I love national parks. I love being in nature as much as I love visiting all the arts and culture scenes when I travel. After a busy week in Bangkok, I was so excited to step on the train to Pak Chong, a town on the outskirts of Khao Yai National Park.
My friend Ting and I signed up a 1.5-day tour, with the first half-day visiting some natural springs and caves on the edge of the national park, and the second day in the park on safari from dawn to dusk.
(Pictures of the National Park)
Unfortunately, we didn’t spot any elephants except for their footprints on day 2, but we went down to an underground cave on day 1 and later saw millions of bats flying out of another cave. It was the most unforgettable evening of this trip.
To be honest, I was scared of bats. I mean, just look at them, dark and hairy…like a rat except it can open its wings, fly around and cling to you…They are often in the ominous scenes in the movies. Between bats and me, there is a huge gap filled with incomprehension and fear.
When our tour guide brought us to an underground cave, telling us that we’re about to see many interesting things including about two hundred bats, I was excited and scared at the same time. Going down the stairs step by step, my heart was drumming fast. We were told to stay quiet to not scare off the bats. Each of us was given a torch, and I clung to it as darkness swallowed us on our way into the cave.
(Picture: looking from below, the entrance of the underground cave)
We were using our torches to light up the path ahead of us until our tour guide stopped us with a giant grin. “Now, look up.” Our group, about seven people, cast our torchlights to the ceiling. Scattered spotlights flinging around. Above us, I saw a patterned ceiling of the cave, filled with black clusters all over. This nature formation almost like stalactites made me cringe. People with trypophobia would probably faint. Upon taking a closer look, I realized some of these black spots were actually bats! At this point, the ceiling was about three meters above us. I observed these creatures carefully as our tour guide explained to us their behaviors.
(Picture of the cave ceiling and a few bats)
“They are sleeping, and see their ears moving? They can see and hear us. Later tonight, we will go see THE bat cave, there are 2 million bats! This one only has about 200,” our tour guide smiled with much excitement.
Our guide explained that the cave remains at 28 degrees Celsius. He stopped at one point and picked up the ground dirt. “Touch it,” he said. We took turns touching it. “Do you know what this is? It’s always dry despite the humidity in the air.” None of us knew, so he continued, “these are guano, the excrement of bats…” Great, I just touched bat poop. But it was actually pretty, almost shiny under the torchlight. “Nowadays they’re used as fertilizer. But in the past, Chinese people use it to invent gunpowder!”
As we weaved deeper into the cave, the air felt more stuffy and humid. We saw many statues of buddhas and platforms for worship. It reminded me of the scenes in Tomb Raider when Lara Croft sailed through the Devil’s Sea and the island of Yamatai to Himiko’s sarcophagus. “This totally feels like tomb-raiding,” I thought to myself.
(Picture of inside the cave, Buddha)
The ceiling got lower and lower, and I could see the bats above us clearer and clearer. Our guide explained to us that they were just like humans, some were introverted and some preferred to be in groups. “Bats always have their own spots. Look at this one, this is Jimmy.” He pointed to a bat on the wall at our eye level. The little bat hung himself alone in the middle of an empty wall. “He’s pretty antisocial.” Jimmy had his little nose twitching and ears moving, flying around and above us with baby noises. After learning much about bats and observing them at close proximity, my fear started disappearing.
(Picture of us in the cave)
But my fear, my fear of bats and being down here surrounded by darkness all went away after this incident.
Deep down in the cave at a relatively open space next to tree roots hanging from above, our tour guide told us to form a circle. “Now, let me show you something,” he grinned, “turn off your torchlights, please.” We were like, what?! Down here meters below the ground, the only way we could see were with our torch lights. He assured us it would be fine. I was still scared. I held on to my friend Ting’s hand. One by one, we turned off our lights. “Just listen, and see,” he whispered softly. What happened next was amazing.
Darkness, complete darkness, and silence, absolute silence. During this period less than a minute, I felt like being transferred away from earth. I tried so hard to see and hear with my eyes and ears wide open. But nothing. I felt all my senses being cut off and that I’m the only person in this world. Trust me, I have been alone at night with the lights off, but this was completely different. For a second, I forgot that I was actually breathing because everything: light, noise, and air…all seemed to be vacuumed away.
I wished this could go on longer. “Now, lights on.” Our tour guide looked at me and smiled, “in Thailand, you see many caves like this turned to an underground temple. Monks come down here to meditate, it’s good with the absolute darkness and silence.”
All of a sudden, I heard Marie Curie talking to me in the back of my mind: “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.”
(Picture of our transportation)
After we finished exploring the underground cave, we hopped on to our transportation to visit the real bat cave, Khao Luk Chang Bat Cave, home to over 2 million bats.
(Picture of the bat cave from afar)
We pulled over at the bottom of the hill. Our guide brought us fresh fruit: longan, langsat, snake fruit, and pineapple. As we unwind and recall our adventures with all the bugs, snakes, creatures we encountered today, the sunset, overcast with darker shadows of the night, turned into beautiful shades of purple.
And then we saw the bats! As sunset began, two million bats streamed out of this cave to hunt for food. Two million bats, flapping their wings, unintentionally formed this melody as they danced their way into the world. This happened every evening, and it lasted about an hour for all the bats to leave the cave.
(Picture of the bats streaming out)
What a beautiful sight to behold. When I closed my eyes, I could still see the serpentine line of bats through the noise. With the sweet taste of fruit still lingering in my mouth, I was in complete awe, drenched in the beauty of nature and its wonders.
The air gradually thinned out as night fell. The bats were gone now. With moonlight overcasting this serene night, we saw Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn lighting up the sky! Through our telescope, I adored the bright ring of Saturn keenly. Although I had seen pictures of these planets at even closer detail than with our telescope, the feeling was just unique and unreal standing beneath the galaxies.
(Pictures of the night sky, Jupiter & Saturn from afar)
What a beautiful night. Within the past few hours, I had conquered my fears of bats and caves, and I had gained a further understanding of the world. Just like Marie Curie said: nothing is to be feared, only to be understood. There is nothing more fearful than fear itself.
I gazed into the vast, clear and bright night sky and thought, “there’s so much more I want to know about this world!” I cannot wait to keep on exploring and becoming more fearless.