Chapter 6: Ayutthaya, Crickets and Bats

Just re-read last posting and realised I didn't explain "Ticks": two aspects, Ticks as in yes this province really is something special; and as in the insect, I managed to collect a few on the trek - nasty little bloodsuckers which need salt and/or good fingernails to unhook them.
Anyway, Ayutthaya - the capital city that took over from Sukhothai, and lasted for 400+ years before being sacked and burned by the Burmese, who then withdrew after 3 years taking all the treasures and having melted all the gold from the statues. Bangkok then became capital and slowly formed Thailand, with more wars and European colonialism along the way.
And so back to nature withh a trek into Khao Yai National Park eastwards from Ayutthaya into what is North-East Thailand, known as Isan as it is mainly populated by a mix of Lao and Chinese ethnic groups and has a distinct cuisine and culture. I have now eaten fried preying mantis, bamboo worms, silkworms and crickets but drew the line at one menu item: fried appendix! (didn't say from what and I wasn't going to ask).
Went looking for wild elephants, bears, tigers (very rare) and found bats, bugs and birds. But what birds, giant hornbills - really prehistoric with 1.5 metre wingspans. They actually sound like helicopters as the wind goes through their wings.
The bats were incredible too, 2 million of them from a single cave at dusk. I took some video, but the Google web albums tool only deals with standard photos, so I'll try to put them in Facebook (maybe!!). A python at night was an interesting thing to trip over too.
Now travelled up through the North East to Nong Khai on the banks of the MaeKhong river and the border with Laos, but that's for the next post.

Photolink is: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/laurentmik/Thailand_2008_Chapter_6

Cheers!
Mike