Once again, there were five of us in the back of the truck... us, a single guy from Birmingham, UK, and a couple from France.
First stop was a natural spring... not a hot spring though, and I didn't feel like going in. Ruth said it was quite cold to start off, but you quickly get used to it.
Ruth, in for a swim.
It's a popular spot with both locals and tourists.
There are a lot of big spiders in Thailand!
And a lot of other funny bugs, this one is a Longan lanternfly!
Next stop was a cave. I should have taken a photo of the rickety old concrete staircase leading down to the cave. Safety first! Not so much here in Thailand. The hand railing was rusted right through in spots. There is no entrance fee, so anybody can go down into the cave whenever they want. But it's not marked on any map, and our guide told us that only the locals know about it.
There are some bats in the cave, but not many.
However there are some very strange bugs in the cave. Along with some rare type of cricket, there is also this scorpion spider, also known as a whip spider!
Yes, it is completely alive!
Ruth's hand.
Inside the cave.
Dusk... time to head to the other bat cave!
Sunset.
The other cave... the bat cave... is only a few kms down the road. This cave contains literally millions of bats during the day. But around sunset, these millions of bats wake up and go outside to feed. These millions of bats eat millions of mosquitoes and other insects!
We were not allowed to go up to the entrance of the cave itself because the local farmer who owns the property harvests the bat dung to use as fertilizer. So we all stand at the bottom to watch the spectacle of millions of bats exiting the cave.
Bats exiting the cave.
I took a video for you...
How many bats do you think you saw during that almost minute and a half video? 10,000? 50,000? 100,000? Who knows, but that stream of bats exiting the cave lasts for well over a half an hour! They say over two million bats, but I think it is quite a bit more. Again, who knows?!
Today, we are headed back into the national park, this time on our own to do some hiking.
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And in Canada...
Wow! That's a lot of bats. Excellent! I've heard of that kind of spider, so I think they may exist in the US as well. I like spiders but not sure I'd want to hold one in my hand. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt sure is! they just kept coming out of that cave in one big long stream. We have seen something very similar outside of Chetumal, Mexico but we were much closer to the cave mouth that time compared to this visit.
DeleteYes, there are whip spiders in the US as well, just a different variety of them. It was funny but it didn't bother me having it my hand, maybe because I watched Gan handling it and she is the one that placed it in my hand. She seems to know how to make them calm so they don't really move quickly.