Safari

Day 99: Khao Yai National Park (T). “I suppose this is why they call it the monsoon forest”, I joked to Karen as we stood in the middle of the jungle dripping wet from the torrential rains and up to our ankles in thick red mud and creepy leeches. As this was out last day in Khao Yai we were determined to see as much of the park as possible and so with the help of a couple of local guides we did just that. From dawn until dusk; we trekked it, swam it, drove it and climbed it.

And how are exertions were rewarded. Of all of the national parks that we had visited on our travels, the bio-diversity and the abundance of wild-life was by far the greatest here. With the thick cover of the jungle and the coming onslaught of the summer rains, I wasn't expecting to see too much on our 'safari'. But thanks to our excellent guides, it wasn't long before our wild-life tick list was looking quite impressive: Gibbons, baboons, giant squirrels, deer, elk, eagles, hornbills, monarch birds, scorpions...The list went on and on.

Oh yes, and then of course there were leeches. After Cat Tien and the Cardamon Mountains, you would have thought that Karen and I would have been used to them by now – but this time they beat us, hands down. Diligently, we donned our long trousers, thick walking boots and protective 'leech socks' but despite all of these precautions I still managed to get one of the little blighter's up each trouser leg. The result? Two blood gorged leeches as thick as your thumb and two gaping holes in my legs that wouldn't stop bleeding for over an hour!

As the afternoon came around, the sun finally put in an appearance just as we were arriving at Heaw Suwat waterfall – the one Leonardo di Caprio jumped off in the film 'The Beach'. “Do you see the similarity?”, I shouted from the top of the falls. Humouring me, Karen nodded and continued swimming in the cool, crystal waters amid the myriad of colourful butterflies.