As the winter morning mist shrouds the valleys below, only those who are lucky enough, or patient enough, would be rewarded with a stunning scene of a unique wild animal slowly emerging out of the mist and stand still on a narrow part of the rock before disappearing.

As his car approached the Sam Yod checkpoint set up at KM 1 on Sam Yod-Bang Krang-Phanoen Thung road, the most popular tourist route in Kaeng Krachan National Park, park chief Mana Phermpool pulled over to ask his subordinates about the number of visitors on the first day of high season.