Saturday 28 February 2009

Bear catching in Khao Yai




Our tour of the national park turned out to be more than we bargained for..as we were nearly at the end we saw something in the road..when we slowed down we saw it was a baby black bear! such a tiny cute thing. we pulled over and it ran into the overgrowth, the guide shouted that we needed to catch it because the mother had obviously gone and it was lost. we thought it was crazy to begin with but then Jonas (one of the german guys on our tour) went into the bushes to try! it was absolutley insane, we were all so scared the mother would suddenly appear, knowing we would be attacked if she did but not wanting the bear to be left unattended because he would surely die. We all got out and tried to stop him running off and Jonas appeared with him scrabbling around in his arms..we put him into the back of the truck and had to get in with him!!!!! he just cowered in the corner and thomas stroked him to calm him down.

we got to where the ranger was and everyone wanted a photo, the poor bear was so scared and we were very protective of him! eventually the ranger came and they expected the guys to just pick him up and put him in, as though they were supposed to be the qualified ones!! it was pretty heart breaking putting him into a cage but they reassured us they would try to find the mother and if not then find a surrogate for him. The whole experience was amazing, a one in a million chance of finding a baby bear! The guide had only seen one in his whole 21 years of working there!
Me at the waterfall from "the beach" right before we jumped in and a huge storm started...we were so soaked but it was fun.
Our guide at the park "bonsai" such a funny guy!!
Us in Khao Yai national park
Bugs at the night market...one of the oh so inviting dishes here!
Not very clear in this small photo but this is at the bats cave..around 6pm every night about a million bats fly out to feed. they are all in one big line and it last for over half an hour, you can hear all their wings fluttering..very cool!
Us bathing in a natural spring
The people that were so so friendly on the train..one of their brothers even gave his seat up for me! it was so hot and i was so grateful. Thai people have been lovely so far, felt bad that i couldnt speak any of their language and we had a conversation in broken english, pictures and acting out!! they all waved to us as we got off the train, so sweet.
Me at some ruins in Auythaya
Mary and Janey's picture at some ruins and Buddha statues in Auythaya
river side in Ayuthaya, beautiful place :)

1 comment:

Will Williams said...

Awesome pictures! The baby bear episode sounds incredible, how lucky. The picture of you by the waterfall is a great photo, definately one for the wall when you get back! Also like the one of you both on the tree. Take care!