The twenty-ninth week

Day 199- 205

April 22nd was our last day on Koh Chang and was supposed to be another relaxing one. We lay on a beautiful beach, read, swam and I got another nice massage to the sound of the sea. A very nice ending! With heavy hearts we left our beloved bungalow on April 23rd. It wasn't just that we really liked our modest home, it was also nice to be in one place for a longer period of time, to have a permanent base, to be able to unpack almost all of our things and to know where to find good food without having to search for it first.

But I have one birthday wish: I would like to go to Khao Yai National Park! There are supposed to be tigers there (I don't have to meet them), elephants (meeting them is OK, but from a distance) and gibbons (definitely meet them!! Great apes that live up in the trees, so close contact is unlikely). So we drove back to Bangkok first. We actually wanted to go to the national park the next day. But we remembered that we would be coming back to Bangkok from the national park for the weekend. Since we still want to extend our 30-day visa to 60 days, we had a spontaneous change of plan: first the authorities, then the national park.

On April 24th we went early to the immigration office in a shopping center. Bangkok is a huge metropolis. The journey there took more than an hour. Once we got there we had to make a few copies and fill out forms. First we had to stand in a long line so that friendly employees could check the forms to make sure they were complete.

Then we were given a card with a number on it. Ivar had 173, I had 172. You are then called in turn and allowed to go to another employee. Well, we had to wait a little longer because a display said that number 80 was being called. We were hungry anyway. So we went to eat something, strolled around, got massages in massage chairs and when we went back to the office, they were at number 150. Yey! We still had to wait a while. When it was finally our turn to hand in our passports with the applications, we had to wait a little longer. About 30 minutes later, our passports were given back. In total, the fun took us 7 hours. But hey, 7 hours for 30 more days in Thailand! We drove back to the city center and went to another department store because I urgently need underwear. Sounds funny, and it is! :)Every now and then a pair of underpants gets lost in the wash and one was so worn out that it no longer held up. I've been looking for underpants for a while, but the Asian shops only had underpants made of plastic crap! You just sweat in them and they're not good for women's health. In the department store we headed to H&M. I found what I needed there straight away: a maxi pack with 7 pairs of cotton underpants! Yesssss!! Underpants heaven!

April 25th! Birthday! 35 years! And travel day. We drove to Hua Lamphong station to take the train to Pak Chong at around 11:30 am.

We arrived in Pak Chong at around 4 p.m. It's still a while to the national park, so we decided to stay one night in Pak Chong rather than rush. We found a great hostel and went to the night market in the evening. There I ate mango with sticky rice for the first time (it's sticky rice, sweet coconut milk and mango). Pretty much child's food and it was way too sweet for me. I also ate durian for the first time, the stinky fruit. Very well known mainly because it is forbidden to eat it everywhere. In many hotels and subways there are signs banning durian. If you cut open the skin of the large fruit, the fruit has many individual pieces. Personally, I don't think durian really smells. It smells intense, yes, but not stinky. And it's relatively expensive! Up until now I've been hesitant because they always sell several pieces at once and I was worried that I wouldn't like the fruit. But at the night market I found a stall that sold individual pieces! So I took a medium-sized piece for 100 Baht (approx. €2.50). What can I say: I don't understand the hype about durian. It tastes very creamy but also very boring. Maybe it wasn't ripe enough. I'll try it again later in the year.

The next day we drove to Khao Yai National Park on a rental scooter. On the way to the campsite, which was 20 km deep in the park, we saw many signs such as "Caution, cobra crossing" and also "Caution, elephant crossing".

At the campsite we borrowed a tent, mats and pillows. We brought our own sleeping bag. There were lots of macaques (cheeky monkeys) and deer running around the campsite. We looked for a shady spot away from the main monkey area. The deer are OK, but the monkeys will tear your tent apart in search of food.

In the evening we took part in a night safari. We sprayed ourselves against mosquitoes and arrived at the meeting point at 7 p.m. sharp.

Ha! How stupid we were! Of course, the night safari wasn't on foot, as we thought, but in a pick-up truck! After all, we are still in Asia, nobody walks unnecessarily here! So we rode in the back of the pick-up truck and a ranger with a large lamp searched the area for animals while driving slowly.

We saw a few porcupines, a fox, a gaur (basically ox) and macaques.

The next day we got up just before 5 a.m. After all, the animals are more active in the morning. We drove to a lookout tower and observed the area. The lookout tower is located on a large meadow. It is said that early in the morning or late in the evening some animals come to graze.

We saw another gaur and hornbills. These birds have another horn above their long beak. It looks very funny! These large birds are easy to spot because they are big and fly very loudly! You could also hear the gibbons screaming. Very easy to hear because they screech around like sirens.

At 8 a.m. we went for breakfast and hiked along a small hiking trail. Then we drove back to the campsite and had a nap. In the afternoon we drove a little higher and hiked to a cliff. From there you had a wonderful view of the national park!

In the evening, just before dusk, we drove to the observation tower again. Unfortunately, we didn't see any large animals. A few bats were flying around. On April 28th, we got up again at 5 a.m. We walked along a hiking trail. You're supposed to be able to see crocodiles here. But it's the dry season and the river arm we walked along had dried up in places.

At the end point I was a little disappointed. We had breakfast and heard some gibbons. Sounded louder than usual... And then we saw some gibbons in a tree! They look so fluffy in their fluffy fur! Sometimes they looked down at us. We looked up with our monocular. My neck hurt a little, so I lay on my back on a bench.

Gibbons have very long arms in relation to their bodies (remind me a bit of Ivar, only he also has long legs), strong hands and they move forward by swinging. This makes them super fast! We were able to watch a few swinging tricks. Very exciting! Unfortunately, they left at some point. We went to a waterfall. Well, it was the most pathetic waterfall I have ever seen. It still hasn't rained and there is a heatwave in Thailand at the moment. In general, the rainy season in Asia is coming later and later and getting shorter. The waterfall was a tiny little trickle that you couldn't see with the naked eye. You could only see the water splashing where the trickle hit the water surface.

We walked back the way we came and were back at the campsite in the early afternoon. We took a nap and rested. There is only one place at the campsite where you can charge your electronic devices. And only from 6-9 or 6-9pm. So we spent the rest of the evening at that charging point and planned the next few weeks.