Kho Sok National Park

After 4 or 5 days on Railay and TOnsai Bay myself, Jack and Mikey decided we wanted some adventure, so booked a bus to the Koh Sok national park. We'd read that there were king cobras, tigers, elephants, wild boars, tarantula's and alsorts of motherfuckers out there... When we got there we checked into some awesome riverside huts on massive stilts (floods during the wet season). We had a look at some of the trekking and camping packages on offer but they al seemed quite expensive (2500bt for a one day and one night package, where you get a guide and go on a night safari and camp out in the jungle)

We were mulling this over and then I spotted two of the Bristol boys from Tonsai and a couple of canadian girls that were travelling with them. We decided that we'd hire our own tens for 50bt (one pound) and do our own jungle trek. We were all slightly nervous about this but no one admitted to this. When we set off I was the most vigilant I'd ever been, as I was fully expecting a king cobra to jump out of the jungle and bite me in the face. The seven of us trekked about 10km and swam in some waterfalls and jumped of some rocks into plunge pools. We hadn't really spotted anywhere that was suitable for camping and the sun was going down pretty quickly. Then I spotted a tiny little sand bar on the edge of the river, which was just about big enough to fit three tents. To save money me jack and mikey decided we'd just get a two man tent between the three of us, which was a pretty spacious affair!



Bobby big tent



Once we'd got the tens up the lads headed off to get some fire wood and we got a camp fire going. We'd ordered some take away thai food that morning so had some food already prepared. When it got dark there were some seriously freaky noises going on. We were a tad nervous but it was time for our own night safari.... Saw some massive poisonous looking spiders but no snakes



Big assed spider



After a very relaxing nights sleep in the jungle we trekked back to civilization taking in a few more waterfalls along the way (links to all of the photos in the picassa album on the right).The seven of us booked on to a trip to Chieow Laan Lake.

The lake was absolutely stunning. It is about 160sq/km in size and there are huge limestone outcrops everywhere. Our destiniation was a floating village, which literally just floats there on bamboo! We went for some kayaking and they made us some amazing food, then headed off trekking and caving. When we arrived at the cave I wasn't quite prepared for what we were about to do. We had to swim fully submerged at times, bats all over the roof and spiders all over the walls! It was fully exhilarating and I now really want to do something like this again. My head lamp sucked and everytime I put my hand on the wall to get balance I didn't know if I was about to be bitten by one of the many golden orb spiders down there!



 

When we got back to Khoh Sok we decided that we wanted some more island action, specifically full moon party on Koh Phangan...