Saturday 18th May, 16:50, by Amy

I have a feeling that the stream of nerdy posts may have to permanently come to an end... depending on your definition of what is 'cultural'. If it is visiting temples and museums, then yes. If it is sunbathing on a beach and watching local breakdancers, then no. Whatever the change, we're definitely having plenty of fun!

Before we left Bangkok for Phuket (which Mamie has already spoken about) and after we visited Kanchanaburi and Ayuttayah, we did spend an afternoon in Khai Yai National Park. For me, this was a particularly memorable afternoon as I've never held so many weird creatures in the space of a few hours. We felt on the edge all the time; we came across a suspicious number of creepy crawlies, probably courtesy of our banterous guide Jo who we loved (and hated slightly). Whilst I was about to have 'Jimmy' (a creature I can't remember the name of - I was slightly preoccupied by the number of legs) on my hand, I thought I'd ask the question: 'is Jimmy poisonous and will he bite me?', just to be safe. I mean, I thought I knew the answer. Jo replies 'yes and maybe' followed by a slightly devilish giggle. To this day, I don't know at what points he was joking. So now I have held a scorpion spider (the one that gets tortured in Harry Potter), whatever 'Jimmy' is and a rather large millipede... also placed on my neck - this was before I saw the parasites crawling all over it! We also saw a tarantula.

All of this took place while we simultaneosly attempted to dodge guano falling from above. That's right, we were in a bat cave! The biologist in me got quite excited. It was also a unique bat cave because it was one where monks come to meditate. We struggled to see how anyone could relax in a dark cave with diving bats, creepy crawlies, snakes and spiders, but fair enough.

Another highlight was witnessing millions of bats flying across the sky from their cave, periguin fawlkans circling around them. The shapes the bats created reminded me of sparrows back in England. It also happened to be a night when termites fly (rather like the night of the flying ants) which was amazing to see, if slightly uncomfortable. Mamie had a slight freak out. This was an interesting backdrop for our night swim in a natural spring, which ended the nature-filled afternoon.

This was, if you consider India, the last 'cultural' thing we did!