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Published: January 20th 2008
Oh so nice here !!!
Sheer Limestone cliffs everywhere Jan 13 and 14th
This part of the blog and the next few are written after my return from Phuket - There has been no spare time and it is is now 6am and I have just returned from my local pub's staff party where all the staff were given gifts by the management and there was heaps of food and free drinks of all types and we danced all night (and by the way to my friends back home it is not a go go bar or similar and I would like to keep this place my little secret for some good reasons - hope that is OK). I will wake up sometime soon and maybe this is all a dream - so wonderful and only 5 days till I return home - it's going to take me a long time to settle back into Australia - at least the dream can continue a little longer. There's going to be some tears on January 25th - anyway back to my blog - and I am sober - shouldn't be, must be all that dancing.
FIRST CLASS TO KHAO SOK via SURIT THANI
My train to Surit Thani
First Class
Only way to go !!! was leaving at 1935 pm so I had a late check out and a few hours to kill so I went to visit the Chatuchack Weekend Market which is easy to get to by a mixture of Metro and Skytrain so I did a different route each way taking about 35 minutes from Silom - use the Skytrain for most of the way if you can, it's nice to see something out the window on a long trip. If you get off the Metro Subway at Kamphaeng Phet you will be on the corner of the market - perfect spot and there is a large Metro sign on top of the corner building so you can find your way back - take your bearings, this place is huge and easy to get lost. Well I only stayed at the market for 30 minutes, it was a hot day and there were so many people there it was overpowering for me. It is the largest market I have ever seen and worth a visit just to see the scope of the shopping available but as I have said before markets are not really of much interest to me. They seemed to
Beer Sir ???
Every 10 minutes I was asked till 9 pm have lots of specials tables like 20 baht silk (don't think so) ties and very ordinary looking Levi Jeans immitations but all the locals and tourists were diving in for a bargain. There's a pic at the end of this section's photos and also you can see my latest Bangkok haircut - much shorter than I expected but turned out to be great in the week ahead when I was in the Jungle. Take a Thai friend to the barber with you if you can to explain what you want or you could end up with an unusual hair cut.
My train left from Hualamphong Station and my buddy at the market stall out front of the hotel got me a metered taxi again, it really pays to get to know the locals, I am like a part of the family at this hotel. This was my last train trip for this visit and the best. I had booked my first class tickets before arriving here as described in an earlier blog and I really enjoyed the 12 hour run to Surit Thani where you can catch a bus to get to my next destination Khao Sok National Park.
I booked two train tickets for a total of about 2600 baht which meant I had the lockable two bunk cabin to myself. There is only one first class car so you need to book early. There was a hand basin, air conditioning and a porter who served meals at a cost and wanted to sell me a beer every 15 minutes till around 2100 pm, a bit annoying but par for the course here. The euro guys in the cabin next door decided to have a noisy disco but they were asleep by 2230 pm. It was a long way to the similar 3rd class dining car I raved about on my Chiang Mai trip but this one was a bit disappointing and there was no music or ongoing coffees being served , just food - how boring so I went back to my cabin and had a really great nights sleep in the comfy and very long bunk beds - believe me if you take a train this is the way to go on an overnight trip - you can book tickets online and they will deliver to your hotel when you arrive in Bangkok. Breakfast was at
6.30 am which gave me a nice view of the sunrise through the very nice scenery into Surit Thani through the slightly tinted windows of my cabin.
Surit Thani train station is full on with touts offering taxis and transfers to the islands around this region. I wanted the local bus and research had shown it was about 100 meteres to the right of the train station on the other side of the road. As it turned out there was a bus station at that location but I saw a VIP bus on the right side of the train station at the end of the street so I jumped on that one - it can be hard to tell if they are government buses or private but this was a double decker government VIP service with TV and music which can be a pain because you can be travelling in lovely silence admiring the scenery and they will suddenly put on some of the worst available local music or dvd concerts - on one trip I had a local so called comedy series where they were kicking a midget and there was every swear word available happening - strange
Stairway to heaven ?
Not really and don't drink too many beers or sleep walk !!! when there a small children on board but I have learnt to expect anything to happen here. My best bus trips which are great for one or two hour travelling were in Kanchanaburi on the 3rd class bus with no air and the doors opened with a lovely breeze blowing through - I just sat at the back where you can stretch your legs and chat with the usually friendly thais or other tourists.
It took 1.5 hours to get to Khao Sok through some of the most stunning scenery in Thailand with sheer limestone cliffs and a very green and mountanous part of the country - beautiful in the early morning. Theres no problem about finding the bus stop at Khao Sok as there were about ten other tourists getting off the bus here and the Thai guy next to me smiled and pointed out the window that this was my stop. It is a few km to my overnight stay at Art's Riverview Lodge from the bus stop and there were four or five touts with sign boards listing some of the accomodation available - I pointed at Arts and one of them said 'free ride" which
My treehouse
Steep stairs - cold shower - clean meant he was getting a kick back from the hotel for taking tourist to sign up for their stay. Problem for them is mine was already booked and paid for through Limestone Lake Tours - LLT - and I could tell Jimmy the manager at Arts was not happy when I arrived and and he had to put another tick next to the tout's name for a small payment with no real return to the hotel. The tout taxi service is for tourist that just show up and book as they go - not my problem. I had arrived at 920 am and my tour started at 1400 pm which gave me some time to settle in and relax.
At this stage a quick thank you to Reet in Adelaide as many of my visits and travelling arrangements in Thailand are directly related to her travel blog which I have read numerous times - once i get here permission i will put the link in here somewhere as the blog provides some entertaining and fascinating reading and so much valuable advise for travellers to this region.
Because of Reet's advise I asked for treehouse A, B or C
Art's Riverview Lodge
Restaurant upstairs and office as Reet said that D was very ordinary - I was given B which is on the river front and a excellent location. They have built some new tree houses and other type of cabins so you will probably have no problem finding something nice. Arts is definitely the nicest spot to stay here and it is setup around the "monkey swimming hole" which is the crystal clear river flowing past the lodge. You can watch the groups of monkeys and babies from the overhead restaurant while eating breakfast and there are some birds and all types of insects and also snakes in this area - don't worry, nothing that concerned me while I was here and there were lots of family groups with small children so it must be fairly safe. The swimming hole is deep so you would need to keep a close eye on the kids.
The staff were not overly friendly to start with but they loosened up as the day and night went along and we had some fun at the bar in the evening when we all had a couple of beers together. The food was great except for the fries which were
Arts monkey swimming hole
Someone said I look like a monkey with my new haircut the worst and soggiest I have ever tried - stick to the Thai food.
At 1400 pm we did a paddle trip down the Klong Sok River and I met some of the other LLTour group which included Michelle from the USA who went in my canoe with our guide Tum, a couple of fun loving Danish guys and also newlyweds Tara and Colm from Melbourne who I would spend the next day with at the Chieow Laan Lake - I am so fortunate to have met such nice people on this trip from all parts of the world.
The paddle trip starts after a 30 minute drive from Arts to pick up our guides along the way and you need to walk through a cave to get to the river where you will find thousands of large fish swimming close to the shore in a fish farm type arrangement - the tourist keep the fish fed after buying a small bag of pellets from a cute kid outside the cave entrance. Well the pics describe some of the scenery which is really amazing in this location - there are many very tall limestone karsts or cliffs and
we saw monkeys, frogs and big snakes wrapped around the trees. Tum did all the paddling and we could just sit back and enjoy the view. The trip was about 1.5 hours duration and we stopped half way for a swim and smoko break for the guides - as per usual all very nice always smiling and laughing guys that enjoy their work. We did come across four young guys who were catching turtles and it was really sad how cruel they were to the poor turtle they showed us - It is no wonder the wild life is depleted in Thailand, we left quickly from this part of the river.
After the trip one of the Danish guys spotted the big spider in my pics and we headed back to Arts for another excellent Thai meal and drinks at the beautiful and relaxing location at Arts Riverview Lodge. There is not a lot to do here and I had caught a bad cold from the Cambodia leg of my trip so I was happy to go to sleep and have an early night for a change at 2200 pm. There are very few mosquitos at this time of
Khao Sok Paddle Trip
Entrance to cave we went through to get to the river year and I didn't find any spiders in my room or clothing - think I scared some of the others by telling them to keep their clothes in their luggage or under the mosquito nets as there are no cupboards in the rooms to store your clothes. I had had a few big bottles of Leo beer and there were people chatting in the next treehouse but I drifted off for a nice peaceful nights sleep in wonderful Khao Sok.
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Reet
non-member comment
Thankyou!
Hey Leon, Thanks so much for your kind comments above.. I have been following your adventure with interest and hoping that the places I recommended met your expectations. You have had an amazing trip! isn't Khao Sok great!! Only 14 sleeps until I leave now! So excited! Looking forward to the next blog.. keep em coming.. you have done so well... I have some competition! :-) xx