Khao Yai - a breath of fresh air

Sarah and I went to Khao Yai over the weekend - a national park about 3 hours to the north of us.
Our train stopped in the middle of nowhere for an unnecessary amount of time and we ended up being an hour late. Thankfully, our awesome hostel owner Joe waited at the train station for us until 1:45 in the morning. Our room was fantastic - by far the nicest and cleanest place we have stayed so far. Comfy beds too! After only 4 hours of sleep, we left on a jungle trekking tour at 8 am with 1 Swedish couple, 1 Dutch couple and 1 Czech woman - they also turned out to be some of the funniest and greatest people we have met so far. We drove through the park on a Sorngthao and saw some macaques and snakes. Then we went gibbon hunting and found tons! Our guide, Puma, was great at spotting tiny animals from the road; suspiciously good so Sarah and I decided that all of the animals are actually his pets and he plants them around the park for all the tourists. We had to wear these hilarious leech proof socks and of course Sarah had one on her the instant we walked in the jungle. Our guide promptly removed it from her leg and threw it on me. Horrifying! Then we found a cool little orange snake and Puma told me to hold it so I played around with it for a little and then he decided to tell me that its' bite hurts REALLY bad. Awesome. I took a picture just for you mom. We almost ran into a huge Komodo dragon type lizard and saw some pretty cool birds, like a hornbill. After we drove around for awhile, the real trekking began and I was drastically unprepared for this "hike". Hiking somewhat implies there is a trail. Instead, we basically army crawled through the jungle completely not worried about ticks or spiders or snakes and tried to desperately keep up with Puma; who is a foot shorter and a professional. He got our group pretty close to a gibbon family so it all ended up being worth it! We tried to find some wild elephants but it was too crowded on the weekend so we ate lunch and went to see a waterfall (actually the one Leo Dicaprio jumped off of in The Beach). It was pretty cool and then we drove around some more looking for elephants but they were hiding pretty well. We got back around 8, absolutely exhausted and just showered and ate dinner quickly with our group. Our guesthouse was family run so it was a really friendly, laidback atmosphere with amazing food and after chatting for a bit, we went to bed at 9:30 like true 80 year olds. On Sunday we had to get up early and catch a train back, which again was late and also stuffed full with standing room only. The Thai teens right by us closed the window too so they wouldn't get tan and it was stifling! I don't get the obsession with whiteness but they were already super tan and there was no airflow so naturally I opened the window and laughed at their dramatic attempt to seem annoyed. Khao Yai was one of the best trips we have taken so far and we met some great people while there! We also planned the whole thing ourselves without tips from anyone else and it worked out well so Sarah and I feel pretty successful! Now just 4 more days of showing Elf to my noisy students and beach, here I come!!!!