In the jungle, the mighty jungle....

Here we are again, sitting in a small disserted internet café with the rain lashing down outside. As the months have worn on the more it has rained. Sara and I can not recollect the last time we had a full day without thunder and lighting. Today has been especially troublesome, as we travelled in full bright sunshine to a new island, but as soon as we step outside and venture off in search of a beach…. CRASH… BANG… WHLOOP! Still you’re probably thinking ‘ungrateful bastards’.

Last you heard from us we moved inland to visit the national park Koh Sok, which for all its wondrous scenery was a little too rustic for us and the 8 other Germans who we travelled with. Arriving in Koh Sok we were met by thunder & lightening, though this didn’t put us off buying another trekking package. We first arrived at one of the possible hostels where we wanted to stay and asked to see the rooms- as the very helpful Thai guy showed us to our 'room to be', we were greeted by a monkey sitting on our balcony watching life go by. As soon as the monkey saw us it stared at us and then, very politely, it opens its legs and urinated all over our table! It was hilarious and photos were taken before moving on to a different hostel without moneky wee.

The next day was when the adventure started! Over the course of 2 days we would stay in a river village, sleeping in a bamboo bungalow floating in the middle of the lake and trek through rainforest to some spider/scorpion filled caves. It was worth every penny of the two days as we spent the days running away from the bees which inhabited the communal toilets and chasing monkeys across the river shore.

However you may feel I’m rushing through this experience but I have one memory ingrained into me for the rest of my perilous life. On our one and only night aboard a floating bamboo bungalow I woke about 3am believing, in my half conscious sate, that a Thai person was trying to break into our hut using a saw. Then, came the realization that the hut didn’t have doors and he could have strolled in and out as they pleased. Fumbling for the flash light I shined the beam in the direction expecting to find a robber, but instead I found the huge, and I mean HUGE, rat….. ‘sweet baby Jesus’ I thought. Sara woke at this point asking, in slurred voice, what the commotion was; I very quickly diffused the situation by turning off the flash light and pretending to sleep. Once her ‘light’ snores came back I looked again for the rat… the little sod had run off. I, subsequently, spent the rest of the night bathed sweat imaging all sorts of horror scenarios involving a nest of rats underneath out mattress. Sara said in the morning she ‘slept like a baby’…… excellent – well done.

The scenery in Koh Sok is beautiful and if you ever get the chance to visit it is well worth the money. We went on night and day safaris which included many exotic animals such as birds, mammals (we can’t name), giant fish and the groups favorite, Monkeys. We stayed for three nights and hugely enjoyed ourselves making some excellent friends from Berlin who are adamant we visit them in the summer.

Next blog will be the West Islands . Hope to hear from you and can’t wait to see you in the summer.

Tom & Sara