"I'm just gonna let something brand new happen to me" Khao Yai, adventure one

On Friday at the orientation, some of the California kids and I decided to go on our first weekend adventure to Khao Yai, the second largest yet most popular national park in Thailand. On Saturday morning, Carissa, Huong, Gabe, Shelly, Lexi and I all got in a taxi to the main bus station in Bangkok, and headed to Pak Chong, the bus station near Khao Yai. This was the first time I noticed that there must have been some force that wanted us to find our way to the park because we got to the station about 10 minutes before the bus left, and the next one would have been two hours later. At the bus station we tried to communicate with words, but since our words didn't work, we were forced to communicate without them, and did so more effectively than trying to use broken Thai or having the Thai people use broken English. Huong and I ran to get food before the best left and we ate probably the best bus station food I've ever even dreamed of considering bus station food in California usually consists of smushed sandwiches or chips. Here, we ate glass noodles with vegetables and chicken with a side dish of rice. We got onto the bus relieved to find it air conditioned and relatively empty. Per usual, I spent most of the bus ride looking out the window, listening to music, and talking to my new friends. Three hours later, we magically arrived at the intersection in which there was another smaller "bus" type vehicle with the words "Khao Yai" written on it, and the driver appeared to be waiting for us because as soon as we got on he drove off. This bus took us about another 45 minutes to the entrance to the park, but since it was already about 3pm we decided to wait until Sunday morning to enter so we could have a full day of adventure inside. In the mean time, we ate from local venders and Carissa helped us find a hostel to stay in for the night along the highway that leads to the entrance to the park. However, the catch was that the hostel was about 25 km from the entrance. Solution: hitchhike. We hitched rides in the backs of trucks until again, we reached a restaurant/hostel owned by the nicest people, all seemingly by magic. We got into our room (a very nice one with air conditioning), changed, and went to get drinks at a restaurant nearby. The evening took its course, and early the next morning we were back on the backs of trucks back towards the entrance of the park. Once inside, more hitching was in order so we could start our hike to the waterfalls. The jungles of Khao Yai were majestic, and the waterfalls were even more so. We hiked, swam, ate, and explored, and once we had our fill, we hitched back to the bus station at Pak Chong to make our way back to Bangkok. Luckily for us, we had Thanet and a little luck on our side, and as soon as we made it to the bus station in Pak Chong, we ran onto the correct bus and 3 hours later woke up in Bangkok.
All in all, this was one of the most fun adventures I've ever had because I was able to let my friends and  my trust in my experience guide me to all the right places. Special thanks to the planners and Thanet for making sure we got where we needed to go safe and sound.
For all the pictures, find my album on facebook. For the non-facebook users, here is the first waterfall we saw called Haew Suwat.