Spring Festival V: The Jungles and Beaches of Southern Thailand

Khao Sok National Park

The 5th and final leg of our trip was 10 days in warm, sunny Southern Thailand. The trip would take us first to Khao Sok National Park, 700 square kilometers of jungle inhabited by Tigers, Elephants, and various species of monkeys (among other things). After visiting Khao Sok, we would head to the beautiful coastline and beaches of Krabi Province, about a 2 hour drive to the southwest from Khao Sok. We were exited to see more natural scenery and have some fun in the sun.
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Our Itinerary (The red line)

The journey begins: A bus ride to nowhere. . . .

Our journey began with an overnight bus ride from Bangkok to Khao Sok National Park. We’d bought our bus tickets in advance from a government run bus station. We went out of our way and paid a little extra to go through the government sponsored bus station because of the bad things we’d heard about the cheaper, non-government sponsored companies. Apparently, the buses used by the cheaper companies tend to be less safe. Also, the drivers have a tendency to drop passengers off at the wrong guesthouse in hopes that you will be forced into staying there (the owners of those guesthouses then pay a commission to the drivers for dropping the unknowing passengers at their doorstep).

After spending the afternoon relaxing in the bus station and recovering from our trip to Cambodia, which had only ended that morning, we boarded our bus for our 11 hour journey at around 7:30pm. Our “VIP” bus was nice! There were fewer seats on the bus, so each was bigger with more leg room than a normal bus’ seats. The seats also relined all the way back into nearly a bed! There was even a “flight attendant” who provided snacks and blankets. For a bus, it was pretty good. The trip itself was pretty uneventful, except for our one stop for “dinner” which occurred at 1am (why even bother? I just wanted to sleep!). We both actually slept for a good portion of the journey.

Then, suddenly at around 6:30am, we were startled when the bus jolted to a stop. The driver shouted out “Khao Sok!” and the “flight attendant” came to make sure we were awake. We looked outside, and it appeared that we were in the middle of nowhere. All we saw outside was a small road (looking back, it was actually just a driveway) perpendicular to the main highway our bus was on. This one road seemed to stretch off into the mist and was engulfed by jungle trees. on all sides. Apparently, we were the only people getting off at Khao Sok National Park. We were a bit skeptical that we were at the correct place, and before stepping off the bus, we confirmed with both the driver and “flight attendant” that we were indeed at Khao Sok National Park. Both said “Yes.” We had to take their word for it. All we knew about our destination was the following: (a) It was in the jungle (b) The bus should drop us off at at “T-Intersection” and (c) There was supposedly a phone at the T-Intersection where we could call our hotel and have them pick us up. (The last 2 pieces of information we’d gathered from a phone call with our hotel earlier in the day). Anyway, the place the bus dropped us off seemed to meet the criteria. It was definitely a “T-Intersection” in the jungle. When we asked the “flight-attendant” if there was a phone we could use to call our hotel, she pointed us to a wooden hut just up the road. With that, we got our luggage off the bottom of the bus, said goodbye, and watched the bus go barreling away down the road. We then walked up to the hut, which supposedly housed the phone. It did look like there had been a phone at one time inside this hut, however it looked as if it had been ripped out long ago. Upon seeing the "missing" phone we both had a sinking feeling. We didn’t know where we were (except that it appeared to be in the middle of nowhere in a jungle known for its wild tigers) and had no way to call anyone for help. The morning fog was thick and you couldn't see any sign of human life either direction down the highway. Occasionally a motorcycle zoomed by but nothing we could hitch a ride on. We considered walking, but did not know in which direction to go; we had a 50-50 shot! A bit worried, we followed 3 stray dogs up the road that had been perpendicular to the main highway (The "T-intersection"). At the end of the road (surprise, surprise) was a guesthouse – not our guesthouse, but one that our friendly bus driver likely had a “deal” with for dropping unsuspecting tourists off at. Unfortunately, it was 6:30am and there was nobody awake. We waited nearly an hour before the owner woke up and asked us if we had a reservation at his (or anyone else’s) hotel. When we told him what happened, he called the owner of our hotel and had him come pick us up. It turns out our bus had dropped us off 20 kilometers away from the National Park entrance, where it was supposed to have stopped (how frustrating!) Thankfully, we already had a reservation at another hotel and weren’t forced into staying at the one we were originally dropped off at. When our hotel’s owner came to pick us up, he wouldn’t believe that we’d taken one of the government-sponsored buses. He’d never heard of one of those dropping people off at the wrong stop! But, I guess there is a first time for everything . . .

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 Above: Where exactly did the bus drop us off?

Above: I thought they told us there'd be a pay phone in here . . .

Khao Sok National Park:

A Little Too Much “Wildlife”: In the end, we made it safely to our hotel and not too much time was wasted. The hotel was nice: We stayed in a Tree House, which was comfy enough, considering it was in the middle of the jungle. Sure, it was a bit “rustic” and had its share of bugs, but we’d expected that beforehand (bugs are kind of unavoidable in the jungle) and we had mosquito netting to keep from getting bitten at night. Really, our place seemed to be one of the nicest around, with a well maintained and lush garden of jungle plants all over the grounds. The one thing we did not expect were bats flying around our heads at night as we took showers! The bats typically entered through the bathroom window (which had no glass or plastic covering it) and exited through either the hole in the floor or ceiling, which had been cut to able to allow a tree to grow through our bathroom. I’m guessing the bats were attracted to the bugs that entered our room because of the lights we had on at night. We decided that having the bats zooming around our heads as we showered and brushed our teeth was a little creepy and ended up switching to a non-tree house “bungalow” room later in our stay. It was kind of funny: The owner of the hotel (who’d lived in the jungle his whole life) didn’t seem to think anything of the bats when we told him about them. (He said nonchalantly, “Yeah, they just fly in through the window.”) I’m sure he thought that we “city-folk” were wimps for wanting to switch rooms. Not that we dislike bats, but rather, we don't like them inside our room. Still, he mentioned to us later that not many people had stayed in the tree houses since they’d been built in October 2008, and I wanted to tell him “That’s probably because people don’t want to pay that much money to have bats flying around them.” I didn’t want to offend him by saying that, especially since the owner (an architecture major in college) had designed and built the tree-houses himself.

Our shower / Bat Entrance

Jungle-Trekking: Once we were checked into our hotel, we were ready to explore. Amazingly, Khao Sok National Park only has 1 (fairly short) trail throughout its entire 700 square kilometer area. Thus, if you really want to explore the park, you need a guide. Even the one “trail” that the park offers is a bit difficult to follow. We took this trail on our first day and encountered many other tourists who’d ended up getting lost on it. We turned back about 2/3 of the way through the trail for fear of getting lost at night in the jungle, which was quite dark even in broad daylight. (Still, we were able to see a wild cat called a Civet and a couple species of monkeys: Langur and Macau).

Fortunately, Lak, our hotel owner, was an experienced tour guide and offered to take us on a full-day jungle trek in the park. So, we set out at around 8:30 the next morning on our second day for our jungle trek (how exotic!). In addition to just enjoying the general natural scenery of the park, our trek was to have two primary highlights. The first was viewing the largest flower in the world, the extremely rare Rafflesia flower. The Rafflesia is a parasitic flower which grows in the Liana Vine, a common plant in this area. Khao Sok National Park is the only place in the world where this flower can be found. The parasitic flower can be easily destroyed when humans or other animals touch it even before it buds. The Rafflesia only blossoms in February and the blossom only stays open for about 7 days. Thus, the park only sees about 50 blossoms per year. A typical Rafflesia blossom is 2-3 feet in diameter, orangeish-red in color, and has a thick, rough texture similar to elephant skin. We felt really lucky that we had come to the park when the flower was in season. The second highlight of our trek was to see a large waterfall that is not accessible by the park’s only hiking trail.

Above: The Rafflesia bud (top) and flower (bottom)

From the start, we knew we were in for a long day when the start of our hike led us virtually straight up a steep hill in search of the Rafflesia flower, which we finally reached after about 2 hours of trekking. However, that was only the beginning. After a couple more hours of following an animal trail up and down through the park’s hilly terrain, we arrived at the top of the tallest waterfall in Khao Sok. Lak had told us that we’d be eating lunch at the waterfall, and when we saw it we assumed we’d reached our lunchtime destination and got excited. However, Lak kept walking and it soon became clear that we must first descend to the bottom of the waterfall before it was time for lunch. The waterfall was somewhere between 100 and 200 feet high, and to climb down we had to use a combination of vines that happened to be growing conveniently along our path down and ropes that people had tied around trees. The descent was not easy and was a little scary, but the view of the waterfall from the bottom was pretty amazing. There was also a cold, clear pool to swim in after we had lunch (fried rice and fresh pineapple). The final stretch of our hike was a trip down a jungle river where you had to be careful which river rocks you stepped on in order to not end up in the water! We didn’t end up getting back to our hotel until around 8:00 that night, nearly 12 hours after we’d left. Exhausted, we’d decided that whatever “hiking” we’d done previously in our lives couldn’t really be called “hiking” compared to that!

Above: Luckily, there were ropes and vines along the hike to help you keep your balance

Above: The view from the top of the waterfall we were about to descend to the bottom of

Above: We made it to the bottom!

Above: Lak trying to find the best place to cross the river

The Lake: On our third day in the park, Lak took us to the park’s giant reservoir, about a 45 minute drive from our hotel and the National Park entrance. The lake was really beautiful and was surrounded by limestone karst peaks on all sides. We left early (5am) so we could take a longtail boat ride to the quieter sections of the lake to look for wildlife. We had hopes of seeing a Tiger or other large mammal, but those hopes were squandered by our longtail boat driver, who was late (thus, we weren’t able to get on the lake early enough to see the big animals before they retreated away from the lake into the jungle for the day). Still, it was a nice ride and we saw a variety of animals: More monkeys and a huge bird called the Great Hornbill. After our “Safari” we stopped at a Rafthouse operation for a breakfast of pancakes and eggs. The lake has several Rafthouse operations, which allow tourists to spend the night on the lake. While simple (The Rafthouses are just a small, floating wooden hut with a mattress inside), the views of the lake and surrounding mountains are pretty spectacular, especially in the mornings when mist often hovers over the lake. After breakfast we set out from the Rafthouses by kayak to explore the lake more, and were lucky to see a wild Bald Eagle soaring above. That was the first time either of us had seen a Bald Eagle in the wild, so we were both very excited.

Above: Early morning on the lake

Above: Pigtail Macau and Great Hornbill sharing this tree's fruit

Above: Our breakfast spot at the Rafthouses

The Cave: In the afternoon, we headed to a different Rafthouse Operation for lunch. Afterwards, we headed to a nearby cave, which is a popular destination for tourists looking for a bit of adventure. Apparently, Lak thought that we were looking for some adventure and so he decided to take us there. Don’t get me wrong: We were interested in the cave. However, I don’t think we knew quite what we were getting ourselves into before we arrived. Our previous experiences with caves in Texas and New Mexico were pretty tame: A guide walks you along a dark but somewhat-lit, level, and fairly dry pathway as you look at the various rock formations inside. Anyway, this cave was anything but well-lit, level, or dry. Before we left on the trip, Lak mentioned that we should bring a flashlight and that he was bringing his waterproof bag to put our camera in (to which we thought, “What, is a stalactite going to drip on us?”), but that was as much warning as we got as to what lay ahead. We trekked through the jungle for an hour to reach the cave before we overheard a woman (who happened to be wearing a head lamp) with another tour guide confirming,"so the water will come up to our shoulders?" We had heard nothing about water being in the cave, and immediately asked Lak about this fact. In response to Tiffany repeating the women's question, he said, "Higher." He had failed to mention that we would be wading in the dark in neck-deep water until we were already there! Hearing that scared us a bit – we’d read in our guidebook that the cave was a dangerous place to go during the wet season, when flash floods can occur (We’d read that 8 people had died in the cave during a flash flood in 2008). However, we were there in the dry season, and it hadn’t rained in months. As a result, we had been expecting a drier experience.

Anyway, we felt like it was too late to turn back, so we went into the cave. While in actuality, it was probably fairly safe, it was pretty scary. Our wimpy travel-sized, made-in-china flashlight did us no good. While Tiffany would have preferred to not be in the cave at all, we were at least glad to be in there with Lak and his high-powered flashlight. Otherwise it was pitch-black inside the cave. There was a huge colony of bats sleeping overhead throughout much of the cave. The worst part was the water. At first, it was only shin deep. However, towards the end, there were portions where only one person could walk/swim through at a time and the water was about neck deep (luckily, there was a rope that you could use to pull yourself across -albeit loosely looped around a random boulder by a visitor - nothing official about these ropes). We couldn’t get to the end of the cave soon enough! True, the inside was really neat to see, with various rock formations and stalactites. However, the fear we had for much of the experience took away some from the cave’s beauty. Had we known fully what it was going to be like inside before we went in, I don’t think we would have gone (and in fact we did see a couple of tourists turn back before the end). In the end it was an adventure and a bit thrilling to make it out the other side of the cave an hour later.

Inside the cave before we had to put the camera away

An interesting aside from our hike out to the cave: About half-way into our walk to the cave we heard a wild elephant knocking down trees and other plant life as it walked through the jungle. We didn’t actually see the elephant, but Lak was certain that it was one. He told us that he could tell by the sound the nearby branches made as they fell as well as the frequency with which they fell. While we were a bit excited by the prospect of seeing a wild elephant, we could tell by Lak’s words and actions that encountering a wild elephant in the jungle is dangerous business. Once, when it sounded as though the elephant was especially near us, he immediately dropped a stick he was showing Tiffany and his eyes grew wide and alert (This was the one time our entire stay at the park where he actually looked afraid). He told us that, unlike Tigers, elephants will often charge when they smell humans and as such are much more dangerous. He told us that if we happened to see one, we should run as fast as we can in the opposite direction, as the elephant will charge for about 100 yards before it stops. He was comforted by the fact that there were other guided trekkers about 30-40 yards in front of and behind us (so the elephant would charge them first). Lak worked very hard to make sure our group stayed in the middle of those two other groups. Anytime it looked like we were catching up with the group ahead of us, he would slow down and show us some small insect to make sure they stayed comfortably ahead!

Sunset: After we returned from the cave, we hopped back on our longtail boat to watch the sunset over the lake. It was incredible – probably the best sunset we saw on our entire trip. We rode our boat back to the dock as the sky turned various shades of pink and purple. We arrived back at the shore just as it was getting dark, hopped in Lak’s car and made the 45 minute trip back to the hotel. It was the perfect ending to a fantastic day on the lake!

Sunset at the lake

Canoeing: We decided to go canoeing down the Khao Sok River on our fourth day at the park. Lak had mentioned that he could organize the trip for us, and for some reason we thought we’d be going with a group (or at least a company that ran canoe trips down the river). Nope! After Lak drove us about 20 minutes down the highway to the river, we noticed a young man sitting alone on a kayak by the side of the road. There was our guide! Anyway, we carried the kayak downhill to the river and hopped in. The young man paddled for us, so all we had to do was sit back, relax, and enjoy the scenery. As we rode down the river through the karst peaks, we saw even more wildlife: a monitor lizard, monkeys, a snake sleeping in the trees above the river (and our heads), and some really big fish swimming below. We also saw some local boys spear fishing. This was different than anything I’d seen before. One boy rode on a bamboo raft while his friend swam in the river with a spear. He would go underwater, find a fish, spear it, and deliver the fish to his friend on the raft. He was pretty good; one time he even speared two fish on one spear!

Leaving Khao Sok: After our canoe ride, our time at Khao Sok National Park was nearly done. We had one more night to enjoy the scenery and some amazing starry-nights (we definitely hadn’t seen that many stars in Zhuzhou, or maybe anywhere else for that matter) at the park before heading out to Krabi the next day. We left Khao Sok exhausted but satisfied. While some of the things we did there were a bit more adventurous than we’d bargained for, we were glad to have had the experiences. We’d definitely recommend a trip here for anyone spending time in Thailand, if you're up for a challenge!

Krabi:

The final stop on our Spring Festival tour through Southeast Asia was Krabi, a popular destination for foreign tourists because of its picturesque beaches. The most popular destinations here are the Phi Phi Islands, about a 30-45 minute boatride from the mainland coast. Sadly, these islands were among the hardest hit by the 2004 Asian tsunami (though the tourism industry has bounced back very quickly there). Instead of staying on one of the islands off the coast, we opted to stay on one of the quieter “mainland” beaches and take day trips to the islands.

Troubles with bus transportation in Thailand again: We arrived in Krabi safely, even though it seemed like our minibus driver on the trip from Khao Sok had a death wish (It wasn’t just that he drove at nearly double the speed limit, he also felt the need to pass at the most inopportune times!). He also almost left Tiffany behind during a bathroom stop – if it hadn’t been for me hollering at him to wait up for her, she would have been left in the middle of nowhere by our bus driver (again!). We did hit a bit of a snag when we arrived in Krabi. The minibus driver dropped us off at a travel agency in Krabi town, about 20 kilometers from the beach. As soon as we got off, we were rushed by various “travel agents” who all wanted to know where we were going. We told them where we were staying, and they proceeded to tell us that it was going to cost 300 baht to get to our hotel. This was about 3 times the rate that we had read in our guidebook, so we told them that their price was too high and tried to negotiate. However, they wouldn’t budge from their price. They also wouldn’t let us use a phone or offer any suggestions for alternative ways to get to the beach. Their overpriced bus was the only way. Fortunately, there was a nice man standing next to the travel agent’s office who noticed us and told us that there was a public bus that would take us to our hotel for 50 baht per person. A woman who worked for the travel agency overheard him give us this piece of information and got a little upset. She tried to tell us that the public bus would be slower and would not stop directly in front of our hotel. We didn’t care about this (It was only 20 kilometers away, how much slower could it really be? Besides, the woman from the agency told us we’d have to wait 30 minutes to leave in her van.) and decided to walk across the street and wait for the bus at the bus stop. We ended up waiting only 10 minutes for the public bus, a Songthaew with a sign in the front window that said “Public Bus,” to come. It made one quick stop before it dropped us off right in front of our hotel. After the trip we felt good about not getting cheated into taking the more expensive bus (even if we really only saved $6 . . . that goes a long way in Thailand!).

Beautiful Beaches: We spent our time in Krabi primarily relaxing on the beautiful beaches, which are surrounded by limestone karst peaks. However, we also took a day boat tour of the Phi Phi Islands, which offered some great snorkeling. In fact, we thought snorkeling in the shallow open water was a close 2nd place to scuba diving in the Great Barriar Reef! There were colorful fish and amazing coral galore. We put masks and snorkels on every chance we got to take in the underwater sights. We also enjoyed taking a couple of kayaking trips: One in a “Hong” or lagoon off the Krabi coast called Ao Thalin (where we saw some more lush vegetation and exotic animal life - our closest encounter with some great, and very wild, monkeys) and another in the ocean off a beach near our hotel (where we paddled out to some karst peaks jutting out of the ocean – on this trip we saw a snake climbing vertically up the rocks!). We kayaked around and through the karst peaks standing impressivly in the middle of the ocean. On this kayak trip, we paddled to the back end of a cave we had crawled through the day before (luckily, this one was not a scary, dark cave, just your "average" cave). In general, Krabi was just a relaxing and scenic place to be, even if the beaches were often flooded with local vendors trying to sell overpriced food, drinks and even massages. We enjoyed the area’s great food and beautiful sunsets more than enough to offset those minor annoyances, however.

Above: The scenic Krabi coast

Above: West Railay Beach, Krabi

Above: Sea Kayaking along the Krabi Coast

Above: Sea Kayaking is tiring!

Above: Hat Noppharat Thara Beach, Krabi

Above: Sunset over Hat Noppharat Thara Beach, Krabi

After 5 days of fun in the sun in Krabi, we hopped on a plane back to Bangkok, where we stayed just one night before catching a plane back to China the following day. While we were sad to leave the sunny, warm, weather of Thailand, we were ready to get back “home” and into a somewhat normal routine again in China. And even if the China air was cold and dirty, the sky was gray, and no one in sight spoke a word of English, we were much more “at ease” stepping off the plane this time around than we where when we first arrived at that very airport 6 months earlier. We had an apartment to get to, friends and students to see, and more places to visit. After taking an “illegal” taxi ride home from the Changsha airport (with a nice man who took our number so he could “drink tea” with us sometime), we were at home again in Zhuzhou. Miraculously, our apartment held up pretty well during our 5 weeks on the road (although I’m not sure how much else could have really broken while we were gone since the microwave, electric tea kettle, kichen and living room lights, and the hose that leads to the showerhead were already busted before we left!). We were just happy that only minimal new mold appeared to be growing, and it was kind of nice to be in our own bed again (even if the mattress is basically just a piece of plywood, it’s “our” bed).

Anyway, now that we are back in Zhuzhou, we are eager to learn more about the city and get more involved here. In the coming months, we’d like to set up an English Library at our school (there are no English books here AT ALL), volunteer at our city’s orphanage, and pay a visit to our town’s one church (one of our Chinese friends has offered to take us and translate for us, since the entire service is done in Chinese). We hope that the next 6 months here will be as interesting and enlightening as the first 6th months were. We’ll definitely keep writing about our experiences, and we always love hearing from people back home. So please keep in touch!