Leaving the Eden Beach Resort yesterday (22nd) and off to the jungle and lake area within the Khao Sok National Park….. 22nd to 24th January.

Sunday 22nd Jan

Met by our guide, a lovely Thai lady called Pew at our hotel (Eden Beach Resort)

En route we stop at - Rommanee Hot Springs. Managed to sit in the natural hot springs at 40 and then 42 degrees… felt very good afterwards (J didn’t manage 42)

2nd stop - Win Elephant Sanctuary, had fun with the gorgeous Asian elephants.

Stopped for lunch at Khao Sok River Canoe which was delicious.

We then headed 5 miles or so back up river for Bamboo rafting which was fantastic, the scenery like something out of the Amazon…finished up back at the restaurant where we’d had lunch.

This took us to around 4.30 and then we travelled to our accommodation for the night - Art’s Riverview Lodge. We’re here for one night. It was very rustic complete with cicadas, frogs and mosquitoes and thankfully a mosquito net but hey it’s the jungle so what do you expect? There’s quite a lot of (young) back packers so it could turn into party central later fortunately J and I have a cunning plan to have a little smoke before bedtime 🥱

Monday 23rd Jan

After a mixed night’s sleep due to getting stoned and the guy in the next hut throwing up throughout the night, we were slow to get going. Alarm woke us up and we were showered and were ready for breakfast around 8.30.

We then headed into Khao Sok National Park for a jungle walk through to a waterfall / ravine (Bang Hua Rat Waterfall) where J went in for a swim. We then walked back the way we came and then headed back (to the Lodge ) for an early lunch (salad for me, curry of some sort for J).

Next we were on the road (I fell asleep) for about an hour and arrived at the lake. It was absolutely amazing…. About 30 times bigger than Lake Windermere a little like Halong Bay (in Vietnam) but without the large cruise ships, just simple, centuries old, long tail boats. We packed a few things for our overnight trip, leaving our main backpacks in Pew’s car and off we headed to join our long tail boat (J had booked a private one). Pew then took us on a tour of the lake. We stopped at Khao Sam Glure (three pinnacle rocks that are the iconic symbol of the lake) and then off to Pra Kai Pret (Diamond Cave).

We spent about 15 mins navigating the inside of the cave, avoiding the bat poo but watching the bats and poisonous tiger striped tarantulas(!), yes, in virtual darkness, you can imagine how I loved that!!? We then trekked back, met our long tail and travelled for another half an hour before reaching our floating hotel for the night (Phutawan Raft House). It’s nice but quirky, the rooms are very basic but they have the most amazing views… no toilet or bathroom sadly but hey you improvise don’t you!! Interesting sleep…

Tuesday 24th Jan

Up before light for an early morning safari on the long tail, sadly we only managed to spot water buffaloes, could hear monkeys but no signs of the wild elephants. We finished our safari around 7.45, headed back for breakfast and then left the Raft House at around 9.30. We travelled for approx half an hour over the lake to a spot where we were going to walk with a ranger to a cave. He was heavily armed for most eventualities so we figured it was important to keep on his good side! He took us uphill through the jungle, making me a magnificent hat on the way. We ended up in the most superb cave which was huge, the size of a small concert hall! Bats, crickets, spiders and mosquitoes everywhere…once back outside and down the mountain to our awaiting long tail we were whizzed back to the mainland in about 45 minutes. Pew then drove us back to the canoe / rafting stop which took another hour. The National Park is just huge! We had lunch at Khao Sok River Canoe restaurant (where we’d eaten before) and weirdly turned out to be about 0.5 mile away from our next overnight stop which we had booked independently, talk about lucky!!

Pew dropped us off, we said our farewells (she’d been amazing) and here we are for the next two nights; Magic Mountain View Resort. This is still in Khao Sok National Park…. I spent my afternoon cleaning myself up and doing some laundry. Then an early bite to eat (soup) and a bit of Nexflix and chill back in civilisation.

Wednesday 25th Jan

Hotel is nice, small and quirky. Slept really well. The day looked promising, there was a nice pool beckoning and breakfast was fab, one of the best so far… it all looked so promising and then the storm came in and it didn’t leave for the day. So plenty of time to read, plan the next bit of the journey and do some wonderful yoga with Lou on catch-up.