 😊.
The cave entrance is just a hole with a ladder. There’s no lighting so it’s pretty dark, but you can see the first arrow pointing off to the right.
There was no way we weren’t doing this! I climbed first to check the ladder and then the kids joined me, the rungs were pretty big for Aiden but he managed fine.
Inside we set off in the direction of the signs, following steps and passageways, always looking for the arrows with the two phone torches.
We rounded a corner, crouch-crawling through as it was low and came face to face with this tiny bat. Cute! There were Cave Weta’s on the floor too.
We got a little lost in the next cavern, taking the wrong side passage off. It did have arrows, but they were in silver rather than the usual beige… It took us on a tiny loop back to where we’d just come from. Time to try looking for another exit to the cavern!
Back on route we emerged in a massive cavern with many bats, we had to edge around the terrace at the side, climb down a couple more ladders and then make our way over and around holes and deep cracks, up rocks and down rock steps.
We took our time to be safe and eventually emerged up the hole on the other side, scrambling up rocks towards the light to get out. Wow was that fun! Just the right amount of adventure I think.
Our next stop was the Klong Khao Daeng canal tour from Wat Khao Daeng. At 500bhat (£14) for a boat it wasn’t cheap but not bad I guess for nearly an hour on the water. The trip took us upriver, past karst outcroppings and through farmland and forest. There were so many egrets, and quite a few herons and kingfishers, but no ducks still. Then we headed downriver past a fishing village and to where the river meets the sea. All rather relaxing after our busy day.
Then we were on to the Khao Daeng View Point, which we hoped to climb and see the sunset. It was nearly 5pm when we arrived, and we were met by a monkey army! There must have been at least 50 Long-tailed Macaques in the grass beside the road. When we stopped to look the large male started making his way over. He stopped whenever we moved, and then carried on coming when we stopped. We let him get within about 10 metres and then carried on – who knows what he planned to do to the car!
Our day was ended rather abruptly when we greeted by a sign informing us that the route up closes at 3.30pm. Darn! We could have stepped over the sign and walked up anyway, no-one seemed to be there, but we were all pretty hot and tired so the majority of the group were actually pleased not to be walking another 700m uphill in the heat.
We headed home, which was probably a good thing as Chris and I had burnt our backs whilst litter picking. We rehydrated and then headed out to dinner on the sea front on some of the bikes borrowed from the hotel. A bit rickety, with no lights and no helmets. In the UK we’d never consider such a thing, but here we’re like ‘there are streetlights, the drivers are used to it, we’re going to go slowly, it’s not far’. Our journey was uneventful, except that Evie was really wobbly on hers and hit a (parked) moped mirror with her handlebars. Oops! Dinner was lovely, eaten on the beach with the sound of the ocean lapping.
With our lovely, restful days at the beach over, we prepared to head onwards to Kanchanaburi. Missed Myanmar? Head back to the previous post of our time in Inle Lake and Yangon.