Kao Yai National Park

Kao Yai National Park has a lot of very cool wildlife. The signs, when they warn of wild elephants are not kidding. There are signs of elephants everywhere, and sightings are common. On an evening drive, I saw a 2.5 m piton, porcupines, a dog-like mammal I could not identify, something that looked like a racoon, turtles, birds, lizards, etc. etc. All kinds of cools stuff. The only thing that I managed to photograph (the battery ran out) was an oversized rolly polly (excuse the dirty foot which is there for scale). Views from high points are beautiful.

I came to the park fairly unprepared. I am taking malaria meds, but I was not ready for the onslaught of leeches: they were landing on my feet and legs seemingly out of nowhere. I had no pair of trusty rubber boots, so after removing what felt like the 50th leech (15th is more likely), I cut my jungle walk a little short. There will be other jungles to walk through later.

Now, did you know that it is possible to remove the ignition key from a motorbike when it's on the on position? I didn't, and I learned the hard way. I road up a mountain to an observation point. Somewhere along the road, they key fell out (probably as I passed over a pot hole). I managed to turn the bike off with my hotel key. Well, it turns out you can use any key to switch to off, but you must use the right key to turn it back on - someone should have told me. Now, the only help were the soildiers at the military checkpoint (near a radar site) which didn't speak English. They couldn't do much. So, remember, if you loose your motorbike key, don't turn it off until you're at a locksmith! I eventually found help and made it back to the hotel, and to a locksmith the next morning.