Enter Khao Sok, one of Thailand's most beautiful national parks. The rainforest here is believed to be one the oldest in the world, and the limestone karsts among the tallest. We arrived at the Jungle Hut Guesthouse late in the evening after traveling all day on a ferry, a bus, and a minivan. The travel agency sold us a cheap room at their guesthouse while we were in tranist, although they forgot to verify availability for said cheap rooms. As a result, we received a free upgrade -- a room with AC and hot water for just $13! Our room was located off this elevated walkway, where we caught our first glimpse of the lush rainforest the next morning.
Anxious to see it all, we booked a 2-day longtail trip on Chiaw Lan reservoir, which featured an overnight stay on a bamboo raft. What could this possibly mean?? We could only ponder the nature of this unusual accommodation as we rode the taxi out to the dam, where our boat would pick us up.
Our longtail began the journey in the heart of the reservoir...
Here we spy another tour group on the fly
It was not the driest of rides, as water droplets would frequently saturate our sunglasses, soak our shirts, and splotch our pictures...
We finally arrived at the basecamp of our exploration, the bamboo raft itself! It was not actually mobile, but it held our cozy bungalows afloat.
The resident family would feed the fish our leftovers, amassing large schools of hungry fish.
As we trekked into the jungle of Khao Sok, we became immersed in a setting reminiscent of a scene from Jurassic Park.
Our destination was Nam Talu Cave, where we followed a subterranean stream, and (much to our surprise) swam through several deep sections. During the wet season, this cave is impassable.
A surprisingly large variety of animals live in Nam Talu cave, including catfish, shrimp, bats, spiders, and crickets. Here we find a crab.
Our adventurous tour guide grabbed this li'l spider
This gigantic tree is actually dead. Our tour guides explained that when communists insurgents hid out in the Nam Talu cave area between 1975-1982, they used to tree to signal approaching danger by beating the trunk with a stick, eliciting a drum-like noise.
During our stay at the raft house, we went on both a night safari and a morning safari in the longtail to spot wildlife on the banks of the lake. At night we saw hornbills perched in the trees, and in the morning we spotted macaque monkeys. Somehow the tiger and the Asiatic bear eluded us. We viewed this glorious sunrise from the boat.
As we departed the rafthouse on our second day, we toured the reservoir for some excellent karst scenery.
For our last adventure, we went ashore for one more hike in the jungle.
...and yet again, our final destination was a cave!
Creepy crab-spider bug eh?
Simply put, this national park was one of our favorite places in Thailand. As we headed back to the guesthouse our minds remained imprinted with images of the majestic karsts and mysterious caves that are Khao Sok.
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