Khao Yai | part 2
Hello family & friends,
Sorry for the delayed response. I had no wifi in Australia meaning I have a lot to catch you up on now — so let’s go!
Part 2 of the tour was even cooler than Part 1. It began with new people (an Italian and 2 South Koreans) and myself climbing into the back of our tour guides’ truck. This time, our tour guides were Noy and Joe — one of the owners of Greenleaf. They both were AWESOME. We were flying down the highway at 60+km/hr when we came to practically a screeching stop. Joe had spotted a thin oriental snake climbing through the tree-line. What? How? He proceeded to climb through the brush, find a long stick, and him and Noy got the snake down from the top of the tree. It was crazy. He then told me to “hold still please” and placed the snake in my hands. It was quite an awesome experience!! Joe was so hands on. The snake climbed through my fingers, reaching for the tree-line again.
We proceeded to a local swimming hole that was gorgeous. It was crystal blue and covered by a jungle-like canopy. I went for refreshing dip in the pool & got out to Joe greeting me with a small millipede. I was a little nervous but he made stern eye-contact and said “don’t move, please” and placed the millipede in my hands. It squirmed all about and was fun to play with. Joe goes, “are you ready?” Oh no. Out of his backpack he pulls out a millipede at least a foot long and as thick as a hotdog or bratwurst. I was not ready for that. I begged him to not hand it to me but he just kept going, “hold still please. It won’t hurt. Hold still, please” as he gripped my hand. I was the only one willingly holding things before, so I had become the guinea-pig. Sure enough, he placed this hotdog sized millipede in my hands. After 10 seconds, I really enjoyed it and then he goes, “now for your neck!” The millipede climbed all over my neck and shoulders. It felt really interesting — like a wave ripple. We went back to the car and Noy had the scope set up pointed at an animal high up in the mountains. They said it was a deer but it looked like a deer/elk/sheep hybrid to me.
Our next stop was a bat cave holding 500–600 bats. Noy climbed down first and then we all followed Joe. Noy disappeared, which I knew by now was not a good sign. Joe asks for my hand — by this point I had some trust in him- and I hesitantly gave it to him. Noy hands him something and he places it in my hand. It’s a scorpion spider. It freaked me out for a second until it started climbing on me and then it was quite fun.
Joe looks at me and goes, “Kinley, do you have Facebook?” “Yes…” I reluctantly responded. “Do you think facetime would work down here?” he suspiciously questioned. “No…” I said with increasingly speculation. “Why not?” Joe questioned — he was really dragging this out. “Well, I don’t have signal in a cave, Joe.” “Let’s try” he says as he grabs my hand, holding me in place, and reaches his spider hand towards my face going “facetime — please hold still — it won’t hurt — hold still, please” as I squirmed away, trying to keep my face as far away as possible. He gave up after a couple seconds. Face-time. Humph.
As we moved closer into the cave, we turned off our flashlights and felt the bat wing-beats against our noses and ears. It was spectacular. You could hear all of them squeaking and we even saw some babies hanging off their mamas.
Our next stop was eating fruit in a field while looking at a massive mountain. The fruit was delicious. Then, right on Joe’s cue, a tiny stream of bats started flying out from the side of the mountain (pictured at the top). It rippled out away from the mountain towards the agricultural fields. We drove closer to the mountainside and laid in a field directly below the stream of bats. The stream grew darker as time went on. A true natural phenomenon — something straight out of BBC. Joe told us that there were 2–3 million bats that left this cave every night. We stayed for over an hour, watching the bats flee the cave as the sun set behind us. It was spectacular & unreal.
The last stop of the night was in the middle of a tapioca field. Joe positioned us all very particularly. He told us his friends would come out to play at 6:30. Sure enough, on the nose, a bat rushed past me. Pretty soon I was surrounded by about 15 bats at a time, flying past, narrowly missing me. I held out my arms and felt the beat of their wings against my arms, laughing as I did. I was overwhelmed with gratefulness to be standing in that field.
I have videos of the bats flying by. If you are interested in seeing them, let me know and I’ll show you when I return home.
