Our arrival in Thailand took us first to Khao Sok national park. This enormous park is approximately 2.5 hours north of Phuket and to reach our bungalows you had to take an hour boat ride through the beautiful scenery that makes up the park. It is nearly untouched by humans, has the tallest limestone mountain formations in all of Thailand, hundreds of wild species and perfect, glassy water, that Shane and I were desperate to try and water ski on! The one thing the park lacked was accommodations. Our floating bungalows were just that – bamboo huts, floating on the water. There was an outhouse that you had to walk across a bamboo floating plant to reach and you didn’t dare try after 10pm because the generator was shut off and there was no electricity!
The sightseeing and activities did make up for the primitive housing. We did 4 kayaking trips where we saw beautiful limestone formations, several monkeys jumping in the trees and, our last morning there; we saw an Asian black bear clawing at a tree for termites. Our guide said he had last seen one 4 years ago! We also saw several wild elephant tracks but were never close enough to see one.
We also took a 3 hour hike up a mountain in the park. We were slightly unprepared since we were unaware there would be hiking involved so Sarah wore her only pair of lace up shoes and Shane had dress socks and boat shoes! To make matters worse, it is the wet season so leeches are out in great numbers and to avoid them you have to move fast. We basically sprinted half way up the mountain, taking occasional breaks to check for leeches and pick them off our socks before they embedded into our legs. About halfway up the mountain turned into limestone and we had to scale our way up. We were now more concerned about falling and breaking our heads open than the leeches! However, we made it and the view from the top was exquisite. We were also able to see several great hornbills, huge black and yellow birds that are quite majestic.
After 2 nights in our bungalows we took the 1 hour trip by boat to shore then drove 2.5 hours to Phuket. Phuket is a beautiful island with white sand beaches surrounded by mountains. It unfortunately has been a little tourist infested and you are accosted as you walk down the street by tuk tuk drivers and store keepers who will do anything to get you to enter their shop (again, of all fake items). Think Cancun in Asia. However, we were thrilled to be there. Our hotel had air-conditioning and electricity (a huge step up from Khao Sok) and we were off to scuba dive the day after we arrived.
Our scuba trip was a “liveaboard” trip, famous in Thailand, where they take you out for the day, provide lunch and great diving. It was everything we expected with very professional guides and great diving. We went to banana bay at Racha Noi and did 2, 1 hour dives at around 60 feet. The coral in Thailand is huge and very distinct from the Caribbean where we have done most of our diving. There were tons of small fish in the coral and swimming around us. No big manta rays or sharks were seen, which was a bummer to Shane and the other diver with us but a relief to Sarah. :o)
Today is the last full day of our vacation! We have spent it laying out on the beach, getting our last Thai massages and overall relaxing. We leave tomorrow for Hong Kong and then Sunday for the USA. It has been a great trip but we are exhausted and ready to get home and back to some semblance of normalcy. We hope you have enjoyed reading our blog and maybe it will help plan a SE Asia trip for you! We will send out pictures once we can get everything downloaded. Thanks to everyone who sent emails and we can’t wait to see you all again soon! Love, Sarah and Shane.
No comments:
Post a Comment