We arrived in Koh Sok in the late afternoon after a long drive in a minibus. We were staying at a place called Koh Sok Jungle Huts which was just a short walk from the park entrance. The huts were great! They were raised off the ground and had their own little balcony and bathroom. We booked ourselves on a trip to go on a lake tour and a trek to the caves. As we were sitting out on the balcony that night, we spotted a monkey swinging throught the trees right outside our hut. The girls opposite had left their door open, and the monkey just walked straight into it! All we heard was a giant scream and then saw a disgruntled monkey running back into the forest!

When we got to the main park entrance after a short drive, the views over the water were stunning. Apparently the lake was manmade as it was force flooded years ago. At one point underneath the water, the guy said there was once a whole city about 60m down that still remains. The water was all fresh water, and all around was limestone Karsts. We stopped at a floating raft for lunch and had a little swim and a canoe. If you were doing a two day tour, you got to stay in these huts that floated on the water. After lunch, we started our trek into the jungle. After only a few minutes we saw the most enormous spider. The trek was great, we had to wade across rivers, walk along thin wooden bridges, climb over trees, wade through mud and most importantly, keep a good look out for leeches! On the way, we saw this fern, that when you touch it, its leaves curl up as a defence mechanism, then opens up after a few minutes. Needless to say, this kept us entertained for a while as there was loads of it! When we got to the cave entrance, we put on head torches and began crawling through. Because it was monsoon season, we couldn't go all the way through it at there was a waterfall inside that was impossible to climb with the level of water. It was really cool though, wading through a cave with the water coming up to you shoulders in the pitch black. These caves were where comunist students hid out for years during the war. You would have to be really brave to do that as well! The occasional big spider sitting on the cave walls as well. Inside, we stopped just before the waterfall, as there were some cool stalegtites and washed down rock that was so smooth. On the way back, we nearly got stuck in the mud in the river, so we had to wash off with a swim back at the raft.

The next day, we decided to explore the park for ourselves. The park is home to the largest flower in the world, but unfortunatley is only in bloom around February time. We did manage to get a photo with a fake one near the entrance though! We set off along the trail, and ended up at a wooden bridge. As we started to walk across, we started to see really big spiders webs. Then more came into view, and the whole bridge was covered in them, complete with giant spiders! Kirsty tried to wack them away with a stick, but there was too many of them, and it turned out that the spiders jumped! On the way back down the same path, the skys opened up and we got caught in a massive storm. After we walked the other way in search of a water fall. It was really exciting on the way as we saw loads of wild animals. There was also a sign saying there was wild elephants around but unfortunatley we didn;t see any. We finally made it to the waterfall, then on the way back we saw some wild gibbons in the trees. We had our fair share of leeches on this walk, and Kirsty got one right in between her toes. On the night we got our tickets booked to go to Koh Samui in the morning.