Khao Yai National Park!Last weekend we took the entire high school to a 3 day camp an hour north of Bangkok. They went kayaking, "mountain biking", built rafts, completed the ropes course...it was a good time despite the fact that a lot of them didn't know how to ride a bike or swim, didn't like getting wet or sweaty or be in the sun...pretty much the exact opposite of my chilhood years! They showed up in high heeles and mini skirts - but by the end they were having water fights and dumping each other's kayaks into the flooded lakes.
Within an hour of returning from the trip, I headed off with Spencer on a 4 day weekend to Khao Yai National Park - a 3 hour bus ride to the town of Pak Chong, northeast of Bangkok. In Pak Chong we rented a motocy and drove into the National Park. Very big, very diverse, and very beautiful - loads of monkeys, guar, clouded leapord, tigers, elephants, sambar....
(Elephat Salt Lick 100m)
We met the monkeys right away - groups of them congregate on the roadsides, begging for food and watching cars go. Sometimes they sit in the middle of the road. I think this one had his thumb out...
(Look framiliar? This was the falls that good old Leo took a plung in in The Beach movie...and me, too)
We spent 3 days hiking and exploring rainforests, savannas, dry deciduous forests, and waterfalls. My whole body felt like "ahhhhhhhh!" - so nice to get out of the big city, away from the tourist trail, out of the pollution. Some hiking trails were well marked and followed rivers, others were very poorly marked and turned into adventures - sketchy maps and compass skills.
(a tree with many claw marks - obviously somebody's hideout! - a tiger?)
We did a bit of camping in the park. Unprepared, we rented a tent and asked -"how do we chooes a site?" - the park officials looked confused and pointed to the lawn where dozens and dozens of Thais had erected jumbles of tents. It was just like camping at Bliss Fest, only with no central stage, and more monkeys. And it was FREEZING up there - the first time I have been cold outside since I came to Thailand! We watched monkeys steal food from unsuspecting campers and, in the middle of the night, awoke to see a HUGE porccupine wandering past our tent. In the morning, the group of campers next to us shared their Thai-style breakfast with us - super-boiled-and-watery rice (kind of like cream of wheat) with various additions of sausages, fermented cabbage, scrambled eggs, and spices.
Khao Yai has a few great wildlife watching towers out in the middle of grasslands. One evening, we watched some wild dogs and a monitor (like a little aligator) from a tower, but alas - no elephants! Nightime wildlife spotlighting tours are very popular here, but instead of paying the 500 baht to go, we just drove behind one of the trucks on our motocy and got pretty much the same view! 
We also visited the local market - tried some coconut-corn fritters and, of course, meat on a stick. Met a friendly monkey, whose name is "bad monkey" in Thai. She is 6 months old and her mother was killed - now she is living with a very nice woman but doesn't really like other women because of the smell (????). Here she is, eating a bean.
We also watched millions of bats fly out of a cave at exactly 6:00 (all of the locals will tell you...).
