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2nd December
Khao Sok National Park
KIM: Since stumbling across some website that mentioned this park, all I've wanted to do was the overnight trip to the Lake. However, after doing the trekking in Chiang Mai and roughing it in the hilltribe camp, we took an executive decision not to overnight it at the Lake. Coupled with the ridiculously high price (everything in the south seems to cost so much more!) we opted for the one day trip. To put the price thing in perspective - the hilltribe trek in the North cost THB1400 incl river rafting, ellie trekking, overnight and all that. Here, elephant trekking alone cost 900B! Anyway, today we were going to see the lake. We'd already decided not to do the river-cave, which 7 people died in a flash flood in October in 2007. We weren't taking any chances.
Without knowing anything about it, other than it's a must see, we set off for Cheow Lan Lake with our tour guide Cheeky. Already warned by Matt and Sarah that Cheeky probably makes it all up as he goes along (they did the tour the day before with him where he almost drowned while leading them through a swamp) we weren't expecting much. A long drive and a stop at the Market (for some reason tour guides are obsessed with the idea that us 'farang's want to go to local markets - we don't) we arrived at the entrance to the lake. We hopped on our long tail boat and set off. Without much communication we weren't entirely sure on what the day was actually going to hold. Filled with lime stone crags and low hanging mist, the lake spans xxxxx square kilometers and is host to some breathtaking scenery of jungle clad mountains. After about half an hour and deep into the lake, we pulled over to a floating pier. We donned our hiking boots (aka the trusty Asics) and set off on our trail up the mountain on the search of the gibbon, a monkey.. or even a bird! We saw none. We walked through the jungle stopping at mushrooms, cicada exoskeletons and huge trees (not as big as Knysna) but the only monkey was the one leading the charge - Cheeky. Over and through tangled vines and fallen trees, the way down was more interesting than the way up and less tiring! We heard the crack of old trees splitting and were counting ourselves lucky we weren't in their path. Finally, we saw a gap in the trees and a tiny bay of this huge lake emerged… with our long tail boat and driver patiently waiting.
What followed was a long boat ride on the lake with so many photos of jungle covered lime stone rocks and cliffs. The mist had lifted into a grey cloud, but apparently that is the norm for this area. After capturing the photo (or about 13 versions of it) of the three rocks that adorns many postcards, we set off for our floating raft houses for lunch.
We have grown to love cremora, and the coffee that its usually in unless you're like me, when I sometimes just eat the cremora. In South East Asia, you get coffee served with condensed milk or cremora. It seems they don't have cows here that just make the normal kind of milk.
A cup of coffee in hand, we were seated and ready for some lunch which Cheeky had assured me was not spicy curry. One bite and my mouth was on fire, and as such I ate a lot of fried fish and omelet for lunch instead. With two hours to kill and kayaks and this huge swimming pool, Mark and I opted for a nap. I think we have Matt and Sarah and too many beers last night to thank for this. Cheeky organized a raft house for us, and Mark and I lay down for a five minute power nap and woke up an hour later. Mark jumped straight into the lake when he woke up and we then took our kayak and headed off to the opposite shore to try and see some monkeys. We heard them… but they weren't coming out to play. A bit gutted with no living animal having been seen, we headed back just as some raindrops started to fall. About an hour and a half into the lake, this long tail boat ride back in the rain wasn't going to be fun. Flimsy plastic and purple rain ponchos on, we set off into the storm. Our driver did well to avoid the most of it and we arrived back on the shore fairly dry.
An hour's drive back to Morning Mist accompanied by Cheeky's home made CD of love ballads… everything from Blue to Shania Twaine. It was a great sing a long. It was only at the mention of David Hasselhof that our two new German friends got really excited!
An evening of awesome food and lots of chatting with Nid, Morning Mists's owner and we'd arranged a free lift into Surat Thani for tomorrow and a massive map of Southern Thailand so that we can work out our next movements.
A full moon should've filled the sky tonight, and leading up to coming to the park we had a hard time deciding if we should join all the other travelers on Koh Phangnan (we were the only people on that overnight bus NOT going) we were glad of our decision as the sky was overcast, and more rain was definitely due.
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