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We may be in the middle of a national park, but we still found an internet café! Now grab a coffee and prepare yourselves, this entry is going to be a detailed one!
We arrived in Khao Sok 3 days ago and we leave at 8.30am tomorrow morning for Krabi. We may not have been here long, but wow, we still managed to do a lot and see some amazing things. Khao Sok in itself is an unbelievable place. At over 160million years old, it covers 740 square kilometers and is more biologically diverse than the Amazon rainforest. It is also home to various species of animals, including Asian elephants and tigers, although unfortunately there is said to be less than ten of them left here. So we had lots to explore and see…that was once we'd arrived though!
After getting on the night boat at 9pm in Koh Tao, we arrived in Surrathani 9 hours later at 6am. After prying our eyes open, we stumbled out into the darkness and were greeted with the familiar sound of Thai men with their "Where you goiiiing?"! We arranged to be taken to the bus station and then on to Khao Sok for 150baht each. We followed the man we'd made our arrangement with to a ticket office and bought our bus ticket to the national park. After seeing other backpackers get taken away in small taxis to the bus station, we suddenly found we were the only two people left. After a few minutes the Thai Tourist Police arrived, offering Andy a leaflet on safe travel in Thailand. The locals seemed a little agitated, it seems the police were wondering why we were still sat by the side of the road, waiting. Not wanting to get in trouble, the people working at the ticket office said "You come with us". Not a problem, just show us the taxi. But no, there was no taxi to be seen. Instead? We found ourselves each on the back of a small motorbike, trying to keep our balance whilst carrying our huge backpacks and a rucksack each!!! Luckily the journey was only for a few minutes, and we then finally found ourselves sitting on an air conditioned bus. Onwards we went, and 2 and a half hours later we arrived at our destination.
Our first day was quite relaxed, we hadn't had much sleep on the night boat so we decided to settle in slowly. Now we may have spent a ridiculous amount of time in the sea over the past two months, but that didn't stop us from getting quite excited when we remembered the place we were staying had a swimming pool, what luxury! After a dip, we dried off, had some lunch and headed for the entrance to the national park. We went for a short walk but due to tiredness decided to head back, have an early night and then set off in the morning for a 3km walk (one way, 6km in total) to two waterfalls. When we got back to the room though, we were extremely excited about another type of water. Not the sea this time or a waterfall or the swimming pool but, hot water! Yes, we were finally able to have our first hot showers after 2 months of cold ones, and boy do we appreciate hot water now! Best showers ever!
The next morning we set off with the essentials, water and mosquito repellent, with hopes of spotting some wildlife on our way to and from the waterfalls. We decided to head off on our own without a guide, and boy didn't we do well for a couple of novices! Whilst heading to the waterfalls Andy managed to spot several species of small lizards, a monitor lizard which was about 70cm long (which looked awesome, just like a small dinosaur!) and Nikki spotted a very venomous looking spider the size of Andy's hand with red fangs around 1cm long! We kept our eyes peeled for elephant footprints (although seeing an elephant or a tiger would be like winning the lottery as the area is so huge) and after 2 hours of walking we found ourselves at the waterfalls. Now, we're not sure what image comes to your minds when you think 'waterfall' but what we found, were not waterfalls! We were expecting to see water cascading down a rock face with a nice pool at the bottom. What we did see though was water, falling approximately 2 metres over a length of around 20 metres. So essentially, water falling over a load of rocks in a river! Luckily the second waterfall wasn't too much further along so we headed for that one. We then found a real waterfall… approximately 1metre high. Brilliant! Needless to say we were a little disappointed as all the other 'proper' waterfalls were closed due to it being rainy season, but we were still chuffed with the wildlife we'd spotted along the way.
After eating a small lunch we'd brought with us, we turned round for the 2 hour journey back to the beginning. We still kept our eyes out for wildlife and although we could hear all manner of noises and calls from up in the trees above our heads, due to the rainforest being so dense we just couldn't spot anything. (The noises really are spectacular, from frogs to birds to goodness knows what, the variety of sounds is just unreal and so loud!)
We decided that the highlight of the walk was the monitor lizard we saw, when around 15minutes walk away from the start, something happened. We heard an absolute racket above our heads which was quite clearly not a type of bird. We looked in the direction of the squealing and grunting but yet again, with the trees being so thick we just couldn't see what it was. As we were about to walk away Nikki suddenly spotted something. Around 15metres to the left of where the noise had come from was a small clearing where we could see a large branch. Sitting on that branch was a large monkey (or gibbon, we're not sure)! We stayed silent and watched him for a minute when he sprang from the branch and swung through the bamboo in front of us to another tree where he then started picking at fruit and eating. This was without doubt one of the best things either of us has ever seen. To be able to see an animal like that in the wild completely in its natural environment was a real privilege and one we won't forget. Eventually we lost sight of him and after calming down from our excitement we finished the walk, patted ourselves on the back and headed home. We needed our rest, as we had another walk planned for today, but this time only 4km in total!
Today we got up early again to head off to a viewpoint. After around 5minutes we realized it wouldn't be as easy a walk as yesterday. The clear pathway was replaced with a small trail through the thick jungle, intersected with more sets of steps anyone would care to see! This was going to be one hell of a test for the leg muscles! We were joined on our walk by a local dog who'd decided he wanted to tag along. Whether it was because she was scaring things away or because we were in too thick a part of the jungle to spot anything, we saw pretty much nothing! Again, we could hear all manner of reptiles, birds, amphibians and insects around us, we just couldn't see them! Unfortunately, when we arrived at our destination it seemed the viewpoint now had all manner of tall trees in front of it, so all our work and effort was for nothing but personal achievement. 1812 steps later (yes, Andy counted them!) we arrived back on solid ground, aching legs and all!
To cool off and relax for our final afternoon here, we decided to go tubing. What's tubing? Well, a large tractor tyre inner tube + the Khao Sok river = tubing! Yes, you sit in a massive rubber ring and float gently down the river. We were joined by a 'guide' and a couple of locals and off we went. The river isn't very deep so although in places it flows reasonably fast there is no danger of being swept away. The journey consisted of gliding through spectacular scenery, past the trees and huge limestone cliffs that are the make-up of the park. We were lucky enough to be floating by as two small monkeys were taking a drink from the river, something that is apparently quite rare to see. After around an hour of gliding along, we reached a point where a truck was waiting to transport us back to our resort. On the way back, we stopped at a Buddhist temple that was still being constructed by monks. The temple was also home to around 30 semi-wild monkeys (the same species as we'd seen at the river). They weren't tame enough to stroke but they were happy to come up to us and gently take fruit from our hands. Being able to see them so up close was really cool, and the little noises the babies would make when they wanted a little bit more fruit was very sweet.
So in the end we saw lots of monkeys, but being able to interact with and feed 30 odd monkeys still doesn't beat wandering through the jungle and spotting that single one in the wild. Amazing.
So, if you are still awake and reading this part (congratulations if so!), we will be heading to Krabi in the morning where we will be enjoying the luxury of free internet (woohoo!) so you can expect contact from us in the next few days. Once in Krabi we will also upload photos of the things mentioned above so you can take a look at the lizards and spider and monkey that we saw.
Enjoy!
- comments
Arvind MONKEY!! If you love seeing animals in the wild, you have to plan to go to Kenya. Treetops at Aberdare National Park, Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru... I was in heaven when I went there in 2007 - amazing place. Andy, I can't believe you counted all those steps and didn't lose count!!