Up early this morning mainly to complete yesterday’s blog before we left for our day’s excursion to Khao Sok National Park and then breakfast – a mix of good with a touch of local!
By 8:30 we were ready and waiting for our pick up. We stuffed our towels and a dry set of clothes plus the Nikon camera into the dry back along with other things such as insect repellent, sun block, and slippers for when we were relaxing on the raft complex that was required we took with us! Good job we had bought a 40 liter bag as it was quickly filled up!
Our pick up finally arrived but the resort manager wanted to know whether he was picking up the right guests. The driver didn’t have a list so he called his office and after some time it was confirmed that were to join him. The resort manager told that he often had guests ending up with the wrong group! Well the mini van full only two places left for us – then we started on our 1.5 our drive to Cheow Lan Lake in Khao Sok National Park.
I had read that without doubt, this park is one of the most strikingly beautiful places in Thailand with over 100 little islands and towering line cliffs. Our guide Mr. Tu instructed us to pay our National Park Entrance fee of 200 Baht per person (This was the price of foreign visitors!) and the we walked down to the pier to embark our longboat. Well this was a hot selling item – loads of mini vans were offloading tourists who were going to do the lake tour. Our group consisted of 12 persons – all different nationalities; only one other Dutch couple who lived on Ibiza and the rest were from Italy, Switzerland, Sweden (but living in Myanmar), Germans, Americans and British.
Our boat ride on the lake took us first along the Rajjaphraba Dam (which means light of the Kingdom) and then along so many scenic views that we just could not stop taking pictures. Our program for today included a full day tour on the lake where of course we could marvel and gawk at these towering pillars of limestone reaching high out of the lake but also a stop at part of the rain forest where a trail was set out in the swamp area – hence the insect repellent we had to bring with us. We would then stop on a raft island for lunch and a swim before getting back into the longboat again to visit a bat cave (that’s a big NO for me as I certainly don’t do bats!) And then back to the pier by long boat to get our ride back by mini van to our resort.
Our longboat trip was about an hour before arrived at our first destination – the jungle trail, the Klong Ka, swamp forest nature trail. Actually the pathways used for this trail were used many years ago by the indigenous people living here before the dam was built. Mr. tu explained to us about the various types of bamboo and plants growing of which some could be totally poisonous so he warned us not to touch any vegetation. He also showed us how the indigenous people could find clean water in this swamp area – by rattling thick bamboo and hearing the water inside.
Mr. Tu had told us that there was a slight climb in our trail, but in fact the first part was quite steep which for us guys from the Lowlands, meant it was quite strenuous and anyway most of the group was much younger than we were!!! Anyway it was worth it to go on this trail…….
We walked back the same path down to the longboat and we were quite worn out – also due to the humidity at this time of day.Luckily there were some clouds today to shield us from the hot burning sun. Back in the longboat, it was only a 10 minute drive to the floating resort where we would be having lunch and some time to relax and swim. We were all ravenous by this time and looked forward to a typically tasty Thai meal.
We had a scrumptious lunch made up of deep fried fish, rice, green vegetables, omelet, small aubergine curry and fresh pineapple for dessert. We were so hungry that I forgot to take pictures of the well spread table!
Then it was time to relax and have a swim – it was mandatory to wear life jackets otherwise you could get a 5,000 Baht fine! We saw quite some improvising when wearing the life jacket – it would be worn like a big nappy! And this would leave you free to swim!
We had to be ready to get back into the long boat by 3 pm as on the way back, there was still another stop at the bat cave – actually it was a cave where the indigenous people used to bring offers to their gods. But as bats inhabited this cave, there was no way I was going there and Gerry gallantly stayed with me on the longboat with some other guests.
As we stayed on board the longboat, I was taking some pictures of the breathtaking scenery when our skipper volunteered to take a few pictures of Gerry and myself – I’m sure these guys get training in using smart phones for picture taking!
When finally everyone was on board, we started our trip back to the pier – it took about an hour but in the way we stopped by the three pillars in the lake which have become the emblem of the Cheow Lan Lake. This was a mesmerizing view and our skipper maneuvered the long boat so that everyone could get a good view to take pictures
We then continued more or less along the limestone coastline where we could see the intricate works of nature – the rock formation in some places was like lacework!
One final interesting feature was a whole in the rock wall which streamed in the sunlight and created verdant colours in the water
By the time we reached the pier we were all dead tired and made our way to the allocated mini van – most of us slept all the way back to our resorts. As we were last ones in, we were the first ones out on the return journey and Gerry woke everyone up with his booming voice and wished everyone happy holidays!
It was close to 6.30 pm and as we were quite thirsty made our way to the restaurant firstly to quench our thirst and also have some bites for dinner before we returned to our treehouse to shower.
Tomorrow we will be saying good bye to this most scenic province of Thailand and making our way to the east coast of this strip of land to start our island hopping part of our travels.
