Dong Phayayen – Khao Yai is a collection of many national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in eastern Thailand not far from Bangkok. From all national parks, Khao Yai is the most famous as the first national park in Thailand and many experts consider Khao Yai as one of the best national parks in the world. I was quite lucky to have opportunity to see 3 national parks in this complex before UNESCO declared them as a WHS. (Entrance fee is about 4 euro for each national park)

Khao Yai has many amazing species of fauna and flora, during I visited Khao Yai, I had opportunity to see famous hornbills, wild elephants, millions of bats and deer. Khao Yai also famous for its many waterfalls, the most famous is the one that had appeared in Leonardo’s film “The beach”. Khao Yai draws a lot of tourists, so this park has a lot of information for natural study as well as tourist related stuffs. In my opinion Khao Yai is a perfect example for tropical forest in Southeast Asia mainland.

I also visited Thap Lan National Park which is the largest national park in this WHS; Thap Lan has a very beautiful bamboo forest and unique palm trees that Thais used these special palm leaves as paper for Buddhist texts. My guide explained how to use these palm leaves so the trip to Thap Lan is not just a natural tour but also a cultural trip.

Ta Phraya National Park, the last one I visited is famous for its wild butterflies and many insects; although its quite lack of natural beauties compared to Khao Yai and Thap Lan, but it is a nice place with lots of wide flowers that attracted many beautiful butterflies.

Khao Yai is very easy to visit compared to other national parks. From Bangkok, there has many buses go to Pak-Chong; a nearest town to Khao Yai, then in Pak-Chong takes a local bus to the national park entrance. As my local friends took me to Thap Lan and Ta Phraya by their car, I really don’t know how to go to these two national parks by local transportation.