Pak Chong - Khao Yai National Park

We started our next journey with the train from Ayuttaya to Pak Chong. Not only was our train late but it took also about one hour longer than the timetable stated. But it was worth it because the train rode through tons of different kinds of landscape, including dry plains, hills and mountains, rice fields and rainforests. Once again we did not get a seat and that is why we stood for about 3 hours. During the ride we gestured with some Thais, yound and old, and really regretted that they could not speak English at all. They are friendly people worth starting a conversation. Once arrived in Pak Chong we were welcomed by a lady who recognized us as Farang (meaning stranger) telling us why we should definitaly book into her guesthouse. And because we wanted to go there anyway, we went with her. The guesthouse was a needy place and in the late evening we went to the night market in Pak Chong. It was just like the other ones :) We expected the next day with great excitement because we visited the national park Khao Yai with all sorts of animals not seen in Europe. Unfortunately Uli and I do not have a car available and so we checked out a transport for free. Once arrived in the park we hitchhiked through this big area and met welcoming Thai families. We also trekked through the jungle by ourselves being confident we would not need a guide. In fact, the trek was well marked, however, almost half way at our destination - the waterfall from the movie "The Beach" Uli recognized some small red animals on his socks. It revealed to be leeches all over his socks and, as I took my shoes of, also over my socks. After getting rid of them we decided to go back and google the Internet to find out if those littler monsters transmit deseases...luckily not. We hitchhiked to the impressive waterfall and back to our hostel. In the car we were one American (daddy), one Thai lady (mom), three children, one grandma, and us two. This equals eight persons in a car constructed for five. As we arrived back in Pak Chong a bus took us to Lopburi, once again, the word "full" became a new meaning...