We went to visit the oldest rainforest in the world today! The rainforest is 160 million years old. It is also more diverse than the Amazon. There are over 120 national parks in Thailand. Another amazing fact: Scientists think that over half of all the non-discovered species in the world are in the Amazon or in other rainforests.
When we explored the jungle, we started out with an hour drive from our hotel to a dock. On the drive, we saw rubber trees. They harvest it like they do maple syrup, by letting the sap seep out. From there, we all crammed on a longtail boat and headed onto the giant lake. The lake is actually a reservoir because it is dammed. On the lake, we saw a lot of karsts and small islands. A karst is a limestone outcrop. It reminded me of Halong Bay. After that, we arrived at a dock and disembarked on one of the bigger land masses for hiking.
On the hike, we saw tarantula holes, lizards, and lots of plants. An interesting plant is a latex tree which they use to make glue. Another cool plant is the rattan palm which has many spines. There were a lot of cicadas so it was so noisy. I wish that they were not so loud.
After we had finished the hike, we got on a 30 foot long bamboo raft. As we motored to a cave, our feet were in the water because there were so many people. At the cave, we explored all the rock formations. The rock is calcium carbonate and there were a couple random formations like an alien head formation and an elephant formation. The rock was very sparkly. There were many stalactites and stalagmites. They grow only 3 millimeters a year. There was a hidden golden Buddha and a preying area in this wonderful cave that was discovered only 10 years ago. Then we boated and hiked back.
Lunch was disappointing. It was all overcooked and a little like it had sat in the market too long, but since we were floating on a raft on a beautiful lake, it was still pretty fun. After lunch, we went kayaking. As we kayaked along, we saw the bush move. We wondered what it could be. There were so many different types of animals in the jungle; we hoped it was something exciting. It could be a tiger or an elephant but we decided it was probably a monkey. Then we swam and splashed around in the deep lake for awhile before heading back to our hotel.
All in all, it was extremely exciting and a true jungle adventure! I had a good time and I saw animals I had never seen before!
Thats’s really interesting, Lo. I especially was amazed that there are so many species not yet discovered in the jungle.
The cave sounded like fun too, but what’s a “preying area”?
Hugs, Omi
A place for the people to pray. Thanks for reading!