About a year ago I had the opportunity of a lifetime; my friend Bruce who is a wildlife photographer here in Thailand asked me if I wanted to go on a shoot with him in the Thung Yai Naresuan World Heritage site. The only way to get a permit to enter the park is with special permission from the office of the Director General for all National parks in Thailand.





Map of the region


Sai Yoke – Kanchanaburi Province – June 10, 2007

We left Bangkok early this morning and are headed out to Kanchanaburi to pick up the guides who will be helping us during the week. Tonight we will spend the night at Wade’s house in Sai Yoke N.P.

Recently Bruce camera trapped a tiger up on the hill behind Wade’s house. Unfortunately hunting and poaching is still a problem here and tonight I heard a few gunshots in the hills.



View from Wade's house


We needed to take a boat across the river to his house. Luckily it was the dry season still.


Khao Laem N.P. – Thung Yai - June 11, 2007

We left Wade’s house and picked up the rest of the boys then began the journey to Thung Yai. About 2km into Khao Laem N.P. we stopped to rearrange the gear.









We continued on for another 1.5hrs and arrived at the headquarters of Thung Yai.












From here the road gets very rough and is mostly uphill through thick jungle. It’s a small dirt track only big enough for one vehicle.







I was warned that it is going to be a bumpy ride but I had no idea it was going to be like this.



This mud hole was about 18" deep.




The gate in front of this road was closed. I was a bit curious as to where it went but was not going to find out. I sure did look like an easy meal out here in tiger country and later I'll post some footprints I came across walking down a trail.






We make it through the mud and get to the first station 20 km inside the park; it took 2 hours to drive this far.