I'm on a boat.

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Sorry it has been so long since I have written anything. We were just chilling in Thailand and then things have been a bit manic since we got to Oz. Thank you for the emails. It's nice I hear from everyone so keep them coming because we both look forward to hearing from you all.


So where were we...

After our elephant trip and jungle trek the wonderful Francisco set us up for a lake tour. Now last time I went on a boat was Bulgaria about 4 years ago and it is definitely on my list of experiences I would never like to repeat again. Couple that with the fact that Andy gets motion sickness on the bus into town, we were taking a bit of a risk going for a whole day. Our guide, M (that was his name apparently. Maybe it was Em?) picked us up from the hotel bright and early with four Aussies, one Thai bride and a French family of three. The french kid was about 8 so he was a real trooper for the day. It was about an hours drive to the lake. Thankfully Fransico's guy had a mini van, we saw other tours where everyone was in one of the local taxis which basically consists of about 10 people sitting on a bench in the back of a pick up truck. Not ideal for an hours drive on Thai roads!

On arrival at the lake the guide stopped to show us a cat fish that some local fisherman had just caught. This thing was huge and flapping around like crazy. It's skin was like leather, it gave me the boke. It was this guys lucky day though because he was only 32kg he was being thrown back. They are only allowed to keep them if they are over 50 kg for some reason. We went onto the lake where we boarded our long tail boat complete with Somalian pirate for a captain. The boats have some sort of engine that powers you though the water. You sit on a wooden plank which after about 10 minutes, really takes its toll. We zipped through the lake. It is an enormous lake, part of the gigantic national park. The lake is man made, about 30 years ago they flooded the valley and now use it for hydro electricity for southern Thailand and part of Malaysia. I think he said it was 800 metres deep? The lake is like something out of Jurassic park. Surrounded by lush jungle with huge limestone karsts towering over you. They rise out of the water quite spectacularly. The water was a beautiful blue colour so the whole thing was just outstanding. We must have zipped around for about an hour before we reached our destination. A strip of floating raft houses complete with restaurant. This thing looked like it might sink at any moment, it was all patched together with obvious parts where it had been stuck back together. You can spend the night here in one of these basic little cabins, but our trusty Fransico advised against it. One toilet plus all the jungle critters having full access to your room does not make for a well spent evening.

We all hopped on to our little island and then hopped of again into a kayak. Neither of us had kayaked before so we spent a good ten minutes going around in circles. We saw some movement in some nearby trees so went over and we spotted some monkeys! They were pretty small and black, the Thais call them the black monkey. Genius ay? They are quite quick and just flow through the trees but it is really quite something to see something like that in the wild. We then went for a swim in the lake, although I was keen to get out after Andy reminded me of the giant fish from earlier. Also, have you ever tried to climb out of a deep lake onto a floating bamboo raft house? Not easy at all! We sat down to lunch which was basically various types of stir fry and a fish that still owned its eyes and teeth.

After lunch M was taking us for a trek trough the jungle. He said normally it is 6 hours but today would only be 3 because all the rain made it unsafe. Fills you with hope doesn't it? The Thai lady decided not to come so the rest of us piled back into the boat and off we went. This was a bit different from yesterday's trek where we walked along various sign posted paths. This time we were climbing up tree roots, walking through rivers that reached the top of our thigh and climbing over waterfalls. Luckily Andy had his water shoes (thanks Mike) but I only had my trainers so they got a bit soaked. The others were doing it in bare feet though which did not look fun. It was a great trek, our guide came out of his shell and kept telling us horrendous jokes that were a bit too dirty for the kid in the group. Just as well he was French! This guy had us in stitches, something about the language barrier and a Thai person telling jokes in English is quite entertaining. The jungle was pretty amazing but I don't think we even made dent in it. The purpose of the trek was to reach a cave which normally you climb through and head out the other side. Because it was still the wet season we couldn't go all the way through so he was just taking us for a small trip through it. Right So you should see this thing. It basically a massive stone cliff with a few midget sized holes in it and a river flowing trough. Then he pulls put head torches and says anything we don't want to get wet to leave outside as the water is neck level. Everyone is like oh okay sure and starts stripping off. Even the kid and his parents are like yeh totes up for this! I stand there and Andy takes one look at me and knows there is no chance I am going in there. Andy knows full well that I am scared of pretty much anything. I'm standing there thinking are these folks mental? Nobody seems concerned and they are all ready and raring to go. The guide tries to convince me and explains its not too dark etc and says I can at least try an come out if I hate it. So off we trot. Me at the back. We get to the opening and everyone is crawling into a great black abyss and I think screw this I'm sticking to the nice light open space and I leave them too it. Seriously a dark, confined space full of bugs and water is actually my worst fear and not one I'm willing to face any time soon. After about 30 minutes they all come back out right as rain. Andy's first words are "yeh you would have freaked out in there" apparently it was pitch black and Andy is sure he saw a big yellow snake. The guide asked one of the Aussies to hold his camera for him and when he put his had out he put a frog in it. Ha. One of the Aussie girls then told everyone a couple of years ago a similar tour group had drowned in this cave when the cave filled with water in a short space of time. So yeh, glad I didn't partake in that suicide mission! We trekked back to the boat where the guide thought it was hilarious to through a frog at me. Great fun.

We had another trip round the lake where we saw more monkeys. As me Andy were coming out the toilet (seriously the worst smelling place I have ever been) we saw a family of different monkeys that I am pretty sure were gibbons. After our trip the guide took us to a local market. It was really buzzing with a variety of stalls selling various street foods as well as fruits, vegetables, raw meat and fish, cakes etc. One stall had a pigs head, just sitting there on the table in 30 degree heat. I guess they don't have the Food Standards Agency in Thailand. We decided to brave some meat and had some sort of pork on a stick. Seriously this is probably one of the best things I have ever tasted. It was actually delicious. It was 10 baht for one. About 25p. We actually went back for more it was so good. Oh yum! We also had some sort of donuts, they were a bit different to ours but still delicious.

The next day we were moving onto our next destination, Khao Lak. Khao Lak is a bit of a more upmarket beach resort just north of Phuket. It was devastated by the 2004 tsunami, it was one of the worst hit places and over 4,000 people died here. This gave us another opportunity to experience the Thai public transport. It is certainly an experience. The buses are coaches which have been decorate inside to look like a 1970's living room. We were pretty lucky in that we didn't have to wait too long for the bus, unlike our French friends from the last bus trip who had waited two and a half hours. There doesn't appear to be any form of bus timetable or bus stop in Thailand. If we hadn't got the bus there we would have no idea where to get it from. Andy made a friend on this bus, this guy who couldn't speak a word of English just kept talking at Andy. Showing him what I think was weed, trying to get Andy to put some sort of menthol balm on his head and pointing out other people on the bus to him. Poor Andy eventually had to pretend to be asleep to get rid of him.

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