January 26-28, Khao Sok

On Saturday we rode the ferry back to Krabi from Ko Phi Phi. In Krabi town we transferred to a minibus that would drive us the 4 hours to Khao Sok National Park. We made a couple of stops in Krabi town, and at one of them we picked up Gemke (a Dutch girl that we had been climbing with in Railay) and a friendly Californian guy named Jamie. We chatted the whole way to KS and had a grand ole time. It turns out that Gemke also got food poisoning on the same day that Linds and I did! And she wasn't even staying in the same part of town as us, crazy! The scenery during the drive was really stunning, more of those awesome limestone cliffs.

The minibus dropped Lindsay and I off at Smiley Bungalows in Khao Sok (Gemke and Jamie continued on to Khao Lok). We had a look around and then decided to ride with some Canadians to Our Jungle House, a guesthouse that was recommended by a friend. In the end we decided not to stay at Our Jungle House as it was tucked way back in the woods and was nestled really close to a mosquito-breeding river. Before driving back to town we ate at OJH's restaurant: I sampled some good but slightly overwhelming ginger soup. The crabby German man that ran OJH took us back to Smiley's and we checked into a clean, elevated bungalow that gave us a great view of the surrounding mountains.

After check-in, the nephew of Smiley's owner drove us down the rode to a Buddhist Temple to feed some monkeys. The monkeys were all over the place, large and small, as were several mangy dogs picking up the bits of bread that the monkeys left behind. Beside the temple was a limestone cave that contained bizarre, random objects that held significance (of what kind I'm not sure) to the monks. For example there was a plexiglass coffin that contained a somewhat mummified 200 year old person, actually it was supposed to be Buddha. Ummm...

We ate a delicious dinner at a nearby hotel, I ordered a local favorite of ground pork with pumpkin and rice. For dessert, I stuffed myself on sticky rice with coconut milk and fruit. Glutinous gluttony for sure. After dessert an American at a nearby table, Jon, introduced himself and we chatted for the next 45 minutes until the restaurant closed. Jon works for the World Wildlife Federation in D.C. but has been stationed in Vientiane, Laos for the past year. We realized that we would have some overlap in Bangkok, so we exchanged contact info before heading back to the bungalow.

The next morning we embarked on a trip to Chieow Laan Lake. The morning started off a little rocky when there were some issues with our breakfast. We were told that breakfast was included in the cost of our lake tour, so at 8:05 am we each ordered a banana pancake at Smiley`s restaurant. In typical SE Asian style my lead pancake came out at least 20 minutes before Lindsay's. In the meantime the other people for our tour (1 Brit and 2 Germans) were sitting in the bed of the truck waiting for us. It was really awkward, we felt like we shouldn't have ordered any food. But we were hungry! Also, our tour guide got pissed at us when we went to use the toilet before departing because "they had been waiting for us for an hour!" Right...

We drove about an hour to the national park entrance and boarded a longtail boat that would take us across the lake. The boat ride was absolutely gorgeous, the cliffs were just amazing! Totally breathtaking in the morning sunlight. I am obsessed with the limestone cliffs, completely obsessed. After 45 minutes, our boat pulled up to a long row of bamboo bungalows that were floating on the lake. We were prepared an enormous lunch of fried fish (fresh from the lake), sweet and sour chicken, stir fry chicken, Thai omlette and fresh fruit. It was too bad I ate that lead pancake for breakfast (it more like a really dense cake, than an actual pancake) because I was still really full by lunchtime.

After lunch we boarded the boat again and puttered around to a spot to pull up on shore and begin our "jungle walk." The walk wasn't very strenuous and we didn't see a ton of wildlife but it was still fun. Our guides captured a big beetle with a really long nose (probiscus beetle?), a flying lizard that they called a chameleon, and a lot of pretty butterflies. We made a lot of stream crossings, and thankfully, because it's not the rainy season, we didn't need to constantly check for leeches. After about an hour of walking we reached the entrance to a large limestone cave. We waited for another group of about 10 tourists to join us, then we grabbed our flashlights (or strapped on a headlamp in my case) and entered the cave. So much fun! There were bats, large spiders, frogs and crabs crawling around. We walked (and sometimes swam!) through the cave for about an hour. Even though our guide (named Ah) was cranky at breakfast, he certainly warmed up over the course of the day and kept trying to hold my hand while we were trekking through the cave (I made the mistake of telling him that I didn`t have a boyfriend earlier in the day). It was a little embarrassing...at one point after he took my hand I turned around and everyone else in our group was silently laughing at me. Sigh. The best part of the cave walk was when we would enter into narrow canyons and see the rippled limestone up close; sometime we would have to pull ourselves through the water using a rope. It was so great! We returned to the boat and rode back to the floating houses for some down time. Some people swam, but the five from our group just hung out and talked. I spotted a HUGE, green moth laying on the floor of the woman`s bathroom so everyone went up to take a look. It was really beautiful. After the chill time, we rode the boat back across the lake and drove to town.

Back at Smiley`s, Lindsay and I got showered and ready for dinner. As we were walking through the lobby-restaurant, the owner and her nephew directed our attention to a large toad that was hanging out with them behind the counter. This was a really big toad, larger than any I have seen in the past. Lindsay insisted that I take her photo with it. So she picked it up and I snapped a photo. Of course she wasn`t satisfied with the picture, so she picked up the beast again and I snapped another shot. After returning the figgety toad to the floor a second time, she looked at the photo but still felt dissatisfied. She scrambled to capture the hopping toad for a third time while I warned her that the toad was looking upset and would probably pee on her. Well unfortunately for Lindsay, she did not heed my warning. She picked up the toad, I snapped a picture and then as she held it in front of her stomach this massive blast of toad urine burst out all over feet! I`m talking an insanely forceful blast of pee, really use your imagination here. Lucky for Lindsay, I still had the camera pressed to my face and was able to snap a few pictures that I think accurately reflect her horror and utter disgust at what had just occurred. Of course the staff of Smiley`s all fell over laughing! Lindsay looked like she was about to throw up and ran off to the bungalow to re-wash her feet. Our friend Steve, the Brit from the afternoon`s lake trip, strided into the Smiley`s just after Lindsay ran away. Needless to say, he was really disappointed that he had missed the incident. Lindsay came back down and the three of us walked down the street to an Italian restaurant and all enjoyed pizzas for dinner.

The next day Lindsay and I had the intention of spending the morning and early afternoon hiking through the park. But since our sneakers were still wet from the day before and our hammock was so comfortable, we decided to spend the day relaxing instead. Lindsay went off to internet while I lazily finished reading Joy Luck Club. We returned to the hotel where we had dinner on our first night in KS and enjoyed some familiar fried noodles. After lunch we walked back to Smiley`s to pack up our belongings and to catch a minibus to Surattani. From Surattani we aimed to take an overnight double-decker bus to Bangkok...