We got to Koh Sok very late, they took us directly to our hut in the ‘jungle wonderland’. It was a great place with our own bathroom and a little bug net over the bed which made me happy…although there were not many bugs with the weather being so dry. The next morning it was fun to wake up and see the hut. I probably took 10 pictures of it, but my camera acted up and they were deleted, luckly Alan took one pic on his camera. We went over to the local restaurant in the hut compound and I had my banana pancake with condensed milk and honey on top, and Alan ordered the ’American breakfast’ – eggs, ham, toast, OJ, and tea/coffee.

We must have been one of the few that didn’t do one of the tours, because as we walked out to go to the National Park, we were stopped by one of the workers who showed us a map of the park and asked us to stay away from a certain road so we wouldn’t scare the elephants. We hardly saw anyone and there was no one hassle us to buy anything, only the workers at the restaurant suggested a few tours but then never asked us again about it. I really needed the break from being hassled, and Koh Sok was just the place.

After our breakfast/lunch, we headed over to the park. We were hoping to see some wildlife, maybe some monkeys and a few snakes, etc. When we entered into the park we checked out the visitors center. The big flies that were as big as my hand, now I was happy for that bug net over our bed.

No such luck on the animals. We saw a  butterfly that seem to follow us for most of the trek then we found the first waterfall which was a little disappionting – I guess I was expecting the waterfalls that we saw in Portland with Shylo and Jade. We walked up another trail and did find one of the swim holes. It looked a bit yucky, so I was hesitant to get in. Especially since some guys at breakfast/lunch had just got back from camping and told us to watchout for leeches… As we entered the swim hole area, we ran into another western couple where the women had gotten in and said she didn’t have any leeches..I still wasn’t convinced, but Alan jumped…literately. We have some jumping shoots of him diving into the water. Alan didn’t end up with any leeches, so I guess I missed out on a cool swim hole in the park, but I am ok with it….and we had fun treking through the jungle of Thailand.

It was starting to get dark so we headed back toward the entrance of the park. We walked up and down the main street of Koh Sok (or the only street I should say). A lot of hut compounds and guesthouses, and a few restaurants all decorated very nicely outside with flowers and plants. We ended up at one of the restaurants on the main street instead of eating at our compound. This was the first time we really expereince difficulty interacting with someone who didn’t speak english. It seems that most people spoke english, but just with a heavy accent so you just had a hard time understanding them. I tried to change up my order from the menu at the restaurant, wanted fried rice with cashewnut and pineapple (they had the nut and the pineapple seperate on the menu), then when they brought it out to me I had two dishes. From then on I learned to not change what was on the menu. Plus the best part is that I was trying to tell Alan we need to simmer down on the food ordering to stay on budget…I learned my lesson.

The next day we headed out to Krabi, back to the beaches!!