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Published: April 19th 2006
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Cheow Lan Lake
Taken from the floating raft accomodation I have had a fairly eventful week just gone. I left my friend in Krabi, having enjoyed the luxury of his little guesthouse and his girlfriend's cooking for more days than I had planned, and headed north to Khao Sok National Park, which forms part of one of the largest untouched areas of rainforest in S.E.Asia. As soon as I left the bus it began to rain, and it meant business. Although it didn't last for long, it was certainly the heaviest rain I have experienced thus far in Asia. In true tropical style it would rain roughly around the same time every day for the duration of my stay, so at least I knew when to run for cover.
I was in Khao Sok NP over the Thai New Year, better known as Songkhran. I didn't see a great deal of the festivities as for the most part I was deep in the jungle, fending off leeches. The locals like to celebrate by having a massive nationwide water fight. Driving around in the safety of an air-conditioned car on the way to the park, I witnessed hundreds of people, either lying in wait by the side of the road
or driving around in pickup trucks with huge vats of water, celebrating their new year by drenching each other. Those on motorcycles appeared to provide the easiest targets.
I went for a two day trip into the park, focused around Cheow Lan Lake, a massive area of water surrounded by the huge limestone formations which define a landscape amongst the most spectacular I have ever seen. The lake itself is held in place by Ratchabrapa Dam, which is 700 metres in length and allows the flooding of countless valleys.
On the first day in the depths of the park we walked through the jungle to reach a lookout point high above the lake. As we neared the top the rain began again, the path became a river, and not one inch of body or clothing was left dry. It was still good fun though, and the rain shrouded views were impressive. That night we stayed in floating raft house accommodation and were treated to a feast of Thai food. We went on a disappointing night safari and saw nothing but bugs.
The next day we were luckier, catching some glimpses of langurs (a kind of monkey) leaping
from tree to tree, on our way to our trek for that day. We walked through more dense jungle, feeling a little more adventurous than we did on the first day. It took several hours to arrive at our destination - a series of impressive caves (which played host to outcast students, branded as communists for speaking out against the government, for several years during the seventies). Our trek took us through this system of caves (sometimes up to our armpits in waters) which were full of bats and some of the largest spiders I have ever seen.
After Khao Sok I needed to renew my visa by leaving the country and entering again. After much thought and indecision I headed down south, with the intention of crossing the boarded into Malaysia. I ended up in a little town called Songkhla, which is definitely off the beaten track. I must have seen fewer than thirty westerners in the three days I spent there.
Songkhla is a nice enough town, with a laid-back atmosphere and plenty to explore. It’s a popular destination for Thai tourists, though their bars and restaurants remain largely separate to those aimed at the westerners.
Froggy back
The little one is the male - he's just hitching a lift. Apparently, i am told, this is like a typical man. The westerner bars were quiet. I went out with a couple of guys from the guesthouse I was staying in, and often we would be the only people in the places we went to. We drove past the Thai tourist bars, which were packed to the rafters with drunken karaoke loving revellers.
So I made my trip to Malaysia on the local buses. No one spoke English, and I only saw two other westerners all day - but it all went off without a hitch. They have a habit of showing Thai pop music videos at full volume so you can feel the bass long after you leave the bus. So that kind of drove me crazy. The actual boarder crossing took around twenty minutes on the back of a motorbike, through the Thai side, a quick turn around in Malaysia and then back again.
The same day I flew back to Bangkok. Today I had a look around some of the cities major historical sites; Grand Palace, which was very impressive, and the attached Wat Phra Kaeo, which houses the Emerald Buddha, the most revered of all the Buddhist relics. It was pretty teeny-tiny, high up on its golden throne in its very own temple. The architecture of the surrounding buildings, in all their golden, majestic glory, was very impressive indeed. I also visited the nearby Wat Pho, which houses the massive forty metre long reclining Buddha, glimpsed briefly at the start of the movie of The Beach.
I will close this entry on an interesting point; I read today that Bangkok was given a different name when the city was first conceived back in the 17th Century (Bangkok is the name of the village that stood where the city was developed). This cities official name has over sixty syllables, and partly (I cannot type it all in before bedtime) translates as 'great city of angels, the supreme repository of divine jewels, the great land unconquerable, the grand and prominent realm, the royal and delightful capital.....'.
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