After chasing kids around for a few days, we were ready to relax! We spent a couple of days on Koh Phangan – best known as the location of the Full Moon parties – on our way to Khao Sok National Park.
Koh Phangan
We thought about trying to make it to Koh Phangan for a Full Moon party to see what it was all about, but it unfortunately (fortunately?) did not line up with our schedule. But we loved our few days there. We relaxed on some gorgeous beaches, saw some wonderful sunsets, and went to one of the smaller, weekly parties which was plenty for us. We had a great time, but I am not sure we would have been able to hang during a full throttle Full Moon.
Khao Sok
After that we made our way via boat and bus and another bus to Cheow Lan Lake in Khao Sok National Park. The night before the lake was spent in a town called Ban Ta Khun. As we were driving in, our map app told us that our hotel was close even though we were about 10-15 minutes from the town. So following our handy map, we got off the bus early and started walking toward the hotel. After we walked back up the main road a bit more than we thought we should have, turned up a random street, walked through what looked like a lumber yard, through a small path in the trees, up another small road, and landed on someone’s doorstep, we realized our map was wrong. Very, very wrong. The people whose house we suddenly showed up at in the dark of night did not speak English and did not understand from our phones and maps where we were supposed to be. They flagged down some guy going down the road on a motorbike. Then two more. Among that group everyone finally figured out where we were going, and guess what? We should not have gotten off the bus early. Luckily the guy who lived at the house was super nice and drove us to our hotel in town and the shop where we needed to catch the boat the next day was right next door. *phew*
The next day, we boarded a boat with a souped up weedwhacker as an engine and headed into the beautiful national park.
Our first night in our on-the-water, bamboo bungalows was amazing! We practically had the place to ourselves so it was amazingly peaceful. Though we did make friends with the one other couple there, and spent a good part of the night playing Uno with them and their two kids.
The next morning, we headed out for a jungle trek. Unfortunately, our weedwhacker broke down so we spent about half an hour floating just far enough off the dock that we couldn’t get back. When we finally did, we borrowed another group’s boat and headed off on the trek. It was not the toughest journey we’ve ever had, but we got to play Tarzan on the way – swinging on vines and climbing trees.
And oh yea – the view at the top was spectacular! We had been in a lot of cities the previous weeks and missed views like this.
When we got back, what seemed like hundreds of other tourists had arrived. The peace and quiet we had enjoyed the night before was suddenly gone. So we found some quiet on a kayak trip where we met some monkeys looking for dinner.
The next morning at around 4 or 5 AM, some of the newly arrived tourists were washing their clothes in the lake outside our hut being as loud as if they were the only ones there. It may have made me a little grumpy, but luckily this beautiful scenery can make everything better.
Brandon & Devon (BaD) Journey 