Thailand Koh Surin - Khao Lok

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The days on Koh Surin where spent snorkelling, sleeping (not at night!), eating, reading and swimming. Lovely. We were privileged to be able to visit the Village of the Moken tribe. They are a people who live from the sea and are very knowledgable on the subject. They are a very shy people, living quite a sheltered life from the rest of people in the area. While we were at the village our guide counted how the Moken Village was completely destroyed in the Tsunami but not one of the Moken died because they recognised subtle changes in the sea and had evacuated long before the Tsunami hit. Our guide had been on the beach during the tsunami and had stayed around long enough to take some photos. He then picked up his friends son and ran for the hills in his bare feet. He was left with nothing and spent some time in Chiang Mai afterwards until he was able to come back to the islands. This isn't the only person we have heard first hand accounts from but more about that later. One amusing (to Steve and others who heard this recounted) thing happened to me while lazing on the beach. Steve had just come back from a run(I know, weird!) when I felt a few spots of rain. I said to him, "it's just starting to rain." "No it's not, it's probably a monkey pissed on you". He looked up and in the tree directly above me was the said monkey who had indeed pissed on me!! Essen and Martin, two fellow snorkeller/ campers and Steve thought this highly amusing.



It was now time to leave so we were transferred by long tail back to the speedboat for another noisy bouncy hour back to the pier. After a night in Kuraburi it was the next trip to Khao Sok National Park where we would be spending two nights on the lake sleeping in floating bamboo bungalows. A short ride on the local, very slow bus followed by a slightly quicker tourist bus where we collected by our Thai guide, Pu, for the next three days. We were bundled into a beaten up old pick up for the short ride to the jetty where Pu's boat was moored. That was quite a journey. Pu had his two year old daughter with him. An absolute sweetie. Now seat belts and car safety are a little different here. She was asleep so he laid her across his lap while he drove. When she woke she climbed into the back with me and giggled and chatted to me the rest of the way. We understood each other even though we were talking different languages! Pu and his beautiful wife owned a shop at the port and we met his equally gorgeous 4mnth old son. With hurried good byes we bundled our bags and ourselves on to his boat and set off to our first nights accommodation. This was to be a jaw droppingly beautiful journey. The lake is a man made lake. A valley was flooded and the one village in the area relocated to higher ground. The water is used for electricity. Cheow Larn Lake is at the centre of the National Park which is covered with the oldest and greenest rainforest in the world and the park covers an area of 739 square kilometers.



The lake itself is enormous. It isn't one open expanse but has different fingers and islands that stretch in every direction. Every corner had an even more amazing view. Limestone cliffs hundreds of feet high stretching skywards on both sides. It took 1 1/2 hrs to reach the floating bungalows. Basic bamboo bungalow with a mattress on the floor, shared facilities and central bar area where we would eat more delicious food. The fresh water to swim in from outside our bungalow was amazing. Cool and fresh. At night the only light once electric was off was moon and the dark star filled sky and the only noise were animal noises. Baboons whooping, the nightly cicadas and the usual patterings and scratchings when out in the wild! We walked through the rainforest with Pu pointing out spiders, chameleons, monkeys and other wild life to a pier where we boarded a bamboo raft across to the coral cave full of amazing rock formations, stalagtites and stalagmites. Back on his long tail we then had another beautiful hour on the lake to our second floating bungalow. Even more quiet and peaceful than the first. Steve then elected to go with Pu to explore a cave. It was a tough choice. Either sit in the sun on the edge of a beautiful lake. Swim, read, sleep, chat and swim again or walk through the sweaty rainforest to a cave full of bats, spiders, flies, beetles and in places chest deep water in the pitch black. Tough eeeehhh! So Steve went off with Pu and he loved it. The ceiling was covered in bats who then do a lot of foul smelling poo. This is then a home for the beetles and flies. He said the smell from the poo was overpowering. He hates spiders so I was surprised he went. I don't think he realised they can walk on water!!



At dusk Pu took us out with his friend who he is teaching to fish. It was beautiful. The fish were jumping in between the reeds but always just out of reach so they were not successful but we were so glad we went along. We went to one small inlet where the water is like glass with perfect reflections. I have photos! Too many! Then as the dark was coming in he took us to another small inlet and told us to watch the sky and listen. Within minutes there was a high pitched screeching noise and giant hornbills flew overhead like planes in squadrons back to roost for the night. Unforgettable!

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