Khao Sok. After a slight debacle with getting our bus tickets (we were not actually given any by the woman at the bus station)! We are en route to the scenic Khao Sok, just a short bus journey from Surat Thani- 2 hours to be precise. Jade and I alight the bus and once again get greeted with the south east Asian traditional salesman, each one vying for your attention. So now, after listening to what each one had to offer, we are heading to the resort of Khao Sok jungle huts. Our abode is situated in the middle of this vast tropical national park, It is so hot with the sun beating down on us, luckily our hut is shaded by the towering banana and coconut trees. Our resort is offering many tours around this national park but the tours are well out of our backpacking budget! We choose to venture off to explore this tranquil region ourselves, crystal clear waters running through the middle of this tropical forest, outcrops of limestone karsts popping out everywhere, it truely is magnificent. We head back to our hut for a little respite and to hide from the scorching heat. I hear rustling and sqeaking sounds (and no its not jade munching on chocolate!) It is a troop of wild macaque monkey's foraging for food, as there are bananas in abundance that surround our high rise hut! Jade jumps up in excitement, grabs the camera and starts snapping, I am now just about to throw a nut to one and Jade is telling me "no no no don't you remember what the seagulls are like in newquay!", so as Jades back is turned I throw one nut out of the window and over the balcony of our hut. Oh what a silly mistake this turns out to be! We are now being over run by hungry nut loving monkeys, I guess those nuts are called monkey nuts for a reason...! With Jade shrieking at me in madness and anger knowing full well what I had done,The monkeys are going stir crazy grabbing the bars on our windows... this is like something out of a film, Planet of the apes. We are stuck in our hut until we get rescued, these little critters are going nowhere. After some distraction from Jade, I manage to sneak away from the hut and go to get some help. I come back with Jade's Knights in Shining Armour- two local female workers armed with stones and a broom. The naughty little monkeys soon disappear into the jungle and Jade sighs with relief....then tells me again how silly I was to feed the monkeys ...SHE WAS RIGHT !

We head out on our own little adventure in Khao Sok National Park.The village is very quaint, with lots of charm. We now find ourselves at a dead end, on a bank of a river. We make our way through the over grown bamboo to find the river is accesible and it is safe to swim in so in we get. Lush and green on one side and tremendous limestone karsts on the other; another breathtaking view Thailand has to offer. The water is a lot cooler than I expected, refreshing all the same, jade happy taking photos for the mean while until she plucks up the courage to take a dip. There is a rope swing on the other side hanging from a tree which is aloft of the river,It is somewhat difficult to get on to this or even get up on to the river bank as it is so slippery. After a fantastic afternoon, we decide that tomorow we are going to head straight to Phuket Town from here as it is too expensive to venture around and also we cannot wait to get to the beaches.