Remember that old saw, “You get what you pay for?” Well, it’s true. We rode the rails Friday from Ayuthaya to Pak Chong, gateway to Khao Yai National Park and were met by the folks from the Greenleaf Guesthouse. It was our chosen lodging and they met the train even though we hadn’t made a reservation; quite a change from the hotels who promised a pick-up and never showed. We have a tidy little cabin for 300 baht complete with blue hippopotamus-print sheets and blankets that look more like beach towels. What they don’t provide are hot showers, enough blankets and, on Saturday night at least, quiet, although the noise isn’t their fault. There was some sort of family celebration at a nearby temple with very loud music.
We shelled out 2000 baht each today for a guided birding trip into the park, reduced from 3000 because we were joined by Ron and Ruth, bona fide “twitchers” from the UK. The pre-dawn ride in the back of a pickup truck was freezing but things warmed up after that. The day included a Thai breakfast (rice noodle soup with veggies), lunch (shrimp, squid and rice with chili past straight from hell) and twelve hours of birding with Mr. Nine and his assistant. All together we saw monkeys, wild elephants, giant squirrels and 72 different species of birds, half of which were new to us. Without their help we might have found about twenty-five. Nine and I have the same camera and lens so a friendly photo competition developed. He may have won but some of my shots were pretty good.
So the Greenleaf is about what you would expect for $10 a night, hippo sheets and all. Mr. Nine’s trip cost us more than ten times the room rate but was worth every bloomin’ baht.
