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Published: March 21st 2006
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Overhanging trees
I've heard of Scott of the Antarctic but not Scott of Kho Sok National Park Oi oi. We arrived at Khao Sok National Park quite late on 19th March. We were staying in a place called Jungle huts, it was only 100 baht a night (1quid50p) and was really good, managed to arrive just in time to catch Liverpool beat Newcastle on the TV in the bar.
The next day we set off for the National Park (Basically a jungle with some footpaths and signposts). We stocked up on water beforehand expecting to have some intensive trekking to do. We decided not to bother hiring a guide to show us around the park to save ourselves some money, besides after Chiang Mai we are basically excellent navigators now anyway. Initially it seemed crazy that anyone would need a guide because all of the sites were signposted and the footpath made it feel more like Dodd Wood than the Jungle.
After a while though the path seemed to disappear and we were rummaging through trees, it was still pretty clear which was the right way to go though. The first place we headed to was a waterfall, however when we got there it seemed that calling it a waterfall was being a bit liberal with
Bull on the rocks
Bull and Jonny at Mungrisdale, Thailand. the truth- really it was just a series of rocks and a nice stream. I did manage to get myself wet upto my waist though after getting a little bit cocky with my Spiderman routine, i didn't quite have the grip to hold onto the side of the riverbank and gravity got the better of me-Splash!
After a couple of nice viewpoints along the way we finally arrived at another really nice waterfall typed place. The best way I can describe it for those of you from back home (Lake District) is like Mungrisdale but hotter!- It had a couple of pools to swim in, a few rocks to jump off and mini waterfall things to slide down.
After a bit of lounging around and me doing my Evil Kenevil routine (Although in all honesty jumping from a rock about 1.5metres from the water was about as daring as it got) me, Bully and Will decided to head off to avoid the risk of trekking back under a cloak of darkness. Jonny decided to have some "contemplation time" on his own and said he'd meet us later.
About 15 minutes into the walk back it started lashing
Nice backdrop
Me outside the Jungle Huts it down, (Maybe it wasn't too unlike Mungrisdale afterall!)-You can take the boy out of the Lake District but you can't take the Lake District out of the boy it would seem. To start with the rain was quite refreshing but it was getting pretty annoying when we had to walk over tree roots and up steep inclines on the slippery ground. It didn't take long for the rain to flush Jonny out of his contemplation and he soon caught us up! He was saying he had been attacked by these small leeches (like little worms):this prompted me, Bull and Will to look down and see these small leeches on our legs!?!?! After much panic and a little bloodshed we managed to get them all off us (One leech on me got perilously close to being a "stand by me moment" for those of you that have seen the film!)
We were quite relieved to get back to the huts and get showered after the Leech incident, our clothes/bags were drippnig wet and were hung out to dry- Unfortunately Bullys camera screen was wrecked by the rain despite it being in its case and in a zipped bag, hopefully it may fix itself when it dries up.
We didn't get upto much at night, there weren't any street lights so Jonny unleahed his Miners light on us all (He looked well cool walking around with a big flash light strapped to his head!-it did a job though. After food and a few games of cards amongst ourselves we went to bed.
21st March- Today we paid up for the rooms and our food, which had been on a tab since we arrived and got a bus to Phuket- An area on the West of Thailand (It was an area really badly hit by the Tsunami. We've ended up in an area of Phuket called Patong, first impressions are that its nice but the area around our hotel (which incidentally is costing us about 4quid a night- An astronomical amount of money by our standards!) seems a little bit more explensive than we've been used to. Might have a few beers tonight after taking it easy for the last week since the Full Moon Party (Jonny aside, who is taking a leaf out of the Dan Holtby school of alcohol consumption- "if its wet i'l drink it")
Take care all,
Mike
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Catherine Smith
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Kata Beach
Lovely photos with this entry Mike. If you get the chance at Phuket, go further along the coast to Kata Beach (that's where me and dad stayed a couple of year back) at Orchidacea Hotel, lovely beach and nice bars (have you tried Daiquiri's yet?). An absolute must, the best drink you'll ever have, but don't let the fruit flavour fool you!!!! Look forward to the next episode. MamX