so we left the room in samui, all 9 of us and headed for the pier to get the boat across to surat thani on the mainland. turned out it was a thai cargo ship so the coch we had been put on drove straight on the ship and we went upstairs as the only 'farangs' as we are known. the pier was a mesh of welded metal but it did the job i suppose. we got the opther side and htought the coach would then take us to the station to get the khoa sok bus but it drove to a shack at the side of the road and left us there to wait for our bus. eventually a little van drove up. imagine would of thos nissan things that corner shop people get all their stock on, one of those but with no side and a roof. i jokingly said i hope thats our bus but then ten minuted later there were 9 backpacks on the roof and nine of us in the back. as it turned out this was only to take us into the main town to get the big coach but even so, it was funny. we had to wait in surat thani town for 1 hour. this is not a tourist place at all, was quite interesting walking around and there were some friendly locals to chat to. Again, i cant bare the heat so ive taken to not wearing my top, im a little less white now so its acceptable ok! however, i did get my boob squeezed by the tour guy which wasn't so pleasant, reet friendly the thais are!

eventually the bus came and again, no other farangs. it was a fifty year old bus with no air conditioning and a selection of buddhist thais, muslim thais and a monk on the back just for completness! what a journey.

eventually arrived at khoa sok and found a room for 80p each per night, perfect! 5 of them straight away decidede they moving on the next morning so it was left to the four of to be at one with the jungle! to be fair, even though its only been three weeks, i know them well enough to knwo they woudlnt have appreciate sharing their room with lizards, frogs, giant spiders and fire flys!

khoa sok is amazing, its of the beaten track so there is little to nothing there but i'd had enough of having a holiday and wanted to do some interesting stuff.

we went tubing down the sok river the next day which basically nmeant we were given tractor tire inner tubes and floated down the river for two hours with 'Em'. really funny guy, only 18 but been in khoa sok his whole life so knew it all well. found some hanging vines for us to swing into the river, found a turtle and a frog and just generally made the whole thing fantastic. however, the thai obsession with my boobs came out again, not only did i get squeezed but i kept getting kissed as well. i know the thai are friendly and liberal but kissing my man breasts is just inappropriate!

when we had finished we offred to buy him and the driver lunch if they took us somewhere good so we went to a not tourist thai place on the side of the road, really nice food and it cost us 8 quid for 6 people!

the scenery is amaing, there are sheer vertical rock/mountain formations but covered in greenery, not entirely sure how it grows on rock! they also took us to a monestry to feed the fish which is good luck, im sure its just as good luck for them since we had to buy the food but never mind!

when we got back, we were a bit stuck as to what we were goign to do for the rest of the day/night! Buddah answered as the sky opened as the stromstarted so off we trotted down the road and swam in the river. it was a bit rocky and shallow but we got far enough down to swim properly but two out of the four of us a whimps and think somethings going to get them so we had to get out at the steps. by steps i mean bamboo pieces attached to rock by what seems like magic.

the only other option then was to have a mud fight in the orange mud, much to the amusment of the locals! although, anothe rpair of shorts ruined.

that night after dinner we found what sounded like a lively bar or club, went up the steps and there were two guys stood behind the bar and that was it, out of politness we bought a drink and since we were the only ones there we could control the music, however, i was out voted so we ended up with the old rice n pea on a again!

unfortunately, we didnt have anough time to do a proper jungle treck as you have to go right to the north of the lake and spend a night there to see the wildlife so we settled for a one day lake tour which just stays to the south of the lake. the two hour long tail boat but us off a bt but it was worth it when we got there. had some food on the floating raft houses and went swimming in the lake then went of for the jungle hike. after an hour or so, a couple of falls, a fresh water land crab, thousands of butterflies and bugs we got to the caves. started following the river down through the caves with thee rubbish spot lights that you had to tie the wires to the battery pack. the rock formations were really cool but 'old rock' was the best explanation i could get. it openined out into a cavern and there were thousands of bats on the roof, the smell was rancid. i think i got weed and pood on a few thousand times but it was fine, it would all be washed off soon.

no turning back now, we just kept going, i think it was 2km in total but it was incredible. it was the sort of thing that even if you had hats, boiler suits and boot on you'd still struggle to be able to do it at home. i had flip flop, shorts and a t shirt on. climing down waterfalls, wading through pools, when i was swimming down a river with a torch in my mouth and bats weeing on my head it was a bit of 'what am i actually doing' moment, brilliant!

the daily storm started while on the longtail back, the lake got so choppy i thought the longtail was going to capsise a couple of tiems, funny for us but scary for the thais!