Khao Sok

In front of our lakeside bungalows

After waking up super early to fly from Bangkok to Surat Thani, Sarah and I met our driver to take us to the Morning Mist Resort in Khao Sok National Park. It was well worth the early morning because by 11 AM we were headed out to go elephant trekking. Our elephant was named Samboon and had spotted ears that he kept flapping to keep himself cool. The guide let us both move down out of the saddle and onto his neck to get a more upclose and personal feel for elephant riding. We needed to cool off (and nap) after our ride, so we went to the hotel pool to relax a bit.

Khao Sok National Park

After a light lunch, we had our first of hopefully many Thai massages down the rode at Country House. After the massage, Sarah proclaimed "This is the best day ever!" Sounds like the trip is off to a great start to me! We had drinks at a place on the river before another delicious Thai meal before hitting the hay early in our little treehouse hut. 

Inside our tree hut

The next morning, we were picked up at 8:30 for a two day-one night jungle trek. We drove about an hour into the park to a pier and boarded a longboat to venture further into the jungle. When we arrived at our lodging for the night, we found a row of bamboo bungalows hovering above the lake. We immediately dove into the lake for a swim and some kayaking before lunch. 

The longboat we took to the bungalows on the lake

After lunch, we hopped back into the longboat to begin a three-hour hike through the jungle to a cave. Imagine all of the creepiest, crawliest creatures you can and that's what was in the cave. We saw loads of bats, spiders the size of your hand, snakes and apparently there were also leeches milling about. Fortunately, none of our leech checks detected a leech so the heebee-jeebees I had the whole time might have been a little unwarranted (aside from the giant spiders, bats and snakes). As we ventured further into the cave, we trudged into deeper and deeper water in this underground river until the point that we were literally swimming because you couldn't touch the floor. In any other country, you'd have to stop before you even reached the water, but not in Thailand! You just swim right on through. I felt like a true spelunker. 

Incredible sunset over the lake

When we got back to the bungalows, Sarah and I felt like we deserved a beer (or three) and tossed back a few with our new German, Dutch and Canadian friends while having another swim in the lake. Sarah announced again at this point that this was "the best day ever!" It might be hard to keep topping such awesome days for ten days straight, but hopefully Thailand won't let us down. 

Creepy cave