Off the Beaten Path in Khao Yai

January 28-31, 2023

Hi friends and family,

Since I'm writing after the fact from my home in Hawai'i, I'll put the date of these adventures at the top of each post. The next destination on my journey after Bangkok was Khao Yai National Park, a couple hours northeast of Bangkok. Mel and I arrived in Khao Yai on January 28 after a long day of travel that involved taking a Bolt from our Airbnb to the bus station, walking around the bus station confused because all the writing was in Thai and barely any of the employees spoke English, eventually learning that we needed to be at the minibus station (separate from the main bus station) across the street, waiting half an hour in a crowded minibus before starting the drive, making several stops right outside the station to pick up more people and additional stops along the way (there were probably 15 people – the minibus was so crowded that a few people had to stand because there was no space at all to sit), arriving in the city nearest the national park called Pak Chong, realizing the motorbike rental shop we’d planned to rent from to get to our Airbnb was closed, searching unsuccessfully for a taxi, contacting our Airbnb host to help us find a taxi, calling a cab company and after much miscommunication getting a driver to meet us where we were, and finally taking a 40-minute ride to our Airbnb.

We knew it was going to be some work to get to the national park since it’s more remote, but we hadn’t anticipated how draining the travel day would be. The places we’d visited thus far all had strong, dependable infrastructure for tourists. Khao Yai, on the other hand, is a decently popular vacation spot for Thais, but it doesn’t get a lot of foreign visitors so many fewer people speak English and it’s more difficult to get around without having a vehicle.

We were grateful to have finally made it to our Airbnb. We couldn’t tell if it was more of an apartment building or hotel, but it was a nice complex with a gym, pool, and views of the hills. The only food in the area was a hotel next door that had live music and a nice atmosphere with string lights and comfy chairs. It was a lovely place but there were very few people there. We weren’t sure why, but it might’ve been because Khao Yai attracts more Thai visitors and it wasn't their typical time of year for vacation.

The next day we used the same cab company to get a ride into Pak Chong to rent motorbikes, which we planned to use for getting around the national park. We both ride mopeds in Hawai'i, so we’re relatively comfortable on bikes, but the ones in Thailand are faster and the roads are lawless, with faster drivers passing constantly and treating lanes as optional. We decided it would be safer to each get our own bike, rather than trying to both ride on one, which is what many locals do. (The number of people and amount of stuff locals can fit onto small bikes is very impressive.)

We got groceries in town and dropped them off at the Airbnb before driving into the park for the day. The park had one main road running through it that ran by all the big attractions. We did a short hike to Heo Suwat waterfall and then drove to a longer hike to Heo Narok waterfall.

The next day we got back to the park around noon after a late breakfast. We did less driving this day and more hiking. The first hike we did was the Thai-American Friendship trail, an easy 2-kilometer hike around San Sorn Reservoir. The next one was Kong Kaeo Waterfall, a relaxing 1.2-kilometer loop by the visitor center. I was still wanting to explore the park a bit more so I did the Nong Pak Chi wildlife observation tower hike to end the day. This one was a 4-kilometer point-to-point trail. I saw several monkeys along the trail, and the highlight was an observation tower looking out at a salt lick, where birds and elephants are often seen. I didn’t see much wildlife but it was cool to climb up in the tower and get more of a bird’s eye view of the park.

We had a relatively short stay in Khao Yai with just two full days, but it was a good amount of time for the park in my opinion. There were some other hikes we could’ve done but I felt like I had a good feel for the park and I wasn’t blown away by it. It was definitely cool, but I preferred the beauty of the southern islands, which felt uniquely Thai. Khao Yai reminded me of some places in America, like Shenandoah National Park, where it’s woodsy and hilly but not breathtaking like other national parks such as Yosemite or Glacier National Park.

On January 31, we left our Airbnb and biked with our luggage to the Pak Chong motorbike rental shop. We’d built up enough confidence biking around the park the last two days that we felt secure biking with our bags. We returned our bikes and walked to the train station to catch a train to Bangkok. (We were over minibuses at this point.) The train caught us off guard, though, and was a strong contender for worst form of transportation. We booked our tickets late and ended up in third-class, where it was hot because the only air circulation was from a few small, ineffective fans. The seating was also cramped; Mel and I were on a tiny bench facing another couple on a bench across from us and there was simply not enough space for our legs. I had to put my legs into the narrow aisle because all our knees were bumping into each other. After 2.5 hours of discomfort and lack of personal space, we arrived at DMK airport in Bangkok. We killed a few hours and then flew to Surat Thani, the port city that has ferries to Koh Phangan, our next destination. I’ll write about that next post. Thanks for reading!