Ban Khao Yai Warnings Or Dangers

Keep an eye on the trail if you hiking like we were in rubber sandals (flip-flops). On the Gong Gheo Hike which we did in the afternoon after a rain shower came through the area we were walking along watch the trail and the leaves for leeches as the area was infested with them. I had gotten a little ahead of my companions so I stopped in the trail to look around for them but they came right around the corner. Then Pla (My Friend) calls out "Hey! There's a scorpion"! I said "Where" as I looked down to my right scanning the foliage for it! I didn't see it and then Pla said "On the other side" Sure enough there it was about two feet from my unprotected left foot! LOL It was so cool to see a scorpion like this. I had never seen a scorpion before. It was green and big! Since it was the first Scorpion I'd ever seen I had to take about 20 photos with the digital camera. Then we let him on his way but we made him promise not to sting us! My friend that lives in Thailand said he had never seen a Green one or one that was that big before! He was big enough to eat! After that my eyes where big looking for any kind of creepy crawlers that were going to come out of the undergrowth!!
It was very interesting to watch this guy as he didn't really like us. He would look up and swing his claws around and then walk more and do the same thing all over again. He would also raise up his stinger in a menacing way too!

We were told by a warden that it's illegal to pick any fruit in the park as it's a National Park and every thing should be left as you have found it! Somewhere in the region of 1000 baht per lime!! It's much cheaper to go to the market in Pak Chong!! LOL So I just took a picture of them.
If you pack in garbage on a hike you must pack it back out!! There are trash bins placed around the park for this.

This is the first time I've ever seen a sign along the road that said "Cobra Crossing"! It sure sounded interesting when we first encountered it. I thought maybe we would see some attempting to cross the road. But we didn't. But the next day we had a spooky encounter with the same sign. Our morning hike ended up coming out of the forest right in this area. Just being in the area and seeing that sign while hiking in flip-flops made my ankles hurt! LOL I kept thinking one of those things was going to come out of the grass and bite me!

At about KM 32 you will encounter this sign. Well after cruising around so much looking for elephants I figured this area would be a good one to hang out in to increase my odds of seeing an elephant. My odds may have increased but I still didn't see one!!

There are areas that you will be hiking through that have the possibilities of encountering wild and dangerous animals. The Gaur is one of them. This is what our domestic cows of today were originally bred from. These Gaur can be 2 meters at the shouolder and can weigh 900 kg!! You don't want to meet one on the trail!! We never spotted one.

This is a funny story as we needed to use the urinal so we walked across the parking lot to the place where it was but as we entered we discovered that the place was infested with some sort of wasp or hornet..I'm not really sure. Every urinal had 15-50 of the buggers just sitting inside them. I don't know what attracted them! I had to go so bad that I just stood back a couple of feet and took aim!! They did'nt care for the shower that I gave them and they started buzzing and flying around! I looked out behind the building and there were even more of the insects back there!

If you're not sure footed and want to get into some of the pools for swimming you better take your time! Some to the rocks that are under the water during the times that the water is higher can be quite slippery!! But if you're part goat by all means just have a blast!!

There are warnings at many of the waterfalls to beware of the rocks and not to dive headfirst into the pools under the falls. So unless you scout the area first you will be better safe than sorry. I think all of the signs were written Thai. I asked my friends what the signs said. Also during the rainy season the currents can be very strong! And swimming is not allowed at all at the water falls that are really high! I guess the wardens don't want people going over the edge!! LOL Probably it's bad for business!!