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Published: February 11th 2010
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As New Years Eve dawned, and after having breakfast and collecting our valuables from the locker we went to the meeting point to prepare for our journey to the Khao Sok National Park. We boarded our long tailed boat again, and sailed off back to the real world. Once again our trusty little minivan was waiting for us. We loaded our bags onboard, and were on our way. After an uneventful journey we arrived at the Morning Mist Resort on the doorstep of the Khao Sok National Park.
Now let me say we are not accustomed to rooms without air conditioning and all the usual pampering, but we were in for a big shock in comparison to what we normally expect when arriving at a hotel/resort. After a wait to ensure the rooms were available, we were handed a key, attached to essentially half a tree. Slight exaggeration, but it was a big slice of wood! Walked down a nice little roadway, dragging our half a tree with us, sorry still exaggerating there. Beautiful Orchid like plants lined either side of the pathway. Over ripe fruits lay scattered on the path and in the grass beside. The Mountains of the
Our room
Now where did i put that elephant! nearby National Park, looked welcoming.
It was when we arrived at our home for the next two days that we had to rub our eyes to believe what we were looking at. In front of us was a two storey Tree house style building. So far so good. Up the stairs to our room we stomped. Hammock outside our room, excellent!! Padlock on the door, not so good. Door looked like a garden shed door, not so good. After unlocking the door, we slid it open, and it pretty much WAS a shed with two beds in it. It did have air conditioning though, sadly not the electrical kind, rather a big gaping gap between the roof and the walls. Plenty of fresh air would be able to circulate, along with birds, bats, monkeys, innumerable insects, possibly a baby elephant, and pretty much the contents of the jungle!! The bathroom was essentially outside. There were two beds, both with mosquito nets around them. It reminded me of a film you would see based in 19th century Africa, where an English gent with a long moustache, would burst into the room enquiring as to the health of his dear wife
Not a bad view from our balcony
The hills of the Khao Sok National Park in the background who has a terrible fever from a brutal battle with Malaria. He opens the mosquito net, and dives in to hug and kiss her. It was pretty much like that except, I didn’t have a long moustache, and the room was a whole lot less romantic. The only stirrings I felt were to leave the room the way I came in. We were definitely out of our comfort zone.
We decided to go up to the shop and gather some supplies. After stocking up we had a look around the area, seeing where the entrance to the National Park was. Didn’t go in as we were going there tomorrow. Went back to the shed, I mean room, and I decided to challenge myself by trying to get into the hammock. Gina knew this would be fun so placed herself in a seat nearby to enjoy the entertainment. The hammock was essentially made for an anorexic, it was about the width of my leg, and was the texture of the netting you would buy oranges in. I tried different techniques to delicately and intelligently approach and try to distract the hammock so I could get into it. I eventually gave
Concentrate!
Well, if anyone looks stupid, its me up on technique, and tried the all out assault, jumping, dropping, sliding, etc., but still managed to land on my bum a few times. I was defeated…by a hammock. At least Gina enjoyed the experience.
After retreating timidly to a simple bench, we spent a few hours reading, and listening to the animal life just out of sight in the undergrowth. At the allotted time we headed up to the main building for our dinner, which was buffet style, and was very tasty. Lots of Thai food, really loving Thai food in its birthplace. Dinner was finished at about 7pm or so. Only 5 hours to go till Midnight and 2009. Only 5 hours…. Everyone looked like that may as well have been 50 hours. No one was really that interested in getting wasted drunk. It was too long to wait. Luckily to break the ice, I mentioned what we were all thinking, and that got us all laughing. A few Singha beers helped pass the few hours, and soon there was clanging of glasses and beer bottles. A fireworks display in a city many miles away created the most beautiful silhouette on the hills of the national park.
There, i did it
Yeah, and look how comfortable i look!! We sat with our beers delighting at the spectacle, watching and waiting for the fireworks to again frame the mountains and light them up. We sat there feeling how special it was to be here, together, at this moment. After a while we all gradually retired to bed. We walked nervously back to our room, half expecting to find that baby elephant already curled up in our bed with the mosquito net wrapped neatly around him, but incredibly after a thorough search I couldn’t find either the elephant or indeed any invaders! We washed our teeth, climbed into bed, wrapped the mosquito net tightly around us and didn’t take too long to fall to a peaceful sleep.
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