October 28th, 2024
While planning on what activities to do when I first arrived
in Khao Sok, one big question was whether to do a two day/one night excursion or
just a daytrip to Cheow
Lan Lake, one of the main attractions in the area. It is an artificial lake created by a dam
that was built in the 80s and it has many different little fingers so one would
only be able to see a small portion of the lake on either tour.
With three full days here, but 3-4 other activities on my
list like ATVing, canoeing and hiking, I decided that I didn’t have enough time
for the overnighter. Other factors were
that you stay in fairly rudimentary, floating huts on the lake. With sunset at 6pm, and travelling by myself,
I figured that the evening would be boring, so I opted for the daytrip. Bowie, my guide on my morning hike, made me
second guess my decision as he stated that the night and early morning jungle
treks could be amazing. However, when
leaving Khao Sok the following day, I spoke with a Dutch tourist who had stayed
overnight and his recount didn’t seem like I missed much…so a daytrip it was.
After an hour drive in a mini-bus with some other tourists,
we paid our entrance fees and hopped on a 30 foot long wooden boat with an
inboard engine and were told that it was mandatory to put on our life jackets. It was a fairly noisy ride across the lake, but
the views made up for it. As we
approached the other shoreline, the pot-bellied captain slowed the boat down
for a while. Other boats were passing by
us and I could sense something was not quite right. Sure enough, about five minutes later, our
guide named Baanchapat announced that there was a problem with the motor and we
would have to wait about half an hour for a replacement vessel to arrive. We pulled up to a dead tree sticking out of
the water and tied up to it.
Our first view of the lake:
Our boat has broken down...
Our new boat arrived, and I thought it was ironic that we
were instructed to remove our lifejackets before stepping from boat to boat…probably
when we needed them the most! Baanchapat
announced that this delay wouldn’t mean that we would miss any of the
activities, they were just going to be in a different order so we’d be starting
with lunch.
Entering a new section of the lake, near the shore we could
see about 20 floating huts along with some other larger buildings in the centre
including the dining area for lunch. The
meal wasn’t bad, and I got to practice my French a bit with a family from Grenoble,
which is near St. Hillaire, where I visited the Coupe Icare flying festival
back in 2010. We had some free time to
either swim (although it was also mandatory to wear a lifejacket…they must have
had some issues in the past with non-swimming tourists…), kayak or just chill
out. All of the huts were empty as last
night’s occupants had left and tonight’s lodgers hadn’t arrived yet so I was
able to check them out. The ones that
had private bathrooms weren’t bad looking even though they were still pretty
basic with no furniture to speak of, but they were not as primitive as the
shared bathroom ones, which were simply thatched huts with a couple of mattresses
inside. Still a cool idea for tourists
to try out.
After our leisure time (I just relaxed as I hadn’t brought
my swim gear or a towel with me), we headed off in the boat to do a short hike
through the jungle. On shore, Baanchapat
warned us of a few plants whose leaves were poisonous and would give your skin
grief for a few days…duly noted. One
type of plant looked similar to stinging nettle. Baanchapat explained some other plants, including
bamboo, to us as we made our way around a short one-kilometer loop.
Baanchapat showing us some tiny mushrooms:
Our last stop of the day was to check out Pra Kai Petch Cave. The guide passed out flashlights but I had
brought my own headlight, which was far superior than those ones…it was almost
too bright. I occasionally turned it off
to enjoy the “cave ambience” better. We
saw 3-4 tiny fruit bats, hanging from the ceiling in their slumber. There were stalactites and stalagmites
throughout the 100-meter-deep cave. Do
you know how to remember which is which?
Stalactites hold on “tight” to the ceiling, and stalagmites “might”
eventually touch the ceiling. I
mentioned that to the group and I think some people appreciated it, and others
probably thought I was a cave nerd. I
have to admit that it was a decent cave to check out.
On our way to the cave...the views were fabulous wherever you looked.
Passing another tourist boat:
Back on the boat, we began the journey back and arrived back in the Khao Sok village close to 6pm. That was a full, but fabulous day.
niiice
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