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Another early start, this time incredibly nauseous due to the Buckets of Thai beverage we had consumed the night before, for our trip to national park. We had heard good things about this place and felt it worth the three hour drive first thing in the morning.
We met our tour guide, he never told us his name but he had a fairly large scar on his left cheek and no front teeth. However he seemed enthusiastic to get going which we were happy with. We took a precariously balanced wooden boat to our floating village for the night, stopping a few times for the driver to pump out the water that we seemed to be taking onboard rather rapidly. The small boat held our whole group of 12 people and so sat very low in the water. This meant we were all soaked through by the time we arrived from the spray thrown off as we ploughed through the water. The scenery was spectacular though with mountains of jungle surrounding clear bright blue water, and the heat from the sun meant we were all dry again very quickly.
We enjoyed a huge lunch at our floating village...not really a village, more a line of small but comfortable bamboo huts and a communal dining/kitchen area. In an idyllic setting, but we couldn't help but notice the whole place was a little tired, with plenty of algae and lots of patched woodwork on the paths, you really had to watch your step. After lunch we set out on our jungle trek to a nearby cave. The trek was two hours in total, the first hour was spent hiking through thick jungle engaging in polite conversation with the other members of the group. The second hour was through a large cave. As we went deeper into the darkness we passed through huge stone halls filled with hundreds of sleeping bats which the guide took great pleasure in waking up so they would swoop above our heads. It was amazing, tarnished only slightly by the stench of bat droppings beneath our feet...pungent. It reminded us of work on an elderly care ward, however the crickets loved it, the floor littered with them munching away at the poo. Following the bat caves the passages became smaller and we saw spiders the size of our hands, from a safe distance of course, before wading through tunnels of, on occasion, neck high water. After an hour in darkness we were happy to see the sun again and head back to the village for a quick swim in the lake and a rest.
Another giant meal for dinner and then off on a night safari on the boat. As predicted in the dark with a boat being powered by a car engine we saw very little. A couple of toucans on top of a very tall tree being the highlight. We then spent a very comfortable night in our little bamboo house before being woken, at not an unreasonable hour, by the cries of the wild monkeys in the surrounding jungle calling to each other.
After our morning call, it was time for another boat safari where, this time in daylight, we caught glimpses of the monkeys playing in the trees before breakfast. Our trip ended with a boat ride to another island for one final trek up a very steep hill to 'snake cave' where we saw (and smelt) more bats, spiders and crickets...and one snake. White, medium sized and probably poisonous...we kept our distance. The hike was a tough one and the reward of one snake seemed a little disappointing, however Claire remained positive, thinking of all the calories she would have burnt off!
That afternoon we returned to Krabi for one more night before flying to Singapore, our last stop on the South East Asian leg of our adventure.
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