Since moving to Thailand 4 years ago I have been trying to get members of my family to visit. Any members, I'm not particularly fussy. And for each member of my family, I know that there is something about Thailand that will appeal; my brother -the birding, my father- the old Thai farming ways, my sister- the diving and the wilderness. However, they consistently come up with one excuse or another and leave me with a promise of .."next year". After four years of excuses, my brother and his wife, finally came up with a plan to get me off their backs...Ros (my sister in law) would send her sister, Liz. Liz would have very little opportunity to turn this offer down as they bought her a guide book to Thailand for her birthday...and you wouldn't want to waste that!

So last Thursday I traveled to Bangkok to meet her. Now as far as I  know, Liz has never expressed any desire to live in a hut for a week or to scramble through the jungle, but this is exactly what was in store for her.....and she did it marvellously.

 Having flown to Thailand, she then caught the skytrain to the centre of Bangkok where we took a boat upriver, followed by a taxi to the bus station and finally a bus to Klang Dong. Five forms of transport in as many hours...not bad going. 

Liz's first full day in Thailand entailed two more forms of transport- our Land Rover followed by the santheaw. The sangtheaw is basically a pick up that has a tin roof on the back portion and two rows of seats. The sangteaws that ply the route through Pakchong also come with innumerable school children in identical uniforms dangling off the back, as standard. We eventually reached my school, where Liz was going to spend the day with me. The students were sitting end of year exams, but in the gaps in between, they were fascinated by Liz's 'quilling'- a form of papercraft that she had brought to show them. The day flew by with the kids nipping out to sit an exam, before heading back to the quilling. 

Saturday was spent with the bicycles, taking it easy around Klang Dong and visiting some of the local sights such as the floating market, fruit market and the white Buddha. The locals of Klang Dong enjoyed having a second western resident of the village and the word 'suay' (beautiful) could be heard following Liz where ever she went. 

A short road trip west saw us head to Kanchanaburi...a province of Thailand that I love. I wanted to show Liz the Thai-Burma Railway and take her to one of the best museums I know- the 'Hellfire Pass Museum'. Here on a 4km walk through woodland, along the old railway, you are accompanied (with the benefit of a headset), by some of the Australian PoWs who built the railway- informing you of the history of the place and recounting their memories. However, the landscape of Kanchanaburi at this time of year is very brown and dry and it is only seeing this, that makes me appreciated how green and lush our own corner of Thailand is- even at the end of a long dry season.

Liz's final day with us was spent in the jungle with a wonderful guide I know called Deaw! It has been some time since I have been in the Khao Yai National Park myself and I must say, it made me appreciate once again what a fantastic job the guides do. In the past couple of weeks I have been grumbling how much of his spare time Deaw has spent focussing on piles of rust (he calls them cars), but yesterday I was in awe of his abilities in the jungle. 

We arrived in the park around 9 and whilst I was busy fending off a none too friendly macaque, Deaw was finding a hornbill for us to admire. It flew picture perfect across the viewpoint - the swish of it's enormous wings making the spectacle more awe inspiring. Flyby over, it disappeared into the trees and we got back into the Land Rover. One kilometer further along, Deaw pulled to a halt. "Get out here and look at that tree" he instructed. "There's a hornbill's nest there and I think the one we just saw was headed this way". We did as told and sure enough, within a few minutes, the loud swish once again heralded the arrival of the Great hornbill. For ten minutes we watched as the male hornbill regurgitated it's morning's collection and fed the female and baby that were holed up inside the tree, completely dependent on the male's arrival.

Shortly afterwards, we entered the jungle. I was happily tramping along when Deaw came to an abrupt halt. He had heard something. As we listened carefully he pointed out a 'pok' sound, that happened every 30 seconds or so. "That's an elephant" we were told. How did he know? "It sounds like it is breaking branches", he said, but also commented that this was strange, as there  was no bamboo in that area of the jungle. Another guide and is group came a long and, after a few minutes of conferring, they headed off the track and into the jungle overgrowth. Deaw had been right- it was an elephant- he was also right in that the sound wasn't from bamboo. The source of the'pok' sound was the elephant's ear - flapping intermittently against it's head as it wallowed happily  in an area of mud, unaware of the humans that watched. 

I saw Liz off this morning from the bus stop, as she begins her long journey home. I am very grateful that an almost member of my family has been to experience what life is like here, in this small spot of land that is so very Thailand. She coped with the hut, the roosters, the roofless shower and even the millipede remarkably well and I don't think I'd be lying if I said that she enjoyed it too. It was certainly different from any other holiday she has had before.

Come back soon Liz- there's plenty more to see :)

Valentine's Day here in Thailand is quite a nice affair. Yes it's commercial, yes they want you to spend money, but it's a lot more inclusive than the ones I remember from my school days in the UK..."What? It got lost in the post again?"
Here students plaster each other with heart shaped stickers and give roses...and not just to someone they secretly admire. Friends, classmates and even 40 something English teachers are included in the fun. 

Meanwhile, back on the ranch and early morning I had waved off my own Valentine as he went to spend 3 days in remote jungle with two very lovely ladies.

Angie and Margie are sisters who are originally from the UK, but have lived in various continents. Now Angie lives back in the UK, whilst Margie has spent the last 40 years in Australia. Both grandmothers, both in their sixties and both could put most 20 and 30 years olds to shame with their adventurous and intrepid spirit. 
When they first inquired about doing a tour with Khao Yai and Beyond, I offered them a range of options. Would you like to stay in a nice resort the night before you trek? No- we'd love to try out the guest hut. How about the on the trek itself- would you like to stay in a campsite? No- we'd like the jungle...the real jungle. With hammocks? Yes. Cooking on a fire?- Yes. Bathing in a river?-Yes...... Perfect. 

As we sat enjoying a G&T on the night before they left,I knew they would make great trekking companions and  was desperate to tag along too.  But I had a date with 60 odd students and a packet of heart stickers.

Three days later, I awaited their return. What had it been like? Had they enjoyed themselves? Had we delivered to their expectations? The waiting is the worst part for me. I hate being left out of anything and as they travel into such remote areas, where there is no phone signal, I can never check what's going on. A blessing for Deaw! 

Finally in early afternoon, they returned. Tired, with sore muscles but with big smiles and tales to tell. In spite of having to get to Bangkok to catch a plane to the south, they found time for another well earned G&T, a shower and a bit of a giggle, before packing their aching limbs into the minivan that would take them towards their next destination- the beach. 

Margie and Angie- it was fantastic having you visit. Thank you! :) 

I was greeted by Deaw's family when I got home from school today who gave me fruit. This was accompanied by the question "Where's Yuri?"....aaah! so the fruit isn't for me...

 Today we said goodbye to our latest guest Yuri, from San Francisco. It was a quick visit at a busy time of year, but (cowboy)hats off to him as, like our other guests this season, he fully threw himself into local Thai life and all that it has to offer. He became quite a hit in the process. In the last 3 days Yuri could be found Thai dancing at a New Year's Day party with some of the more mature ladies of Klang Dong...I include myself in that, attending a cowboy festival, visiting the waterfalls and bat caves and joining me for a day at school.

Watching the bats exit on their nightly hunt for food is always an awe-inspiring sight to me, but yesterday they were particularly spectacular. Because of a barely detectable change in wind direction, last night they exited over a different route and seemed to fly lower than usual. The result was a massive expanse of sky where you could see the bats stream off and disappear into the horizon. The bats of the Khao Yai are wrinkle-lipped bats and are the same species as the ones shown in the Planet Earth documentary. Every evening, at dusk an estimated 3 million bats exit the cave embarking on their nightly search for food. Much of the reasons for their behaviour are speculation, for example- which bat decides when it's a good time to exit the cave? For they don't exit in dribs and drabs- but in a sudden constant stream that will continue for over an hour. Some guides think the decision is based on a  change of temperature, others by the possibility that the bats are just hungry! I favour the latter and am pretty sure if I were a bat, I'd be first out of that cave. Another interesting behaviour of the bats is that the strongest, youngest bats leave the cave first, and the older or weaker bats come out last. The motives for this behaviour are thought to be quite chivalrous ones. The stronger bats leave first, as they will fly further to find their food, leaving the closer feeding grounds for the bats not able to make it so far. 

So if you have time on your visit to Thailand to witness this spectacle- we'd love to take you. If you want to see a video clip of them then check out the link in our guestbook.

And, speaking of the guestbook. Yuri, our most recent guest, not  only turned out to be immensely fun to have around, but useful too. He has shown me how to install a guest book on our website, so hitherto any guests will be able to write a note or review of their experience and post photographs.
If you have visited us within the last 12 months I would be very grateful if you could test this new addition with a review of your own and a few photos if you have them.

Thank you!

After Olympian dithering (oh that it were a sport) we are finally ready to launch our website. The last six months have been spent setting up Khao Yai and Beyond so that we are able to deliver our vision without compromise. It's not always been easy, but we now feel that we are ready to give our customers the real experience of the jungle that we had dreamed.

We have surveyed and tested some great routes which give a variety of levels of trekking. What they have in common is that they are remote and unique and will give you experience of the real jungle. Not the one seen from the back of a pick up. We have also focussed on recruiting local people, who know the jungle intimately, to help us guide our tours or be our trackers. It is our intention that by investing in local people that they will be able to make their living by protecting the jungle rather than taking from it.

We live about 15km from the main drag of guesthouses, and would more accurately describe our accommodation as homestay rather than guest house...or guest hut! If you choose to join us on one of our tours, your accommodation will not only be free, but will give you a unique insight to how many rural Thais live...but more about that in later posts.

For now, I am being called to go and lug some bamboo. I hope that you find us here in cyberspace and having seen what we are about- come and visit us in person :)