For some stupid reason the boat operators had decided it made sense to put all the backpacks downstairs, right at the front of the boat. This meant that when we got to port in Krabi we had to wait ages for everyone to clamber down and find their bags and then haul their bags between the rows of seats and back up on deck. Not very clever.
We didn't have long to wait at the port before we were whisked away in a minibus to a transport hub, where we had time to grab an ice cream before getting into yet another minibus bound for the Khao Sok national park.
We met an interesting couple on the way, the woman was Swedish and her partner was Swiss, so they spoke to one another in English. Pretty impressive! They were half way through 6 months of travelling. We couldn't help but feel slightly jealous, although we've done so much this trip.
In typical tourist scam fashion, the minibus dropped us at their affiliated accommodation in a bid to convince us to stay there. The place looked okay, but we had no idea how far from the park entrance it was. Given we were only spending one night we wanted to be as close to the forest trails as possible. We held our ground and persuaded the guy to drive us to the Visitor Centre.
The place was more or less deserted, like some kind of ghost town. There was only one place to stay near the Visitor Centre, but the people in there didn't seem very inclined to ask for our business. The polar opposite of the feeding frenzy that met us on Ko Phi Phi.
It transpired that Tree Tops River Huts was in fact open for business. The couple we met were there too and we all checked in, although we went slightly upmarket by opting for a 1200 baht hut on stilts with aircon.
The Khao Sok park is awesome. I had read an animal log book in the Visitor Centre that wad full of sightings of snakes, including cobra, so I was desperate to hit the forest trails.
We met a couple who looked like they shopped in the same place as Bear Grylls. They were wearing hiking boots and hiking socks pulled up over their walking trousers and they looked pretty fed up and sweaty. Turns out they had walked along the northern trail and had spent the last 2 hours pulling leeches off one another. They hadn't even seen any wildlife! Their exact words were, "It's not worth it".
Having seen the forest I can tell you categorically that it definitely IS worth it.
We walked the trail leading west from the Visitor Centre (which is on the doorstep of Tree Tops) for about two hours and within 10 minutes we saw our first snake. This was followed by a long list of other animals including Dusky langurs, horned mountain dragons and an amazing butterfly whose wing tips have evolved to look like its head to confuse predators.
Not my photo below, but I wanted to share the beauty of Dusky langurs with you. We saw a fairly large group of at least four individuals as they moved silently through the canopy.
What we didn't see was any leeches. Just as well, given the number of daytrippers we passed walking down the trail in flip-flops!
We had heard thunder on the way out and it started chucking it down as we were on the way back. Another refreshing tropical rainstorm. We were fairly drenched by the time we got back.
Despite the modest accommodation the lady who seems to run the place is very smiley and helpful. Even better, she's a brilliant cook. Superb Thai curries for a quid each! It's very hard to fault this place right now.
After dinner I decided it would be fun to do a night walk to see if we could spot anything interesting. We stuck to the tarmac, for fear of leeches, but we still managed to see some good wildlife, particularly a horned mountain dragon asleep on a leaf (which to my annoyance a passing guide then caught by the tail to show to the two paying customers with him). We also saw a fabulous Tokay gecko.
We got an early night in the hope of getting up early and having time to do a decent hike along the same trail before leaving for Khao Lak.
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