Our first sleep in the rainforest was pretty good. I was only startled awake once at 340am by a strange cry. It was Niki shouting out half asleep about a big bug in the mosquito net. Turned out it was only a dream brought on by the sound of a big bug flying around our treehouse outside the mosquito net.
Later that morning, we woke up to the sound of rain and hoped they would still be running the tour. Lucky for us they were!
There were eight of us all together. We piled into a mini bus and drove an hour to the pier. When we arrived we were glad to see the rain had stopped since our longtail boat we would be taking had no covered section.
Unfortunately the sun was nowhere to be found but our views were still breathtaking. We took our longtail boat for around fourty minutes in a huge freshwater lake with massive massive 200 meter limestone cliffs on all sides surrounded by fog at the top. Our boat arrived at some floating raft houses where we took some two person kayaks around for awhile exploring the lake on our own. The lake is called INSERT LAKE NAME HERE and is popular with scuba divers. There is an old village where four hundred and fifty families used to live, now submerged in the lake. There is even a large temple now under water. The lake also has a couple of underwater caves to explore.
When we had finished kayaking and swimming in the warm bath-like waters we had lunch prepared for us and then set off again in our longtail boat.
This time our ride was only ten minutes long and took us to the shore. From here we started our jungle trek.
Being in the jungle is like being in any large forest except the trees are way bigger, and humidity is higher. Unfortunately we were on a common trail so most of the wildlife had already be scared away. We did however see a monkey far up in a tree. We hiked for around half an hour and arrived at more floating raft houses at the bottom of a steep slippery trail. In these floating houses the forest marshal and his family live.
We were loaded onto a bamboo boat which was literally lengths of bamboo tied together in a large raft with a tiny motor on the back. As we were riding along we could see the water passing beneath us. This boat took us to a large cave. We had to climb up a steep pathway to get to the entrance. Here the guides took out their lights to lead the way. At first I thought "wow those are decently bright for portable lights". That is when I noticed and laughed at the set up they had. Both guides had plastic bags strapped to their backs with large car batteries inside. From the battery they ran wire and twisted it to the wire from the three foot fluorescent light fixtures they were carrying around the cave. Very creative haha. As is most of the wiring around here.
We explored the cave looking at all the cool rocks making their way to the ground from way above. It was quite a neat experience to be roaming around inside.
Once we were done inside it was down the slippery slope, across the lake on the bamboo boat, up another slippery slope, trek through the jungle (it was now starting to rain quite hard) back into the longtail boat and to the floating rafthouses where we had lunch. We had some coffee here and more fruit relaxing for awhile.
It was then time to set out again on the long fourty minute longtail boat ride across the lake. The rain had picked up alot but there was nothing we could do about that!! Up went the rainjacket hoods and we were off. This ride seemed to take forever. It was still stunning scenery but we were all soaked and ready for dry land. Niki took a picture of the rest of the boat. We were sitting at the front and when you looked back at everyone else you couldn't help but laugh out loud. Everyone including our guide and boat driver were hunched over as much as possible with poncho hoods up looking miserable. It's a great shot haha.
Once on dry land it was into the minibus and off for the hour long drive.
We made plans and later went for drinks with two guys from our trip who were staying just down the road. Their names are Scott and Jeff and they are from South Africa. Both of them are pilots and work in Afghanastan. It was pretty crazy to hear their stories. We sat at a small bar decked out with Bob Marley everything and drank the locals drink of choice. Sang Som rum. It is terrible rum at first but get enough in you and it gets pretty darn good! There was only one other group at this bar and when they left we ended up hanging out with three Thai guys who worked there. It was a really fun night. After a whole lot of rum and just after 3am showing on the clock it was time to trek home!
I say trek because it is far from a nice easy walk. The road we had to take is very long, pitch-black, and full of massive potholes that were more like lakes from the days rain.
So the four of us pulled out our little flash lights and set off into the jungle. The road split halfway and we parted ways and said bye to our new friends and continued on our own.
Once we made it back and up into our treehouse it was lights out!!
I woke up at nine today and wrote this post about yesterday. Now it's time to get out of bed, shower, eat and catch our minibus to Surat Thani airport. At 4pm local time we depart the south and head to Bangkok to meet up with Michelle and Jason! It will now be a totally new adventure again with partners in crime and touring to the north to see some ancient temples and more of the real Thai culture. The south has been incredible but now we will hopefully see more of the real Thailand where English is seldom spoken by the locals.
See you in Bangkok! Cheers!