Still Haven't Been Sold Into Sex Slavery: Jurassic Park

The gang chowing down

We left Maya Bay in a daze, sure that our trip had already peaked and we were only four days in. We returned to the main land and decided to leave immediately. The four of us spent one night in Krabi then headed to Khao Sok national park. Upon arriving, we again felt like we had won the lottery. The Andaman coast side of Thailand shares the same topography of the lime stone cliffs that make the islands famous. As you drive through the valley to get to the park all you see are peaks covered in dense layers of trees and vines that shelter smaller valleys and river beds. We had landed in Jurassic Park. You can seriously hear the theme music when you enter the valley the park lies in (either that or someone in the van was humming it.) We found a quiet resort that had cheap and beautiful bungalows on the river then promptly padded ourselves on the back with beers, some of the best Thai food I’ve ever had and games of Jenga.

Khao Sok is the first national park in Thailand and part of the oldest rainforest in the world. It’s a loud, dark, damp, dense mammoth of a place with wild elephants, wild tigers, monkeys and snakes roaming undetected and, sadly, out of sight. A true jungle that reminds of youthful games of Explorer played in the bushes in your backyard.

We were up early and on the trail, expecting to do the whole loop of the park plus a quick hike to a stunning waterfall. We opted to kill the waterfall first so we could do the loop undisturbed. This plan seem to backfire after about 40 minutes. You’re constantly running into the branches and foliage and the trails are not as marked or noticeable as I would have thought. Jon was in the lead or I’m certain we would have been stranded farang lost in the old jungle within seconds. Everything is damp and whatever you grab to use as balance when you fall usually stings you. The noise of the jungle can be deafening at times so conversation came and went at the jungle’s whim. We crossed numerous streams (I took one major swim where, luckily, the only thing that was spared from a watery death was my camera) and climbed over large branches and rocks. Two hours in and we still hadn’t made it to the waterfall. It was slow going, to say the least. And then there were the leeches.

Jungle

Like something out of a bad 50s horror movie, the floor of the jungle actually looks like its moving in certain places. When you stop to take a breather you can see them come at you from the ground, flipping over like a slinky and come at you from every side. When you are walking, they stand tall on one bottom and swing around in the hopes of grabbing on to you as you walk by. And that tactic works. We started stopping more than we should to examine our shoes and socks for these sneaky fuckers (you can’t feel their bite or their sucking so unless you see them you have no way of knowing they are sucking you dry.) Unaware I would have to fend off blood sucking fiends in Thailand, I had worn hiking sandals. They were everywhere. Reaching my hand between the sandal and my foot I’d pull out a few at a time. I found one fucker, fat on my blood, between the strap and my toe. And while they aren’t really harmful (we were assured there was no diseases) they carry a major ick factor when you are pulling them off. Every once and a while I'd hear a groan coming from Molly, meaning I had to go peel her leeches off. By the time we reached the waterfall we were all bleeding from somewhere. Molly had 4 of them in her shoes and socks and somehow Jon had them on his chest, back and thigh. We stripped down and cleaned off in the waterfall, which, by the way, was worth the hike. We made it back to the trailhead in time for a stunning rainforest thunderstorm.

The following day we said goodbye to Jon and spent the day on the massive lake inside the park. Words can’t really do it justice, so I’ll leave you with pictures. Next stop is Laos, which I can only hope will be able to compete with the journey so far.