i keep a diary

thailand part four: khao sok national park

august 09, 2007


Thursday, August 9th
brian battjer
The morning after my big 31st birthday celebration, I awoke bright and early (and with crazy-man hair).   tags:me bed head


I spent some of the morning reading through the book Jeremy have me for my birthday (Thanks, Jer!)...   tags:book


...and then after showering, I decided to have myself a slice of the birthday cake that Meredith had gotten me only to find it swarmed with tiny, feasting ants! Nooooooo!   tags:cake

brian battjer
I took a knife and dug out an ant-free chunk so that I could at least have a taste of the wonderful cake Meredith had gotten for me before we had to throw it away! Booooo!   tags:me cake


After getting our cake on, we walked around the Khao San area and did a little bit of shopping (new backpack and a bathing suit) before we moved on from Bangkok. After we were finished, we hit the roof of our hotel...   tags:hotel


...and relaxed and read by the pool.   tags:bangkok skyline


Let's hear it for vacation books! Wooot!   tags:book

meredith silverman
Meredith (and my brand new backpack that cost $5!).   tags:meredith


Around 2pm I called Jeremy and took down directions on how to...   tags:note


...take a taxi all the way across town and out to a suburb of Bangkok to visit the international school where Jeremy teaches English! We arrived at the school a little after 4pm...   tags:sign


...went inside and found Jeremy's classroom!


Tah-dah!   tags:jeremy

brian battjer
He must've known that I'd be coming!   tags:me


After taking us on a tour of his school, we called a taxi and went to hang out at Jeremy's apartment for a little while.   tags:jeremy

, meredith silverman
Later that evening, we went back into Bangkok and grabbed some dinner (Meredith is sad because she was starting to feel really ill). And then after we finished eating, we said farewell to Jeremy and headed to...   tags:jeremy meredith


...Hua Lamphong train station!   tags:train station


We were taking the overnight sleeper train down to Surat Thani, and then from Surat Thani, we'd be taking a bus to a small village that was right on the outskirts of Khao Sok, one of Thailand's famous rain forest National Parks!   tags:tickets


A little before 11pm, we got to our train and were totally bummed to discover that we had seats instead of a sleeper car! When we were booking our tickets, the man at the travel agency had asked me something that was strangely worded, something like "Do you want to sleep in bunks or next to each other?" and I replied "Next to each other."

As soon as we saw our train seats, I thought back to this and realized that he'd been asking us if we wanted a sleeper car or just to sleep side by side sitting up in the seats. Doh. (I guess I just figured there was a different type of sleeper car where you could sleep in big pull out bed instead of bunk beds. Hi, I'm a moron).   tags:train

meredith silverman
Anyway, due to this misunderstanding, we had to try to sleep sitting up on a really bouncy train. Here's Meredith (who was already feeling totally sick) decked out with a sleep mask, ear plugs and our one inflatable neck pillow.   tags:meredith asleep


Thursday, August 9th

After barely managing to eek out an hour or so of sleep, I woke up around 7am the next morning...   tags:jungle


...and the countryside was lush and green.   tags:trees


We arrived at the Surat Thani train station around 8am and after stretching for a bit, we hopped a bus into town...   tags:bus

meredith silverman
...here's sweaty, hardly-any-sleep Meredith...   tags:meredith bus

brian battjer
...and cranky "if I don't get some sleep soon I'm going to die" me.   tags:me bus


We got dropped off at the Surat Thani bus station, and from there we caught...   tags:scooter


...a bus to take us the remaining two and a half hours from Surat Thani to Khao Sok.   tags:bus

meredith silverman
Our bus literally dropped us off on the side of some road on the outskirts of Khao Sok National Park, and from there someone from the hostel we'd booked online came and picked us up! Here's Mer excited about the fact that we were on the final 10 minute leg of our almost twelve-hour journey!   tags:meredith pickup truck


Check the scenery! Those "mountains" that you see behind the building are limestone "karsts" that Thailand is famous for.   tags:karsts


Scaffolding in the jungle is made out of BAMBOO! How fricking crazy is THAT?   tags:bamboo


A little past 12:30pm (about 13.5 hours after we left Bangkok!) we finally arrived at our hostel, the Khao Sok Green Valley Resort which was fantastic and I totally recommend staying there if you're looking for a great, inexpensive hostel in Khao Sok!

After checking in, we literally dropped our backpacks on the floor...

meredith silverman
...and promptly conked the fuck out. (Meredith sleeps with one leg out and has a DINO ARM! Hahahah!)   tags:meredith asleep

crookjaw the dog
After an epic seven hour nap (traveling in Thailand can be pretty exhausting), we spent what little was left of the day lazing around and reading on our bungalow's front porch where we made friends with one of the local stray dogs! If you look at his mouth you'll see that it looks like he'd broken his jaw in the past and it had healed a bit crooked with led us to dub him Crookjaw the Friendly Dog!   tags:crookjaw dogs


Saturday, August 11th
meredith silverman
After catching up on our sleep, we woke up super-early the next morning and got ourselves some breakfast.   tags:meredith food


After breakfast, Meredith documented some of the local wildlife. Like this itsy bitsy toad! Look how tiny he was!   tags:toad


Here's a macro close-up! And here's his teeny tiny leeetle friend...   tags:best toad


...Mr. Small Snail!   tags:best snail


While Mer was taking pics of critters, I booked a day trip to go check out Chieow Laan Lake. A little past 9am, our guide showed up and we hopped into a pickup truck and headed towards the lake.   tags:driving

brian battjer, meredith silverman
I got to sit up front with the driver and Mer had to squeeze in the back behind me.    tags:me meredith us


Check out the scenery on the way. So amazing.   tags:trees


We arrived at the entrance to the lake (it's a National Park, so you have to pay a fee to enter) a little past 10am.   tags:chieow laan lake


Our first view of the lake from the parking lot!   tags:chieow laan lake


The tour we'd booked involved spending a whole day exploring the Chieow Laan Lake via longtail boat!   tags:boat chieow laan lake longtail


After getting out of the truck, we stopped for a quick bathroom break and then hit the lake! Most of the other guests stayed under the boat's awning, but since Mer and I had slathered ourselves with sunblock, we decided to sit up on the bench on the very back of the boat and enjoy the sun and scenery.   tags:boat chieow laan lake


Out on the lake.   tags:boat chieow laan lake


The longtail boats are really fun. They're basically handmade boats with car engines strapped to the back that have been converted so that the drive shift turns a propeller.   tags:boat chieow laan lake


The guys that drive the boat sit on a an old bench seat that was also taken out of an old car.   tags:best boat


As nice as these pics are, they still don't really do the place justice. In person, it's absolutely breathtaking.


Here are a few more pics where we're getting closer to the mountains that were in the distance when we first started out.    tags:boat chieow laan lake


See how big they are?   tags:chieow laan lake karsts


Awesome.   tags:chieow laan lake karsts

meredith silverman
Smiley Meredith.   tags:meredith chieow laan lake


The guy at our hostel highly recommended the tour of the lake and I took his word without asking him to go into too much detail about what we'd be doing on the tour. Around this time we'd be driving across the lake for almost an hour and we were starting to wonder if the whole tour was going to be spent on the boat.   tags:best boat chieow laan lake karsts


Then we rounded a corner and what we thought was the other side of the lake turned out to be an island in the middle of the lake! We entered a cove of some sort and then a couple of minutes later...   tags:best chieow laan lake


...we spotted a series of floating raft houses built along side the edge of the island (which pretty much looked like someone had dropped the top of a mountain into the middle of a lake).   tags:best chieow laan lake


Getting closer...   tags:chieow laan lake raft house


...closer...   tags:chieow laan lake raft house


...almost there...   tags:chieow laan lake raft house


...ta-da! And we've arrived! Turns out these raft houses were build by the locals and you can totally rent them out and vacation in them!   tags:best chieow laan lake raft house


Our guide told us that we were going to be hanging out here for a couple of hours to swim, relax and eat lunch and then we were going to hike across the island and then take a boat from the far side of the island over to a cave! Here's a pic of the big communal hut where our lunch was being prepared.   tags:chieow laan lake raft house


We hung out in the shade and relaxed for a bit.   tags:chieow laan lake raft house


Then we changed into our bathing suits...   tags:chieow laan lake raft house


...in the guest huts and then...    tags:chieow laan lake raft house

meredith silverman
...WE WENT SWIMMING! Hahahaha. Check out the action shot of Mer jumping in for the first time.   tags:meredith best chieow laan lake jump raft house

meredith silverman
I jumped in right after her and with my camera safely locked inside a diving box...   tags:meredith chieow laan lake swim

meredith silverman
...got some sweet underwater photos of us jumping off the bamboo dock and into the turquoise water!   tags:meredith chieow laan lake underwater


The view of the guest huts from the water.   tags:chieow laan lake raft house

brian battjer
Me blowing nose-bubbles underwater.   tags:me chieow laan lake underwater

meredith silverman
Check out the totally jungley mountains in the background. Can you believe that this place actually exists in the world? Even though I was there, every time I see these pictures I'm like "What? That place can't be real!"   tags:meredith best chieow laan lake raft house swim

meredith silverman
I like how that one mountain is shaped like a Smurf hat.   tags:meredith chieow laan lake raft house swim

brian battjer, meredith silverman
Drying off on the dock after our swim!   tags:me meredith best chieow laan lake raft house us

meredith silverman
Around 1pm we ate a delicious lunch. Here's Mer with two of the other tourists (If I remember correctly, they were from Germany) enjoying some post-lunch fruit.   tags:meredith chieow laan lake food raft house


After we'd finished lunch, we went back out on the docks and we ended up striking up a conversation with one of our boat drivers. Which eventually led to him insisting that he take a picture...   tags:boat chieow laan lake longtail raft house

brian battjer, meredith silverman
...of us pretending to be the boat drivers! Hahah.   tags:me meredith boat chieow laan lake longtail raft house us

meredith silverman
Meredith ran into a "snag" when she tried out the special "boat-driving hat."    tags:meredith chieow laan lake laugh raft house

meredith silverman
Here's a shot of the bench on the very back of the boat that we sat on during the ride out to the floating-hut village!   tags:meredith boat chieow laan lake longtail raft house


After we were finished goofing off with the the boat driver, it was time to leave the raft village...   tags:boat chieow laan lake longtail raft house


...and we set out on a hike to cross the island.   tags:hiking


It only took us about thirty minutes to cross the island. We came out of the jungle and had to walk down a really steep trail to get to another "boat launch" area.   tags:chieow laan lake raft raft house


And I use the term "boat" lightly. See those two things on the left? Those are the boats that we were going to be taking to cross the lake and get to the cave that we'd be exploring! They were actually rafts made out of bamboo with 5 HP engines tied to the back!   tags:chieow laan lake raft raft house


Traveling by motorized bamboo raft is a totally crazy experience. That combined with the surroundings made me feel like I'd woken up in some bizarro Legend of Zelda world.   tags:chieow laan lake raft

brian battjer, meredith silverman
Me and Mer on the raft!   tags:me meredith chieow laan lake raft us


On the way we passed another floating-hut village on the water. This one didn't have any guest houses and it was really cool to see that the "tourist" huts were pretty much identical to how the locals live.   tags:chieow laan lake raft house


Cave entrance!   tags:cave chieow laan lake


After thirty minutes or so on the raft, we reached the shore near the cave!    tags:hiking


We tied up our rafts and climbed up to...   tags:hiking


...the entrance of the cave!   tags:cave


One of our guides giving us an overview of some of the formations we'd be seeing in the cave.   tags:cave


Look! It's a, uh, rock formation!   tags:cave


Stalactites!   tags:cave


Stalagmites!   tags:cave


Another kind of rock formation found in caves! (Anyone? Anyone?)   tags:cave


Some quick Googling helped me nail this one down as an example of "drapery."   tags:cave


I think this is also drapery, but it stretched twenty feet from the ceiling all the way to the floor of the cave. It was crazy to look at!   tags:cave


This formation is called "flowstone." This one in particular was the guides' favorite because it looks like hundreds and hundreds of elephant heads (and if you know anything about the Thai, you know they love themselves some elephants).   tags:cave


It's hard to take cave pictures that give a viewer any sense of scale because a camera flash is never strong enough to light up so much darkness - but on the way back out, near the mouth of the cave, there was enough natural light coming in and you can see how huge the place was!   tags:cave


We made our way back across the lake and docked our rafts. Before we set out on our hike back across the island...   tags:chieow laan lake raft house

brian battjer
...our guides made us special leaf hats! (Which really took the whole living inside of the world of Zelda thing to a whole new level. Hahaha.   tags:me leaf hats

meredith silverman
Here's Mer voguing in her hat.    tags:meredith best leaf hats

brian battjer, meredith silverman
Hahaha.    tags:me meredith best leaf hats us


And here's (a totally awesome) pic of our entire tour group ALL WEARING LEAF HATS!   tags:leaf hats


After we'd hiked back across the island, we boarded our longtail boat and started the long trip back across the lake!   tags:boat chieow laan lake


Mountains.   tags:chieow laan lake


A closeup of some of the cool, spindly trees that were growing in the shallows.   tags:chieow laan lake


Another raft house village.   tags:chieow laan lake raft house


This one was a little different than the others we'd seen in that the huts weren't built against the shore. Instead, there seemed to be a raft-walkway that connected two separate islands, and the houses were attached to walkway in the middle of the water! One of the guides told us that this type of setup was used to catch fish in nets!   tags:chieow laan lake raft house


A view of the same village from further away so you can see the size of the mountains in the background.   tags:best chieow laan lake raft house


Not too much of a narrative here. I just like these pics because the clouds are pretty.   tags:chieow laan lake


Mountainy.   tags:chieow laan lake


Heading directly towards one of the many, crazy video-game-looking islands that are on the lake.   tags:boat chieow laan lake longtail


I'll bet you anything that if you explored this island you'd find a heart container and at least a couple of blue rupees.   tags:chieow laan lake

brian battjer, meredith silverman
On the ride back to our hostel, we gave up our seats in the cab and sat in pickup bed where we got to enjoy a little over an hour of 65 MPH winds!    tags:me meredith pickup truck sunglasses us


We spent the rest of the day, lazing around reading and eating delicious Thai snacks!   tags:treats

4 people tagged in this entry
crookjaw jeremy me meredith

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asleep bamboo bangkok bed head best boat book bus cake cave chieow laan lake dogs driving food hiking hotel jump jungle karsts laugh leaf hats longtail note pickup truck raft raft house scooter sign skyline snail sunglasses swim tickets toad train train station treats trees underwater us

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