If you ever plan on visiting Thailand, I would strongly recommend a visit to Khao Sok National Park. It is a huge area of untouched rainforest that is full of wildlife and interesting limestone mountains. The Thai government built a dam there in the 1980's, and the lake if formed provides access to areas deep in the forest. The area is rich in wildlife. We stayed there for three days and saw hornbills, macaques, dusky leaf monkeys, wild pigs, gorgeous butterflies, and even a wild elephant! The sounds were amazing: the deafening screeching of bugs (but no biters), the crashing of monkey families as they jump from tree to tree, the cackle of the hornbills, and best of all the eerie singing of the gibbons.
The only accommodations inside the park are these funky floating bamboo huts. There are about six raft-house encampments scattered along the lake shores, but the lake is so big you don't see any others. The rooms are simple - just a thatched roof, open windows, and mats on the floor. You'd think that you'd get chewed up by bugs, but there weren't any mosquitos. We had arranged daily excursions to look at wildlife, and the rest of the time we could jump off our porch and swim in the warm clear water, or grab a kayak and explore the shorelines of the nearby islands. In the evenings we hung out at the bar and listened to some of the other guides play guitar and sing Thai folk songs (for their own amusement - we were just lucky enough to listen in).
Everything at the raft-house encampment was connected by rickety walkways. This is the path to the bathroom. The weird angles and occasion missing plank make it tricky enough to negotiate during the day, but when the lights go off at 11 it is gets a little scary. Don't get me wrong - as funky as this place is, it's an amazing place to stay.
To get there, you have to take traditional Thai long tail boats. You see these everywhere in Thailand, and they really are quite charming. These narrow wooden boats are about 20 feet long and powered by car engines. The engines are balanced on swivels, with a long drive shaft leading to the propeller, and a long steering arm on the opposite side of the engine. Our boat was far from reliable, and broke down on our return from a sunset safari trip. This could have been bad since there is no cell service in the park, but thankfully it happened when we were in shouting distance of the raft houses. It was interesting to see how all the guides and boat drivers (about a dozen people) all worked together to repair broken parts with limited resources.
Sunset on the lake
We saw quite a few of these dusky langurs (leaf monkeys).
You have to pass through an area of weirdly-shaped limestone mountains in order to get the the raft houses.
We stopped by this little fishing village to buy some supplies.
Jackpot! Our guide heard from a park ranger that the elephants had returned to the lake earlier than usual, so we traveled several miles deeper into the park in the distant hope of spotting one. We heard this one chomping bamboo in the jungle, and waited to see if he'd come close enough for us to see him. As it turned out, he seemed as interested in us as we were in him. We spent a wonderful hour watching each other.
