Advertisement
Kamala Beach
Evidence of Tsunami Well after some hemming and hawing, Sarah and I finally made a decision and decided to stick with the plan and head to Khao Sok Ntl Park in souther Thailand on the peninsula. As were checking out of the hotel in Kamala, I discovered I had lost the safety deposit key! Yikes! the spare key was in Phuket Town so we had to wait for the owner to get it. Then she thought she had lost her copy as well! I am not typically this ditzy to lose such things, we can only figure that it fell out of my backpack on the tuk tuk the nite before.
A few hours delayed we headed to the public bus station and hopped on an air con bus, pretty nice actually and drove to Khao Sok for about $4, much cheaper than the $25 they wanted for the minivan. We drove through Phuket town and over the bridge to the mainland. After three hours, we began to climb the mountains, the bus straining the whole way. The bus agent woke us and said this was our stop. The stop consisted of a small hut at the end of the road, the entrance
Kamala Beach
Evidence of Tsunami to the park. A local with a truck asked where we were staying. We told him Nung's but he said we should come and just look at his junglehouses. so he drove us to both and we ended up at his place in these cute stilted bungalows along the Sok River. His name is Kess and he is 30. He has owned the place for 10 years and has a wife, Mi and 2 little girls. Peanut, the 6 yr old is just adorable and a good helper, delivering meals to the tables etc. She definitely is a little firecracker, dancing, smiling! They also have a young baby about 1 who has bell ankle bracelets on so they can hear her all the time! They seem so happy!
When we arrived at about 5:30, the mist hung heavy in the lush, green mountains. Large limestone formations protruded in front of our cabins. The cgrey clouds rolled through the valley and lightning lit up the sky. We could see monkies in the tree from the treetop restaurant. This forest is more than 6 million yrs old and is a true jungle!! We settled in our bungalow and sat around the
common area and ending up drinking, eating and telling stories with 2 boys from Viriginia, a couple from Salt Lake, a Canadian, an English guy Jake and 3 really nice girls from Dubai. I'm sure we kept up Kess and his family! Sarah and I went to bed around 1 as we had an elephant trek the next day.
We drove about 20 km to the elephant trek site and climbed a little hut to "board" the elephant in a chair. Our elephant trainer road on its neck and held a cane of sorts with a short blade on one end. The rain began to come down as we trekked up the clay colored river. The rains had washed down the orange and yellow muds and the rivers and streams were swollen with rushing waters. We meandered through a banana plantation and into a rubber plant plantation. They score the bark on the tree in a diagonal fashion and let it drip into these smalle bowls attached to the tree. We went past a small rubber processing hut, but noone was working. As the rain began to really come down, our guide who did not speak much English, but
Khao Sok National Park
Mist hangs over the mountains seemed to understand a fair amount, grabbed these huge leaves and fashioned rain hats for Sarah and I. I felt like a fairy with it on! As we moved along your could hear the frogs, lizards, the jungle alive! We strolled past these huge plants that collected water. It lay like mercury on the shiny green leaves and rolled right off when tipped.
We arrived at the waterfall and hung out taking it all in. On the way back I got to "drive" the elephant and sit on its head while Sarah and the trainer sat in the seat. It was so humbling to be sitting on this large animal with so much power and strength, yet so much grace! The rains tapered off and when we arrived back at the starting point, had pretty much stoped!
After that long trek! we headed down the street from our huts and had probably the best Thai food I've ever had!! I had a lovely fern salad, mango shake, pumpkin in hot cocanut milk for dessert1 yummy! We inquired about the cooking class they offered after that meal!
Today was the cooking class with Nid. She has a place
down the street. We met in her small, but very organized kitchen and made 5 dishes. All lovely, healthy and so quick and easy!! Amazing flavors. We had coconut soup, cashew chicken, pad thai, spicy thai salad with shrimp and green curry! She even gave us all the sauces, spices!! Very nice woman. She was busy after that cooking a feast for some Buddhist Monks from Tibet. They bought some land nearby so come often for lunch. She is a very good cook.
Still raining, but we hope to take a walk in the Park and try to avoid the leeches that jump on you! We will likely head north to Ko Samui and see if there is sun. Everyone from everywhere has said it's raining, remnants from a hurricane in China we hear.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.106s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 12; qc: 49; dbt: 0.073s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb