Khao Sok National Park

After 5 days on Ko Phangan we departed the beach for the rain forest. A 1 hour ferry and 2 hour bus ride brought us to Khao Sok national park which is located in Southern Thailand and is one of the oldest and greenest forest ecosystems in the world. It's 160 million years old to be precise! And huge.... it covers an area of 739 square kilometres!

The worlds friendliest kitten at the hotel bar.

We stayed in a treehouse on the side of a river with huge limestone mountains juttting up into the sky around us. Monkeys played in the river right below our deck and we slept to the sound of cicadas chirping. There are deep valleys, caves, wild animals, and the most breathtaking lake where we spent the night in a floating lake house.

We started off with an afternoon at a nearby elephant sanctuary where we fed 2 sweet elephants buckets of bananas and took them on a walk to get covered in mud and bathe in the river. They were so gentle and sweet, it was nice to be around these giants without participating in unethical activities like elephant riding.

Day 2 started off our overnight adventure to Cheow Lan Lake. We took a boat out onto the lake were we went hiking, nature watching and swimming in the warm water. We slept in a floating lake house with ty most fabulous morning view of the sun rising over the misty water.

One fascinating thing about this lake is that it’s man-made. Cheow Lan lake is right in the heart of the National Park. Much of the park, which protects the watershed of the Sok River and rises to a peak of nearly 1000m, is carpeted in impenetrable rainforest, home to gaurs, leopard cats and tigers etc, and up to 155 species of bird. The limestone crags that dominate almost every vista are so beautiful. We liked waking up to the sound of hooting gibbons and the sight of thick white mist curling around the limestone mountains. It was magical.

Next up we head to northern Thailand to Sukothai to see temples and ruins.

Ko Phangan

After 4 flights and about 22 hours of traveling we finally arrived in Ko Samui on Feb 2 at around 2pm. We were super lucky on our 13 hours flight from Vancouver to Taipei as we had no one in the seat between us. Scott slept stretched out on the 3 seats and I slept on the floor (not the most comfortable but better than sitting up!). We flew EVA air for the first time and it's a great airline! Nice planes and good food.

We both took just carry on for this vacation as we have 2 tight airline connections later in the trip that I don't want to trust to checked baggage. The last connection on this trip also was a tight 2 hour window between landing in Bangkok where we had to get through customs, run to the domestic check in to get boarding passes then back through security to our gate. We just made it as the customs line was insane, it took over an hour to clear so we were glad we didn't have to wait for baggage too after all that.

We crashed in Ko Samui the first night...we barely managing to stay awake until 8:30pm as we were so jet lagged but we woke up feeling pretty good and enjoyed a nice breakfast on the beach before taking a ferry to Ko Phangan at 12:30pm. Ko Samui is way more expensive and a bit overdeveloped for us but Ko Phangan is a total laid back hippy island and right up our alley!!

This beautiful hotel cost us about $70/night and it was paradise! We spent the last 4 days suntanning and eating yummy food and generally relaxing and getting over jet lag.

While we were just finishing up dessert in a restaurant on the 2nd night,  I look up as a girl walks in and we both freeze as we make eye contact...it's an old friend from high school who I haven't seen or heard from in close to 15yrs! She has been living on Ko Phangan for 6 years and owns a restaurant just down the road from our hotel. We hung out the next night at her restaurant for dinner (very good Israeli food!) and last night she took me to a place called The Dome with outdoor saunas and firepits and hypnotic music pumping, it was a unexpectedly fun night!

Today is a travel day. I'm writing this on my iPhone from a ferry. Thankfully SIM cards are super cheap in Thailand...for $25 we both have 30 days unlimited data. We are heading back to the mainland where a bus will take us 3 hours into one of the world's oldest rain forests! We are staying in a tree house in the jungle and filling the next 3 days with adventure!