There's an elephant on my car!!!

Relaxing in our hostel outdoor common space, safely in Chiang Mai!!!! For the few of you that emailed me about bombings in Bangkok, we were in no way affected and didn't even hear anything about it around Thailand until some of you clued us in on it. We left Bangkok Tuesday morning and apparently they happened Tuesday afternoon. But thanks for the concern!

We spent the past 2 days in Khao Yai National Park, seeing as much wildlife as we could. We (somehow) arrived just in time to jump onto a half day tour which took us to a cave full of bats (disgusting at first, but really cool once you got comfortable) and then to this place where every night, at sunset, 2 million bats fly out of this cave and go hunting for the night. This site was amazing, and it seemed like much more than 2 million bats. I will post pictures when I can....

Our journey to Khao Yai was funny because we had contacted our guesthouse again the morning that we caught a bus to Pak Chong (the closest town to Khao Yai) and they said that they would pick us up at the bus station but there is no way to confirm times or anything. So Katy and I get off this bus with our giant packs and are clearly the only tourists around and there is no indication of where to find this transport to Greenleaf (our guesthouse). So we wander around like idiots for a while and then this girl on a motorbike pulls up and is like "Greenleaf?" Of course our answer was "yes, please." So she tells us to hang on for about 15 minutes and someone would be by to get us and then speeds away....and 14 minutes later a truck pulled up to transport us to the guesthouse. I guess they must just drive past the bus station every so often looking for people....

We spent the night making new friends in the guesthouse common area and then caught a few hours of sleep before our all day trekking/safari tour the following day.

Part of the safari day was spent in an open air vehicle driving around the park and then part of the day was spent trekking. We were lucky enough to spot gibbons and macau monkeys, as well as lots of hornbills (gorgeous birds), and some interesting plants. We then picked up pace quickly as we heard there were elephants nearby and we wanted to get to them.  We found out the context when we emerged from the jungle onto the road and saw one of our safari vehicles with a big dent in the hood and a smashed in window....the elephant decided to play with the car I guess :)  There was a man who worked with the resort who had seen the elephant come up and smash the car, and he was kind enough to let me take a picture of his picture (also to be posted shortly).

We enjoyed lunch in the jungle while the (still angry) elephant wandered around down the road....we weren't allowed to get close as he was clearly a little aggressive at the moment. Lucky for all of the men who worked at the resort, the vehicle was driveable, so we hopped back in and continued on our day. We stopped by a waterfall for a bit and then back to Greenleaf for the night.  A few rounds of Chang beer and hands of cards later, our international group of friends was well-bonded :)  Katy and I were the only ones from the States (per usual), and we were joined by a girl from Belgium, a guy from Holland, a guy from Germany, a guy from London, 2 guys from Canada, and a guy from Switzerland (I think). I absolutely love the conversations between travelers when everyone is in that nomadic mindset, everyone has a different accent, and everyone has a different story to offer.....I feel like I learn as much in these few hour conversations as I would in a year of schooling. 

We were lucky enough that most of our new friends were headed out of Khao Yai and on to Ayuthaya the next morning, as was our plan. Ayuthaya is the former capitol of Thailand, and was destroyed by the Burmese in 1767.  The town is really cool to walk around, full of old ruins. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site as well.  So six of us took the train from Pak Chong (near Khao Yai) to Ayuthaya....about a 3 hour ride with no A/C and next to a few interesting locals....one who drank 6 beers during the train ride and another who kept stroking our (male) friend's hand....it kept it interesting :)  There were 4 of us who were staying in Ayuthaya for the day (the others were continuing on the train to Bangkok), and one of the guys was actually spending the night there, which was perfect for us because we were able to use his room to stash our bags and grab a shower.  We grabbed our Lonely Planet and headed out for the afternoon. It was a great day- the weather was gorgeous and they were preparing the ruins area for some sort of festival later in the evening, so there were mahouts (elephant trainers if you will) dressing the elephants and rehearsing their tricks.

After our day at Ayuthaya, Katy and I boarded the night train to Chiang Mai, which is we are right now. The night train was actually quite comfortable and we were able to get some sleep.  More about Chiang Mai later, however...we have a three day trek that leaves in the morning and we need to get some sleep before!! 

Thanks for reading :)