Khao Yai Day Two: Monkeys & Haew Nurak Waterfall

After our trek through the jungle, we headed back into the songthaew to eat lunch at a cafeteria in the park - and discovered that monkeys like to take over the roads in Khao Yai National Park!

This part of the day is also when we encountered a family we nicknamed "The Leeches".  This Dutch family had spent the night in the park and had gotten ravished by leeches during their stay - apparently the campsite was filled with leeches, not to mention they'd ran out after a monkey into the jungle and forgot to put their leech socks on.  Although the family consisted of a nice couple and three really sweet boys, we could not get over the amount of blood on their clothing and their nonchalance about this!  "It doesn't hurt" the ten-year-old kept telling us, as he dabbed at two different spots he'd gotten attacked by leeches that were still bleeding.  "They'll just suck your blood and then drop off when they are done."  In fact, he told Carolyn, "I'll bet you get at least one leech on you today, probably more."  Gross. Luckily he was wrong, and we both managed to avoid the leeches.

Despite that gruesome encounter, the day came to an end in a beautiful and majestic way, as we visited the Haew Nurak waterfall.  The waterfall was gorgeous, and very powerful as we were visiting at the end of rainy season in this area of Thailand.

Jon and his poncho :)

After an exhausting and exhilarating day in Khao Yai, we headed back to our guesthouse for one more delicious meal before heading off to Ayuthaya the next day.