We traveled to the jungles of national park Khao Yai on the second day we arrived in Thailand, jetlag and all! The first evening we went out to go to a batcave. On the way we visited a local market where they sold all kinds of vegetables from the mountains around it, but there were also cages with piglets and even hedgehogs!

There was an entrance to the batcave near a buddhist temple. We got the key from the monk and wandered around a huge cave, filled with different species of bats, and a lot of spiders, centipedes and other critters. Here and there we smalles statues and pots in the cave!

But that wasn’t the highlight! We quickly drove further into the mountains to watch a spectaaaaaaaaacular sight:

Millions, millions of bats, leaving the huuuge caverns in the mountains to go hunting at night.

Incredible!! This sight went on for at least half an hour and after one hour you could still see bats leaving the cave. Spectacular! I couldn’t believe it.

And you could hear them squeek! It was so amazing. Sometimes big birds of prey would swoop in and catch a couple!

Loved it! After the sun went down, we drove back to our hotel to get some rest, because the next day would be fuuuull of animal tracking!

We had a beautiful cabin in the middle of the fields and hills. At night you would hear the gecko’s and wild dogs…

Next day, up early, and on to Khao Yai National Park!

Khao Yai is absolutely beautiful and I highly recommend going there. We were dressed for the trip; those nice blue socks are anti-leech socks XD

First thing we noticed when entering the park were the monkeys! Now you really had to be careful with any food on you, because they would snatch it and eat it. It happened constantly haha

He took off with a package of instant noodles, which in the end he didn’t like and threw back down from the tree ;p

But look how beautiful they were!

A little further in the park we hit the jackpot. There were several monkeys, squirrels and even the beautiful hornbill birds in one spot!

The hornbills are HUGE birds. After a while they flew away and you could see their enormous wingspan.

We then hiked across a riverbed deeper the jungle in.

There were beautiful butterflies everywhere. The place was magical.

Now let’s talk some lizards ;) They were everywhere! Huge ones!!

And even snakes!

We had an amazing pair of guides who spotted every single animal. One of them was carrying a huge telescope through which we could take these amazing pictures.

We were really hiking through thick jungle!

And ofcourse there were insects too!

Guess what… There are even scorpions in Khao Yai!

I looooved Khao Yai, there was so much to see!

I was pretty tired (full jetlag in action), but we just kept going, discovering new animals everywhere.

At the end of a full day of exploring, it was time to go home. But then, suddenly, this guy came out of the woods and starting walking on the road!!

Very casually blocking all traffic XD

Haaaa that was so amazing, a wild elephant just walking there in front of you! After a while he disappeared in the jungle again. It was incredible!

I think Khao Yai national park was one of the biggest highlights of our trip. It’s incredible to see the variety of wildlife living there. After that day, my jetlag was completely gone :)