Khao Sok National Park floating village day 2 and more cave visits - and then to Khao Lak

We got up at 6:30 AM to be ready for our morning boat ride on the lake. The spider monkeys had been quite active and noisy during the night and this morning they were still marking their presence on the opposite side of the lake.

We headed out with our boat at 7 AM breaking the perfect morning quietness with a boat that sounded like a machine gun. Not the best combination for a quiet morning but our boat driver was kind and turned the engine off and during the next hour we managed to see some monkeys and a few birds before returning to camp and breakfast.

Planning and information is not always the strong side of Thai guides, so after breakfast we were told to pack our stuff since we would be leaving for another cave hike and not coming back to the floating village. Quite annoying since we would have liked to stay back and just enjoy the morning sun and the quiet place. Not an option though.

We back tracked slightly with the boat going towards the next stop and the caves. Once at another floating restaurant we were told to join another group for the hike - our guide not really into hiking this morning. Malene stayed back at the restaurant and Mikkel went with the group towards the caves. No water this morning, just uphill until we got to the cave entrance. Many more bats once we were inside and after some 10 minutes we came to the far end of the cave, turned around and headed back to the restaurant on our own. We had lunch there with a lot of other groups feeling very busy before heading back to the pier, our mini bus and eventually making it back to our hostel.

Reunited with our big back packs we left for the bus to Khao Lak, This time it was a but with and engine and a driver who didn't have to do a 30 minute service stop on the way which cut the transport time down considerably. We were a bit confused as to where to get off the bus in Khao Lak not having done our home work with directions to the hostel fully, but we asked the driver to drop us off at the end of the town and asking a woman in one of the many tourist offices we had a great reply - down the road 100 metres and to the left. We followed directions only to arrive at the hostel we booked and then being told that we had booked at the other branch - which was back the same way we came and more or less across the street from where we stopped.

We got our room in a hostel that had been setup inside an old shopping mall - and then we headed out to the dive shops to see if we could get a reservation for a liveaboard in the next few days. Turned out it was busy season but after a bit of back and forth we signed up for a three day/two nights even though they were short on instructors and Mikkel therefore couldn't get a PADI dive course but had to snorkel on his own. No big deal though. We signed up.

Dinner at a local thai place - they are hard to find in Khao Lak where most menus are in English or a Nordic Language and include Western dishes such as Swedish meatballs. Then back to the hostel to relax after ice cream and coffee for desert. No action tomorrow except for a trip to the beach.

Beautiful morning on the lake

Almost sunrise

Looking for monkeys

Our tiny bungalow

Mind the gap

Bye bye, floating village

Heading back the same way we came

Ready to go for another hike

Tall trees

Heading down to the cave entrance

Lunch and fruit

Reunited with back packs

And the hammock

Everything OK at the dive shop

Quiet day in the hammocks - and a short trip down the river in Khao Sok National park on a bamboo raft

We spent a bit of time with the guy at the hostel going through the different options for day trips in the coming days. We are definitely going on an afternoon trip today which is a total no-brainer. Being picked up at the hostel, dropped off somewhere on the river, board bamboo raft and then have a local guy taking us down the river us doing nothing. How can that not be good?

The other plan we had to consider was our two day/one night trip to the national park to stay in a floating village, explore some caves and enjoy nature. They were quite flexible with our reservation at the hostel so we decided to leave for the lake tomorrow morning. This was also fine, since it would bring us back to Khao Lak and the ocean a bit faster.

We enjoyed the morning and a bit of the afternoon in the hammocks before being picked up for a short drive and then float down the river for about an hour only doing a short stop to get "Bamboo tea" with our guide. Somewhere down the river another guy picked us up and drove 30 minutes back to our hostel and that was it. Great afternoon on the river with impressive mountains and cliffs surrounding us - and mostly just us meaning a very quiet ride. Forget the Thai guys who were trying to move 20 bamboo rafts up the river with a long tail boat engine, and the party of 20 Western (overgrown) teenage tourists doing their booze-cruise in the inflated tubes.

Back at the hostel we headed down to road to a local restaurant for food and then back to pack for our 2 days out on the lake. Pick up early tomorrow - maybe around 9 AM. Still time for breakfast.

Down to the final part of the Weekend Avisen

Dire news - from the 1940's

Packing for our trip tomorrow

Bamboo raft - ready

A train of rafts going up-river

Ooops, the rope broke, missing a few rafts and a guy

Impressive landscape and dead quiet river

Stopping for Bamboo-tea

Heading back to the hostel