from the jungle onto the beach..

We had one last hike in Khoa Sok before leaving. We all hiked into the national park and up to a waterfall – well, we don’t think we ever actually found the waterfall, but we saw 3 or 4 monkeys on the way. It was unbearably hot, and it felt good to put our feet and legs into a stream at the spot where we thought the waterfall should be (all the signs pointed there, but there were just rapids) and then it started to rain. We got a bit wet, which felt very good, then the rain stopped and Angela, Alex, and I headed back and Laura pushed on to the next waterfall. When we got back as far as the park’s welcome center, the wind picked up and the rain really started coming down hard. We waited there, a bit worried about Laura, but she eventually came out, soaked but no harm done. Nice day, really, despite the rain.

The next day we took a minibus to Surithani from Khao Sok, which was not the least expensive way to go, but the alternative was a trip that required us to transfer vehicles 4 times, which is really painful when you have as much luggage as we do. And one leg would have been in the back of a pickup truck, which isn’t great for Alex! From the minibus, we got on a ferry for a couple of hours, landed in Koh Phangan (or Pha Ngan), then caught a ‘taxi’ to Thong Nai Pan Noi where we had a reservation (made that morning) for one night at Star (hotel? Resort? Something..) for two fan-cooled bungalows. The taxi was an extended-cab pickup truck. Alex, Angela, and I rode in the backseat, but Laura, our luggage, and the two other riders rode in the back. I should have been the one back there, but there was a lot of trouble trying to fit everything in, and by the time I thought of that, we were already driving down the road. Fortunately, it did not rain during the mostly-dirt-road-through-jungle-mountains ride, as it was frightening enough as it was. But we arrived safely and settled into our tiny tiny cabins. This place caters to all sorts, but certainly a lot of backpackers stay here – there are several levels of rooms, from small to really, really tiny. The smallest have shared bathrooms and are just $7/night. Ours were more like $15/night and included bathrooms (cold showers.) Fan-cooled is fine for Angela and me, but during the day it became a problem for Alex’s naps, so we moved to the fancy rooms which are air-conditioned, a little bigger, and have hot water. Our new room is also right on the beachfront and has a large porch. It is really great. Now that we have a porch that looks out onto the beach, we are happy to sit here instead of on the beach where we have shade, chairs, and no sand. Laura prefers no A/C, so she’s staying in her fan-cooled place, though she moved to one that is much closer to the beach at least (we offered that she could also get an A/C room, but since she’s opted out of that, we are paying for her food for the rest of the trip.)

The beach we are staying on was recommended as being a great place to bring kids because there’s not a lot of late-night partying (or early-night, really) and the water is calm and the beach is nice and sandy. All of that is true, and Alex is really loving the water! This place (hotel? Resort?) has a little dining/reception area with really delicious food and nice personnel. It shuts down at 10pm. There’s a sort of town here, in a way, with a few little shops that sell snacks, sandals, used books, ice cream – the essentials. And a bunch of restaurants, which are probably all great if our experience so far is any guide. Other than the built-in restaurant (which is right beside our bungalow), we’ve also eaten at Handsome Sandwiches (we have to get a t-shirt), a Mexican restaurant with bizarre décor, and at the Baan Panburi resort (next door.) Handsome Sandwiches are pretty good, and the Bann Panburi (we ate there tonight) was great, especially their pizza made with green curry! The Mexican place was tasty, but Angela got a little sick afterwords (sick? From a Mexican restaurant? Impossible!)

Angela and I took a 2-hour kayak trip yesterday, but mostly we’ve been swimming, reading, and relaxing. We plan to do a half-day snorkeling trip (leaving Alex with Laura here) within the next few days, and Friday we plan to go to Ang Thong National Marine Park for a whole day of tourist stuff and snorkeling (and maybe some kayaking there, too.) Don’t know yet if Alex and Laura will go with us to that. Our latest plan is to stay here until the end of our trip – we’ll skip Koh Simui entirely. We hear it’s very built-up and we are happy to be in this relatively out-of-the-way beach instead. We will return to Surithani by ferry, then fly to Bangkok, spend one night there and head home.

By the way, in terms of mosquitoes and other dangers, we have received very few bites so far, and we think that Alex has none. Alex’s crib got a little tear in one of the seams, but Angela sewed it up, so he’s been safe in there. And in the jungle, we kept him covered with deet and with bug nets as much as possible (though not while wading and swimming in the Sok river, but he had other things to worry about there, like snakes and tiny biting fish, but he came out unharmed of course.) On the beach there are quite a few mosquitoes in the evenings, but otherwise he’s pretty safe (but he wears deet all the time just to be sure.) There’s something in the water that gives us all tiny little stings now and then, but no marks or lasting pain (makes Alex upset for a few seconds – me, too.) Laura, however, noticed a scorpion in the bathroom at Our Jungle House the day before we left. She put on a towel and one shoe, and with the help of Angela and a broom (while I kept Alex from crawling in there) they killed it. It was really small. Alex tried to help by shining the flashlight under the door while Laura was showering.

OK – enough already – here are some pictures…but I can't upload all that I hoped to today - here are as many as I can get to upload!

Jungle pictures:

Scorpion killers..