To the Bat Cave!

12/9/11

We arrived by train in the town Pak Chong with no idea of where to stay, but we came here because it is the closest town to the Khao Yai National Park and we just haven't had our fill of waterfalls, jungle trails, and caves yet. After looking up and down the street a few times we were about to start walking when a taxi driver (and by taxi I mean pickup truck with benches in the back) handed us a brochure for the Greenleaf Guesthouse, which offered tours of the park. Perfect, take us there! It's been a while since we've had hot water anyway, so the simple little room for about $10 a night was fine. They offered us an evening trip to watch TWO-MILLION bats come flying out of a cave. Perfect, take us there! First we went swimming in a natural spring, then we went to explore inside a cave (not as cool as the caves we have already explored, but ok), then we went to the base of a mountain where we could see a cave opening about half way up. At 5:30 (just like the guide had said, so the bats are very punctual) a dark cloud of bats came swirling out of the mouth of the cave. It was amazing! They all stayed together in a spiraling swarm, like a river stretching as far as you could see. They kept coming for over 30 minutes. I would say 2 million was a pretty fair estimate.