It was hard, but we finally managed to tear ourselves away from the clutches of Khao Lak. I can’t say it was the most amazing place I’ve ever been to, but there’s just something about it that makes you want to buy a scooter, rent a little bungalow in the mountains and stay for as long as it takes you to forget that anywhere else exists.
We couldn’t really have earned our ‘backpacker badges’ if our journey started and stopped in Khao Lak though. So we put our lives back into our packs after a particularly boozy send off, and headed north to Khao Sok National Park way too early the next morning.
Khao Sok is a rainforest in Southern Thailand that is said to be older than the Amazon. It’s home to elephants, tigers and bears (not that we saw any) and is littered with clear streams, waterfalls and gigantic limestone cliffs. In a word, it’s magnificent.
Unfortunately our expedition was tinged with a tad of bitterness from the beginning though. We had gone to speak to Shaun, an expat in Khao Lak who had recently moved down from Khao Sok after a fairly hefty stint in the jungle. (Stay with me, I know all these Khaos can be confusing). What we thought would be a friendly chat filled with tips and tales quickly turned into a 3 way Thai conversation between him, his Thai wife and her sister in Khao Sok, with us sitting in baffled silence on the sideline.
Before we knew it a tour had been organised on our behalf without the option of opting out and the worst part about it was he expected us to be grateful, which at the time we kind of were because we weren’t quite sure what had just happened or how.
We came away slightly bemused, but once we had talked it through in the quiet of our room we came to the conclusion that all the “added” extras were probably worth the “special” fee we were paying, and we were able to go to bed feeling a bit better about the situation.
So, what was meant to happen:
On arrival at the bus station/bench on the side of the road, we were going to be picked up by Shaun’s Thai wife’s sister. She would then drive us around until we found accommodation to our taste and budget. Once settled, we would then be picked up and taken on an orientation tour of the surrounding area before going to her restaurant for lunch. From there we’d go kayaking on the river. After which we’d be taken to Monkey Temple, and the tour would conclude with a stop off at the lookout point to watch the sunset.
What actually happened:
We arrived at the bus station/bench on the side of the road, and Shaun’s Thai wife’s sister was there waiting for us. Good start. From there she took us to her restaurant. Not exactly according to plan, but we went with it. She gestured for us to pick up our packs and walked us across the road to what were quite obviously her best mate’s bungalows. They exchanged words (in Thai) and with that, she was gone. According to her, our accommodation hunt was over.
We were given the option of seeing two bungalows, one that cost 800 Bhat, the other that was 250. BIG price difference. It didn’t leave us with much of a decision as we could only really afford the latter, so off we went with Shaun’s Thai wife’s sister’s best mate to see what £3 would buy us.
Through the “tropical garden” we trekked, and just before we reached the ass end of beyond we came upon it, a pile of woven leaves and sticks ominously balancing on termite ridden stilts. We should have turned around then and there, but we’re not ones to shy away from a bit of rusticity, so we followed new Thai lady in through the door that she almost took off as she opened it.
There is just no single word to describe what awaited us inside. I’m writing this wishing I had taken a photo so you could all see it for yourselves. Something lived in there and it wasn’t human. The bed looked alive with creatures. The walls were alive with creatures. Nature had moved in and it didn’t look like it was going to be moving out for us.
There was no way in hell we were going to spend another second in there let alone a whole night, and new Thai lady knew it. She had that ‘I know I’m showing you the most disgusting room we have so you’ll cave and take the 800 Bhat room’ look in her eye.
Well, it didn’t work.
Packs in hand we hightailed it out of there and walked our way from one resort to the next until we found a lovely clean, riverside bungalow disease free and human friendly all for just 300 Bhat. No thanks to Shaun’s Thai wife’s sister.
Next on our “agenda” was the orientation tour of the area, so we made our way back to the restaurant we had first been dropped off at. But there was no orientation tour. There was only lunch, which, I have to say, actually deserves a bit of credit. We had barely finished chewing our last mouthfuls, however, when a crazy-eyed man arrived and began to usher us into his car, “Kayaking, you go kayak now!” We weren’t about to argue.
About 10km on and a few near death experiences later we came to an abrupt halt on the side of the road in what had to be the middle of nowhere. Our driver pointed to a man halfway down what would become an inverted incline carrying a kayak, then got back in his car and left us standing there. There was nothing else to do but follow him.
Despite the fact that we were kayaked and didn’t actually get to kayak ourselves, the Kyaking was great. Khao Sok really is incredibly beautiful. The towering limestone cliffs lined with trees older than our greatest grandfathers have this way of making you feel insignificant in the world. It’s a truly incredible place to see.
But back to business.
Just before we arrived at our final destination our guide found us a beautiful black and yellow snake. Mysteriously, a VERY similar black and yellow snake, in a very similar tree appeared in photos taken by friends' of ours who visited the park 2 weeks later. Coincidense?
Our crazy-eyed driver man was waiting for us as we beached, not to take us to Monkey Temple or the lookout point as we had been told, but to take us back to our accommodation as he had been told. You see, he wasn’t the monkey Temple Man, he was the Kayak man. How silly of us not to have known. So we asked him to drop us off at Shaun’s wife’s sister’s place thinking that maybe she had arranged for the Monkey Temple man or the lookout point man to collect us. But she hadn’t, and she couldn’t take us because she ‘no have car anymore’. And with that our “special” tour for a “special” fee was over.
What’s the moral of the story? Don’t go speak to Shaun in Khao Lak if you want to go to Khao Sok.
Our “special tour” aside, it was a magnificent place to spend a couple of days. Just peaceful and beautiful and refreshing. We got to walk unassisted and at our leisure through one of the oldest rainforests in the world. We got to see monkeys swimming for the first time in both our lives. And we got to experience a completely different side of Thailand. All in all, it was worth tearing ourselves away from the beach.
K&M
Check out some of the pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43679192@N07/sets/72157622872037077/
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